UniKitOut- student essentials

[Claymoreiron]

Starting to think about buying the stuff DS will need next month fof uni, he’s in SC halls.

any experience of UniKitOut? They offer a standard basic package delivered to the hall. £169. I am thinking I could end up spending that in IKEA. www.unikitout.com/collections/student-kits

We got kitchen essentials, some bedding and sundries from there last year, topping up from Dunelm and department stores (a bit of a trek to IKEA for us and only a small car). Delivered to home rather than halls but all neatly and sturdily packaged. Customer service was very good, there was a problem with the bedding which was easily sorted and refunded. It's cheap and basic stuff, quality ok for the duration of uni when you don't want to risk anything more expensive being damaged, but it is very plain. My student wasn't at all fussed about style at the time but having arrived and seen other people's sets, wished the crockery was more interesting.

Thank you.

All the big supermarkets will have inexpensive bedding/crockery/pan sets put in the next few days- in time for the uni rush. Might be worth checking there as well.

TK Maxx is excellent for cheap but decent quality kitchen stuff. Charity shops great for plates and bowls that nobody else will have in particular but can also get perfectly good mugs and glasses and sometimes other stuff if lucky. You can probably give her a fair amount of stuff from home including towels. Practically everything else can be done pretty cost effectively in one trip to a massive Sainsbury’s.

I think it’s very overpriced & contains a lot of stuff my two would never use.

Agree - surely most households can dig out most of this stuff from home?: the DS probably already has their own duvet covers, their own towels, favourite mug etc. Let him take them with him. Homesick students get a basic reassurance from having familiar stuff around them - don't inadvertently make everything alien!

This is a poor purchase. I wouldn’t buy that. I’m in my 20s and was in halls a few years ago. I just checked my receipts/orders from back then and I spent less, on much nicer things!

In your linked website, they describe it as “value” quality items - so the poorest quality. Its overpriced. I don’t think it’s worth buying for convenience - most retailers will deliver those items safely & securely in a similar sized box directly to his halls too.

Those pans look like those awful ones where the black coating comes off into your food! Does he need the included toiletries set?

It would only take around 15 minutes for you to find and order what he needs from elsewhere.

Also it’s £210 with crockery, which he’ll need.

I agree with others – it looks overpriced and is it even exactly what someone would need?

Someone is making money from this and it’s not you @Claymoreiron.

Just gather what you can at home – towels, bedlinen, spare mugs, spare plates (don’t need more than a couple) and buy some pans and kitchen implements that will be decent and used. The crockery in that kit looks grim. As does the bedding.

Shop in your kitchen first. Give your YP your used pan/pot (they really only need one if each) and buy yourself new. Crockery same or charity shop, or supermarkets do have cheap ranges.
Own pillows? Towels?
I think anything bright to uni may get lost, stolen, abused or the very least well used. It doesn’t have to be new.

The majority of my stuff from halls made it back with me! it’s more likely others misuse your basic/cheap stuff as it’s interchangeable - easy to confuse if others have similar stuff.

I agree that the kit has stuff he might not need - but equally it might be missing stuff he does need. I can’t imagine 10 hangers would be enough for example. Especially not those basic plastic ones that would snap under the weight of a coat.

I needed extra storage for clothes including over the door hangers like this or this (budget version), plus a freestanding clothing rack. I got sturdy wooden hangers which have a bar to hang trousers/skirts on too. Equally there might be things he might need, that aren’t immediately obvious.

Also small things like this were useful. I used something similar on my bathroom wall to hang my dressing gowns (it did not damage the walls & my full deposit was returned).

They also have ones for hanging photos/art on the wall which I’m sure you’ve seen before. Sometimes it’s about the little things that make you feel more at home?

Like when I moved to halls, I took some nicer extras like my speakers, string lights, plant, fluffy blanket. Most people like decorating their space, I saw anything from a tv (lol) or hung a tapestry etc.

My eldest's university told the Freshers to wait to see what their flatmates have before buying kitchen stuff, because a kitchen isn't going to need six cheese graters. DS went to a big Tesco to buy bedding, a couple of plates and bowls, a cheap set of cutlery. He and his flatmates went in a trip to the IKEA in their first week to buy stuff together.

It was more the convenience of having it all
delivered To his new address. But I think I will need a trip to IKEA.

In 2025, can’t most retailers “deliver it all to his new address”? What’s the fundamental difference between M&S/Ikea etc delivering it or this company?

You can get IKEA to deliver to:
convenience stores via DPD (small stuff)
or Tescos (including big stuff)

Ok thanks

Then there’s click and collect. You can order from Dunelm or M&S etc and pick it up when you get there. The last thing you want for three years is plates that look like everyone else’s or a bad pan.

I hadn’t looked at it all properly, I can’t BELIEVE how expensive it is!

also it might be nice to go to the shops in person. my dad took me uni shopping and we got the majority of what I needed that day, it was definitely a core memory that I look back on fondly!

Yeh the additional crockery kit for two – so two bowls, mugs, glasses, plates, small plates and four-piece cutlery set – costs £40 which is a lot surely for the cheapest looking plates and mugs?

Just checked Asda and they do a dinner plate, side plate and cereal bowl for 75p each, so if you wanted all those that would be £4.50 for the crockery, plus a couple of mugs from home (there is no house anywhere that doesn't have two spare mugs). Cutlery is 75p/£1 for four items. Tumblers 60p each. That's a total of less than £10 and you've got nicer mugs and extra cutlery.

Honestly @Claymoreiron the thing that will fill your car on the way to uni is not kitchen scissors and pans. It's a full length mirror or vast bag of sports kit (for me anyway - depending on which DC!)