The Essentials

You've got into university, congratulations! If you're anything like me you'll be wanting to organise everything and prepare everything you need to pack, maybe you're not like me, but a bit of early preparation never hurt anybody!

Take a look at the website or brochure for your halls and try and find out everything they provide. Usually the basics will just be furniture, a mattress, a fridge, freezer, oven, etc. this means everything else you will need you'll need to bring yourself.

I've racked my brain to think of the things I had, or could have used, during my first year and came up with this list:

• cutlery. Unique cutlery is best if you want to be taking the entire set home at the end of the year. Or you can do what I did and mark each piece with coloured nail varnish so everyone knows it's yours. I wouldn't buy anything too expensive, cheap and cheerful is best!

• crockery. So, plates, bowls, mugs, etc. Again, unique or easily spotted crockery is best. Family sets of four are probably the perfect number of each item.
• cups or glasses. I would recommend buying cups that are plastic so they're less likely to break. IKEA do acrylic cups and they're perfect because they won't smash.
• pots & pans. Yet again (can you see a theme here?) make sure that you've got pots you can distinguish from other people's. Coloured pots are good, more expensive pots will mean less food getting burnt and stuck to the bottom of the pan, and probably make washing up easier.
• cooking utensils. If you cook at home, think of anything you'd reach for, and buy one of those. If you don't cook at home, ask whoever does cook what you'll need!
• tin openers/bottle openers. The essentials for uni, prepare yourself for a year of tinned food and many bottles of alcoholic beverages.
• bed sheets, duvet cover, pillow cases. I would buy two sets so you can wash one set whilst the other set's on your bed.
• a clothes drying rack. I think most of us freshers discovered that the dryers in the laundrette were pretty shoddy and there were many times where I had to hang all my clothes out even after they'd been through the drier. This isn't too essential but definitely helped me out and could save you money on drying too.
• a wireless router. Check out the details of your accommodation when it comes to internet. Unless they have wifi in all of the rooms you may want to take a router, having to have an Ethernet cable plugged in at all times does make you feel a little like you're in the 90s.
• a bedside lamp. I popped to IKEA and got an LED lamp for around a tenner and it worked perfectly, just need something so you're not having to get out of bed to turn the light out.
• a printer. Not everyone will need one of these but I found that going into uni early to print things off was a bit of a bore, and my uni actually charged for printing. Also, finding a computer was a nightmare. Having your own printer can be expensive, but it's also very useful.
• a mirror. Most halls will have a large mirror for you to use but I found that having a smaller mirror which I could put on my desk made life much easier. You can get one from IKEA for cheap.

There are other things to consider too, but a lot of these could be bought in your first couple of weeks or once you've found your flatmates. Ask them what they're bringing, you may have to decide between yourselves who's going to bring a kettle and toaster, or if you're going to all chip in for one. We also bought radiator drying racks, a drying rack for our sink, a shower matt and a hand towel for the shared bathroom, but if you were in en-suite accommodation you would need to get your own.

It may seem like a lot of things but they can all be found relatively cheaply, and I definitely used everything I've listed. I'd recommend a trip to IKEA, I could have easily bought everything that I needed there.

Happy shopping & good luck x