The Kitchen Essentials for your First College Apartment

College students are notorious for living on Ramen noodles and energy drinks; but the truth is, you want a little bit more than that in your kitchen, right? The trouble is, when you buy food that requires cooking, you have to…well, cook it. And that requires pots, pans, cookie sheets, casserole dishes…it’s already boggling your mind, and you’re not even sure where to start. How many bits and pieces do you really need to furnish the kitchen in your first college apartment? Here are just a few of the tools you will need for your college kitchen.

Kitchen Essentials

• Choose a good, solid skillet that’s a decent size–you never know when you might want to invite some friends over for dinner. You can always cook a small meal for yourself on a bigger skillet, but it’s hard to cook a meal for you and your roommates on that tiny skillet you bought just for you. A skillet should be a staple of any college housing kitchen.  If nothing else, you can use it to scramble up some eggs in the morning.
• When you’re selecting cookie sheets, go midway between “budget” and “quality.” They don’t need to be the fancy chef-quality baking sheets that you’ll pay an arm and a leg for. However, those cheap, flimsy cookie sheets that you can find at every discount store across America aren’t going to do you a lot of good when you’re trying to bake cookies that aren’t burnt on the bottom. If you have to make do with a couple of those super-cheap cookie sheets, then try double layering them to keep your cookies from burning on the bottom.
• Have at least two wooden spoons. The things break at the least convenient times possible and there’s nothing more frustrating than standing there in front of your pristine non-stick pot with a half-cooked meal and nothing but metal utensils to stir with.
• Speaking of pots: Choose one soup-sized pot and one smaller sized one (for vegetables, single cans of soup, etc). You can make a lot of things in those pots–and probably will, over the next few years!
• Planning to cook in your apartment a lot? Consider investing in one large casserole dish (for when you’re hosting other people) and several small ones (so that you can prepare meals ahead of time, when you have a few extra minutes and then store them in the fridge or freezer for easy heat-up later).
• Mixing bowls are a must for a wide variety of different things–including cookies, cakes and having something besides the paper bag to hold your popcorn. Pick a couple of decent-sized (but not huge) bowls so that they’re a good size for mixing (or popcorn), but not so big that they get overwhelming.
• For appliances, keep it basic at first: A blender, a microwave and an electric mixer are probably all you’ll need to get started. Don’t forget a can opener (but the basic, simple one is just fine)!
• Pick up at least one really good knife and a knife sharpener (and commit to using the sharpener regularly). It’s better to have one really good knife than a whole block full of cheap ones!

As you’re walking through the aisles, looking at all the things that you can buy for your new kitchen, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the selection. There are so many things to choose from! As you look, keep one thing in mind: Simple is best. That doesn’t mean you have to go with the cheapest option every time (in fact, in some cases, it’s better to choose a quality item that will see you through the rest of your college experience than a cheap one that will have to be replaced every six months); it just means that you make simple, quality selections. Also, remember:  Everything you buy will have to be packed up to go home for the summer or if you move to a new apartment next year, or when you graduate and move away to a new city. That might make it easier to buy only what you really need.