Kitchen

You’ve moved out of the tiny dorms where you lived your first year and now you’re ready to move into a college apartment. It’s the next step up and you’ll need a bit more than your dorm. You’re likely to no longer have a meal plan, instead you’ll be sharing a kitchen with 4-6 other roommates.

– Fridge – Plan on getting one quarter, that’s 1/4 of the fridge and freezer space of a normal fridge. Split the fridge up into quarters – example if there are 3 shelves and 2 drawers, split the fridge cleanly across. 1 person will get the left top 2 shelves, 1 person will get the right top 2 shelves, 1 person will get the left side of the bottom shelf (the largest) and a drawer, and the last individual will get the right side. Don’t plan on just sharing the fridge without boundaries as some individuals shop at costco, buy enough for a family of 6, and don’t understand that there’s not enough space for everyone else. Be strong here. when I have the chance, I prefer the top left side, with the cheese drawer as it has just a little more organization available. Also, the door can be shared as it will be full of condiments.

– Sharing – What type of individual are you? Are you someone who likes to eat food as a group each night? Do you meal prep? Do you eat alone? All these are valid and each have their pros and cons. Discuss meals and food boundaries with your roommates – e.g. I don’t share my food, I do share my food, or if you use my food I expect it to be replaced. Let people know upfront if you don’t share food.

– Pantry & cupboard – Theoretically, in a four person apartment, there are 8 cupboard doors, or 4 cupboards. Each of the four should be given either 1 cupboard door and the remaining four are used for shared dishes and appliances, or, 2 cupboard doors (1 cupboard per person) and everyone can be responsible for their own dishes and appliances.

– Dishes – This can be controversial. I support sharing dishes as long as everyone is on board with cleaning up right after they use the dish. I was never a fan of leaving all the dishes in the sink until someone, usually the same person, inevitably, gets frustrated and washes everything. If people aren’t okay with immediately washing the dish used, then keep your dishes separate. However, you should know that this could make you appear difficult.

– Silverware – A great way to organize your silverware without taking up a lot of space is a slanted utensil organizer. I still use mine from my college days. They allow one to store spoons, knives, forks, a couple of larger spoons, and a stacking set of measuring cups. You can definitely share your organizer but don’t be surprised if one day you end up with no spoons. Also, I would buy an affordable large set of silverware, some you’ll be fine with. Avoid the sets with the steak knives – you won’t need them. Get a larger set that can have a few spoons or forks in the dishwasher and leave you with a couple spare.

– Serving and Cooking utensils – I’m going to be honest, you only need four items for now: a spatula, a slotted spoon, a serving spoon, and a fish spatula. That’s it. Almost anything can be made with these 4 items. You might think you need a whisk, a potato masher, and lots of spatulas, but all they’ll create is clutter in a place shared by roommates. Keep it simple. Also, really consider whether you’ll be baking bread, making elaborate meals, and their frequency.

– Knives – You will need knives. I suggest only getting ones with covers as there won’t be space on the countertop for a knife block. When you have covers, you can store knives safely with your serving and cooking utensils and won’t need to worry about cutting yourself or your roommates. I think having a chef’s knife, a paring knife, and scissors would be more then enough, but these sets work great. A word of caution. Your shared apartment is not a cooking show. You don’t need a fancy knife as it will be ruined when someone puts it in the dishwasher, broken when someone hacks at something with it, or you’ll be blamed when someone tries to use it and cuts themself. Bring the equivalent of safety knives – sharp but not too sharp and they all have covers.

– Baking and Cooking dishes – You only need a couple of items, most of which can be sourced secondhand from thrift stores for quite cheap. You’ll need a baking dish, I suggest a square pyrex dish. This dish makes the perfect amount of meals for a single person, and if you get one with a lid, that’s even better. You’ll need a large bowl for assembling your meals or storing dense bean salads, I suggest getting one with a lid, or you can use plastic wrap, but a harder lid allows you to stack. Two sauce pans, a 1qt & a 2qt. You’ll be able to make most dishes using just these two stackable saucepans. That’s it, a baking dish, an assembling bowl, and 2 saucepans.

– Tupperware – Often the instinct is to go to the store and buy a tupperware set. Please don’t and here’s why: you won’t need most of the sizes, you don’t have enough space to store all the odd sizes, and you aren’t going to be making enough variety of food to need them. Instead, get an oven safe set of stackable glass meal prep containers – stackable is important. They’re all the same size so they can stack when empty and in the fridge, and they’re easier to store. I loved my oven safe meal prep containers, I would prep all my meals into them, cook them, let them cook, and put them in the fridge. There was less waste, less effort, and they can work for hot or cold dishes.

– Lunch box – I am a big fan of expandable lunch boxes – Sometimes you don’t take a lot but sometimes you’ll be gone until 10PM and you need to pack lunch, dinner, and a snack as well. It can be hard to have a cool looking lunchbox, they’re typically either pretty or practical, no in between, and I would suggest going practical. You’ll also need some ice packs. I bought mine at Target years ago for a dollar each, and they’re doing great. I suggest getting two, that way you can always leave one in the freezer for tomorrow in case you forget to empty your lunchbox one night.

– Countertop appliances – Anything left out on the counter whether that is an air fryer, toaster, or fancy espresso machine is fair game for the entire apartment to use. So if you have opinions on how things are used, like always use an air fryer liner, make sure you keep the liners in stock. Or if you have opinions on how it should be cleaned or handled after use, like an espresso machine, see if people are up to the task but you can’t expect people to treat your belongings how you treat them, so maybe, if you know you’ll have a difficult time with it, leave it home.

You might be tempted to get a air fryer, toaster oven, instant pot, and a mixer. Instead, talk with your roommates about what everyone is bringing. Then wait until a week after you’ve moved in and decide. A toaster oven is great for reheating or making toast, and more versatile than a toaster, but be wary of getting one that’s too large or too small, you’re looking for the goldilocks one – big enough to fit a slice of Costco pizza, but too small for a whole chicken. Air fryers are fantastic, if you don’t meal prep you can quickly make your food, and if you do meal prep, you can place your oven safe tupperware meal in it and heat it up. I would recommend your apartment have one, but make sure the bottom can be thrown in the dishwasher. You might think that your choices for cooking while absent from the apartment are a 3qt instant pot or a 3qt slow cooker, but there’s also a 2 qt rice cooker with a delay feature which can do almost everything an instant pot can but is smaller and cheaper.

– Disposables – Paper towels (& holder), dish soap, hand soap, ziplocks, and dishwasher tablets can cause drama in apartments if only half the apartment is willing to chip in to pay for the disposables. It sucks continually being the one to replace the paper towels. Try to get ahead of anything and discuss it with your roommates if it becomes a problem. If worst comes to worst, you can have a little cart in your room, stored next to your desk, where you store some these items. However, before you buy the cart, try to talk it through with your roommates.

Essentially, that’s all you need. Just essentials. Don’t show up with a lot of stuff for the kitchen, other people will have what you lack, and if everyone is polite, it can be shared. I once had a roommate who’s mom was a cook so she showed up with a whole kitchen, niche bulky items, and tupperware that was for a family of 12. She couldn’t fit it all and ended up piling it up in the shared pantry which made the pantry hard to use. Don’t be that roommate. Be considerate, say no to bringing something rather than yes, and try to keep what you’re brining to a minimum.