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Shared uni kitchens

Do you have your own cupboards to put your things in (including pans etc), or do they just all go together?

and do people tend to share there things, or just use what they bring? :confused:

i dont want to take a pile of stuff an then realise that ive either got no where to put them, or everyone else has only took a few things :rolleyes:

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Reply 1

Juno

We mostly use our own, and if I want to borrow a friend's things (or they want to use mine) I ask first. However, some people on my corridor do just borrow other people's things and then leave them dirty.

And one corridor share everything, and never do the washing up until everything that could possibly be used is dirty.

But if your parents are buying get as much as possible! It will come in handy when you have your own house

Reply 2

pghstochaj

In mine we all have 2 cupboards (one low, one high) and a drawer. We do have a large kitchen though (2 cookers, 2 fridge freezers etc, 2 sinks and drainers) so not 100% sure if that's normal. We all use our own stuff in general, don't take things like kettels toasters because everybody else does and you just use theirs (which is generally accepted). I have seen some flats with 4+ George Formans so that sort of tells you that you don';t need to take your own.

You know what you should do in my opinion, there's a great deal at the moment for a home starter kit @ £20 here:

http://www.discount2door.com/d2d/product.asp?brand=d2d&cat%5Fid=80&zone%5Fid=&prod%5Fid=183815&offer%5Fid=&extra=&mscs_sid=7JM5R4PTF9QL8N6NEE42898QH9SU5N00&fh_location=%2F%2Fdiscount2door%2Fen%5FGB&fh_search=home+starter&fh_view=detail&fh_session=7JM5R4PTF9QL8N6NEE42898QH9SU5N00&fh_secondid=183815

If the link doesn't work, go to www.discount2door.co.uk and type in "home starter" - it has everything you need plus more.

Hope that helps.

I have had problems with people nicking my stuff and using it without asking (expecially over xmas when I was at home) which really really annoyed me as they left it dirty. Don't let them do this to you! :tongue:

Reply 3

lou p lou

we all bought our own, but borrow off someone else if it's soemthing we don't have (usually things like woks, colinders, tin openers)... people here do borrow stuff though (usually glasses) and it drives everyone mad becaseu no one will clean it. our kitchen is pretty disgusting though.

we have 2 cupboards as well, one of which can be locked (for your food)

lou xxx

Reply 4

pghstochaj

Oh I forgot to mention, I keep all my food in a box in my room after some things went missing and i have my own table top sized fridge in here too so I only have to use the freezers which is good and i keep all my stuff in one tray so people don't "accidently" mistake stuff for their own.

Reply 5

loftx

I shared a kitchen with 15 others and ended up with mounds and mounds of dirty stuff. We kindof evolved a rule that you never touched anyone elses food without asking and the only food of mine which was ever stolen was a bottle of coke (which i was really looking forward to) and various frozen food which looked the same as other peoples as we all went to tescos. It seemed there were a couple of people in the flat who never cleaned anything and over the year we built up two huge boxes of unwashed stuff which i had to sift through at the end of the year to get all mine back. In the end i got bored of cleaning plates i had never used and put them all in my cupboard,

I would advice just taking a bit of old stuff from your parents - 2 or 3 of everything would be enough. A few essentials tin opener, bottle opener, chopping board, sharp knife, pot/pan. and buying anything else you need later when you see what everyone else has brung.

If you've got no idea what to bring at all look at the Checklist of stuff to take to University

Reply 6

trev

You could bring your own if you want or you could share. When you are at uni for the first few days, discuss with your friends of the stuff you want to share. Then you could split the money and buy it.

For the cupboards, each student will get a space for their cutlery and stuff like that.

Reply 7

nas7232

I'm thinking of hiding most stuff in my room when i go. Is that possible? [bring my own small fridge for room] & Only use the freezer

Reply 8

Elles

'shared uni kitchens' - sounds innocuous, but perhaps the biggest source of stress i've had since starting uni.. (given i'm studying perhaps the most demanding course & one of the most demanding unis, that says something.. :rolleyes:

)

basically - food is fine.. utensils are not.
we have an amazing kitchen - but shared between maybe 25 of us.

people using my pots/pans/wok/spatulas/tin openers/graters whatever.. was not a problem.
but if you leave cutlery in a shared kitchen it tends to just walk & never return - only forks though,, because the lazy theives just seem to want those to eat with.

so, i tried the mature thing in sticking a note in my cupboard telling people they're welcome to borrow, as long as they wash & return.. i eat out friday night.. go down to the kitchen saturday to cook myself something quick in the middle of a major work crisis & every plate/bowl/item of cultery i own is filthy & still sprawled over the kitchen as a remnants of a dinner party. the person who hosted that had evidently had 24 hours to clean up & still not got round to it.. this caused me some slight stress.. :frown:

all i wnated to go was cook something quickly & go & work. debated finding some sharp kitchen implements & hunting her down - but instead boyf just collected it all up, put it outside her door with a note to clean & return to where she found it. didn't seem particularly unreasonable to me.. but this person then proceeded to wash & hide it all-throughout the building we live in. :rolleyes:

subsequently, this term, all my plates & cutlery stay in my room. leaving a plate drying by the sink between lunch & dinner is just asking for someone to 'borrow' it.

leaving brand new christmas present books in your cupboard is just asking for someone to take them out, look at them, bend the spines back & get their grubby little fingers all over them. :mad:

& it generally takes a while of you looking at them..slightly dumfounded before they casually remark 'oh, are these yours?' & carry on what they're doing.. :eek:

& normally it's the people who could no doubt afford to eat out constantly who have absolutely no respect for other people's property.

rant over..sorry about that.. :p:

Reply 9

pghstochaj

Nas7232, it's what I mainly do. Got a large table top fridge (obviously not one of those silly little fan coolers) to keep everything in and for ice cubes ( :biggrin:

). However, I believe some halls/unis don't allow you to keep fridges in your room (possible water damage during defrost etc.) but mine will supply one to you for £90 a year. Ha, mine which is better was £40 from kwiksave! Bargain.

