Off-Campus Housing Series Two: Your New Place (And What to Bring) Part Two: The Kitchen

"Off-Campus Housing Series Two: Your New Place (And What to Bring) Part Two: The Kitchen", March 2008

This may very well be one of my favourite rooms in the house...mostly because I’m a fat kid at heart (I’m all over pasta like a fat kid on a Smartie). It is also the room that needs the

greatest amount of stuff. Unfortunately, because there are so many things found in a kitchen I will not be giving you an itemized list. If I was to do so, this article would likely be several pages long. So, I’m going to give you a short of general overview, but you have parents and older siblings to help you out with the specifics.

First of all, you will have your fridge(s). How many people will be sharing each of the fridges? And, how many freezers will you have? My house had two fridges for five people, but only one of those fridges had a freezer. Five people in one fridge freezer does NOT work: there simply is not enough space. Hopefully your landlord will have another freezer for you. If not, try asking for one. If they say no you may have some difficulties. Again, you have two options. You can either split the cost of a chest freezer, or see if someone in the house can buy one. That person can do with it what they will after you move out of the house. Also, if there are a lot of people sharing fridge space, you may want to invest in a bar fridge (like the ones in res) to keep in your room for certain items. It’ll increase your hydro bill, but at least you’ll have a little bit more space (and won’t need to buy groceries every couple of days).

After you’ve got those situations sorted out, you’ll need to clean those appliances. Students tend to be extremely lazy when cleaning up after spills in their fridge (which is incredibly annoying if you are sharing or acquiring said fridge). I’m pretty sure you don’t want to put your clean food in someone else’s mouldy refrigerator, no? Get out your cleaners, sponges and paper towels and go nuts.

Now comes the issue of dishes, pots, potholders, utensils, pans, cutlery, baking sheets, measuring cups and spoons, dishtowels, cheese graters, timers, can openers, dish racks and the like. There are two options: everyone brings a few of each for their own exclusive use, or have a few people be in charge of acquiring the necessary items (either by buying them new, getting donations from family or hitting up garage sales).

If you think someone will be on top of their dishes enough to use only what they have brought you are living in a dream land. Everyone falls behind in cleaning their dishes, and sometimes certain people are always behind. And by always I mean at least two or three days at a time. All the time, no matter how high their pile in the sink gets; threatening to topple over and cause a disaster. Anyways, getting back on track...I have found that having a common set of dishes works the best. However, you can still have certain items that you alone can use, but they are best kept in your room.

What about the small appliances: microwave, toaster, crock pot, toaster oven, rice cooker, blender, George Forman Grill, barbeque (okay, technically not an appliance, but it fits best here)? Are you going to split the cost, or certain people going to bring them, allow them to be for a common use, and then take them home later?

And of course, during the year you are going to need to clean the kitchen on a frequent (weekly at the very least!!!) basis. This means you need to determine how you are going to be splitting cleaning supplies. As I mentioned in my previous article about the bathroom, I think it is best if one person buys all of the necessary stuff, and the cost is split amongst everyone. Some things you will need include paper towels, sponges, dish soap, rags, garbage bags, something to put behind the elements in the stove, something to clean the counters, something to clean the floor, and mousetraps.

Yes, mousetraps. I know I sound a little gross here, but the reality of the situation is, that as a student house you will have a mouse (or mice) at least once. Most of the houses around Mac are older, and thus there are lots of places for mice to sneak in. Mice can squeeze their way through a hole the size of a dime. Pair that with people who don’t clean up properly (crumbs are left from not cleaning the floor), or don’t store food properly (mice can smell food through plastic as well as get into it. If you are not storing your food in tins or Tupperware you will have a problem), and you will have an infestation. I'm just getting you to err on the side of caution here. But don't get mad at me if you get mice in your place.

There you have it. You now have the necessary items you will need for your kitchen. But don’t forget to get some fridge magnets too, especially something like Magnetic Poetry Kit. What? I like toys.

As a little afterword to this article, I want to mention the MacShare website. You can check out an article Chad wrote about it here. You can peruse the website here, and perhaps your new place has been evaluated...and you can get the dirt on your landlord.