Whether you are starting university in September or moving in to new accommodation for a second or third year, you need the following items to ensure that you can survive the year.

#1 Post It Notes

These have been my best friends since starting university. I bought them for revision but they have been much more useful for anonymously bossing my flat mates around.

When there are pans and plates left festering for a day or so, just leave a post it in the surrounding area. When the hob is covered in more grease than the hairnet of a fast food employee, leave a post it note. When the bathroom smells so bad you can smell it in the hallway before even entering the flat, leave a post it note. They don’t have to be rude or mean, although they can be as long as you put a smiley face afterwards, just firm so that people clean.

#2 Ear plugs

I haven’t really needed these but from discussions with other people they have been kept awake by loud music, international Skype conversations and reunited couples. Of course these things aren’t an issue if you:

a) Like your flat mates music
b) Can sleep through a hurricane that has picked up a thousand saucepans
c) Can’t afford porn anymore – student living people.

But if none of the following apply to you, ear plugs will be your new best friend. Just make sure you keep them clean otherwise it is a bit grim when people find them.

#3 Sandwich bags

You will learn pretty quickly that you don’t eat enough bread to make buying a whole loaf worthwhile. Unless you have toast and sandwiches every day – you will also quickly learn that in the morning when you roll out of bed 15 minutes before lectures that there isn’t time for toast – you need to buy hundreds of sandwich bags. So, I recommend if you want to buy a whole loaf, separating the bread into two-slice packages and putting them in sandwich bags in the freezer.

Don’t make the rookie mistake, as I did, of freezing the loaf as a whole, you will either end up with half a slice of bread as you try and rip it apart from the rest or just two smaller loaves. Very frustrating, particularly when you are trying to make toast 15 minutes before your lecture.

#4 Tupperware

Or any box that keeps food fresh for longer. These are good for when your stomach begins to shrink and the portion you would have finished and had dessert with at home, fills you up after 4 forkfuls. Not only that but to keep your food in the fridge away from the nastiness of the people who leave their vegetables to decay into liquid or just have really strong smelling food.

Biscuits, cheese, pasta and sugar all love life living in these boxes to [not the same box just to clarify] making them not only lasting longer but also meaning that if you have a cupboard avalanche you aren’t vacuuming up sugar and Penne for the next hour.

#5 Anti-bacterial wipes

You will be glad you bought these when you go to touch any communal surface in your flat and there is a strange substance or grim smell lurking. It also means you can clean your own room really quickly. They clear up alcohol pretty well too…

#6 Plastic cups

Not the throw away ones – although for pre-drinking I recommend these as it is the quickest cleaning up process in the world – but glasses are at a much higher risk of breaking, especially when drunk.

#7 Vitamin Tablets

If, like me, you are so un-domestic it is painful then vitamin tablets will save your life.  When I started university I could cook pasta or anything that could have the packaging removed and put into the oven/microwave. Now, I have progressed to stir fry and chicken but for the first few months I lived off of pasta, ready meals and multi vitamin tablets. I am convinced they were what kept me alive.  Buy these before Fresher’s Week and then hopefully you can avoid Fresher’s Flu and get drunk for a longer period of time. It’s a win win situation really.

#8 Distinctive cutlery

I made the mistake of bringing just plain teaspoons. I make a lot of tea, so when I am in the process of drinking it, I just whack it in the sink and then when I come back to wash up it has vanished. I say vanished. It has managed to creep out of the sink and in to someone else’s draw. I may dunk it in boiling water but other than that I treat my spoon quite well, so I don’t feel it is trying to escape but is more being nabbed by others. I now have bright red spoons to go with my mugs and no one can steal them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohVMJSoftYY

So these, apart from the obvious things, should help you solve these problems before they even occurred or at the very least gain you points in the inevitable flat war. Your welcome and Good Luck!