Sounds just great elles.....

Reply 10

Sophdoph

We have a high and low cupboard unit each and a shelf in the fridge and freezer each. Sharing a kitchen between 6, and with my 3 friends in the flat we share everything basically quite happily because we're all even with stuff and honest about it.

As a flat we brought a toaster and a cutlery tray, oh and a drying rack, and I donated my kettle to the flat. One person does her washing up immediately, one person never does his, our little group do ours usually the morning after/day after dinner but we can be quite bad..but then we keep everything away from the tidy person.

Reply 11

Random.Girl

nas7232

I'm thinking of hiding most stuff in my room when i go. Is that possible? [bring my own small fridge for room] & Only use the freezer

But if you go to uni with the intention of keeping everything in your room then the people you're sharing with might think you don't trust them etc and it might set you apart from them. So maybe it's best to see how it works out first?

Reply 12

Chicken

trev

There's no point turning up to uni having bought nothing with you - especially as then you have to find time during freshers week to go and buy stuff, which means no cooking for yourself for quite a few days. Its well worth having your own crockery, cutlery, a few assorted pans, and utensils. You can buy the fancier things as and when you need them.

In my kitchen last year, there were 10 of us, we got a lockable cupboard each (though it was only really big enough for you food). We all bought a big plastic box each which we used to store our pans and stuff in (kept them under the window bench), and then the few shelves that we had under the cooker was used for everyone's crockery. Our kitchen was good - everyone stuck to using their own stuff, but nobody minded if you just borrowed something, since the washing up got done everyday anyway.

Reply 13

Ariel4

I am in privated flat sort of halls, so we share between 6 of us. mostly we use each other utensils and havent had any problems. i dont tend to share food anymore as this caused a few arguments. before xmas 3 of us shared milk, bread and butter, but i found i was always the one who tended to buy it and we got through a loaf of bread a day! (i think is cos they are lazy boys and dont like going shopping!)

Reply 14

nas7232

-Emmz-

I will be eating out in day and most nights.I would only keep snacks in my room and eat em in kitchen. Don't think people will take it personally, after all i am risking keeping stuff in the freezer in the kitchen.

pghstochaj, im gonna get 'the simpson's' fridge for £50, looks pretty good :smile:

Reply 15

LoopyLass

juno_the

But if your parents are buying get as much as possible! It will come in handy when you have your own house

i wish

i think im pretty much buying my own stuff, unless i can somehow persuade them to splash out :wink:

i think ill stick with the basics (pots, pans etc) at first, then anything extra i can get later, so i dont have to spend the first few weeks panic shopping because i cant cook anything :redface:

how much is a reasonable amount to spend on everything you'll need to take? im hoping to get a computer for about 400-500 quid, then ill have to get a tv as well. is £1000 ok, or a bit steep?

Reply 16

nikk

In terms of pans / cutlery / cups / glasses etc, we just chuck everything in the same cupboard and share each others stuff. But you may not want to do that if you don't get on with your flatmates lol.

We do have our own cupboard for food but to be honest all of our food is mixed up in either the fridge or freezer.

Reply 17

kirbz

In mine we have a shared kitchen between 6, i have 2 cupboards, one for pots, pans etc, and one for food. I also have space in the fridge and freezer, obviously, and I have a draw for cutlery. We share kettle and toaster, and microwave was already provided so that too obviously, we use our own pots and pans though, however some people tend to borrow others from time to time. Our cupboard arent locked but in a different hall here I know ones which are. I think the arrangement would be different if I had a better bunch of flatmates, but I have 4 foreign flatmates (from China to Thailand to Nigeria) and everyone keeps themselves to themselves really here.

Reply 18

ben3085

We have our own cupboards. Fridges we have a shelf each, freezer roughly the same. Pots and pans all on a shelf under the hobs. Everyone shares plates, pans, etc. Food is your own and people should ask if they need something, almost always the answer is "yes, go ahead" but it's just polite to ask.

This differs alot between flats though - I know flats where people lock their food, pans, plates away.

You can see our cupboards on the back wall in this photo:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v219/ben3085/CIMG0592.jpg

Reply 19

Expression

We tend to keep most of our stuff seperate, other than knives/forks/spoons etc which is kept in common.

However, things such as woks, saucepans, toastie machines are used on the proviso that they are cleaned soon after they're used.

Food; we tend to share common items such as milk, salt, vinegar, ketchup, bbq sauce - bread we keep to ourselves, but borrow into in the event that we want doorstep toast one morning.

Cleaning goods, Sugar and Tea Bags (massive bag of 1600) are common, and are bought in bulk from our local Makro - everyone chips in.