If you have eldest child starting university here is a handy list of things that they might need. I have broadcast this list most years for a while, now, but every year there are new and interesting things to add to it.
This isn’t a list of actual essentials, (pants, bedsheets, ibuprofen), but a list of really useful, quirky possibly not-thought-of things.
As always, if you have any brilliant ideas, please leave a handy comment in the box below. I fear, alas, that I am too old to have any actual active students reading this, but if you are the parent of one, your suggestions are most welcome.
Big plastic glasses
Honestly the best things I brought to university with me. Actual glass would have smashed when I tried to wash it up in the hall communal bathroom basins (retch) and I almost always had a bad hangover and had to drink Ribena and Berrocca on rotation. Post-Covid students are on the lash 24/7 I imagine.
Massive hideous laundry bags
If you have any recent experience of boarding school you will already be evangelical about these otherwise monstrous items. These particular ones are 25cm x 60cm which is a good manageable size for clothes and other clutter. You don’t want them to be too big because they will be too heavy when full and then handles will rip off. When not in use, these can be folded down and stored away in a tiny space and also be used for doing, like, actual laundry. Maybe.
A lap tray
If I had been at university when laptops were widespread I would have done most of my work in bed, on one of these, and might have done a bit better and thus been a bit happier. In fact, do you know fucking what, I know that students have a rough time of it and that modern life is awful but with a laptop and WiFi my degree would have been several thousands times more straightforward. Perhaps I could have found an online forum that would explain what in the name of hell I was supposed to say about, well, any of it. At the very least I could have used an essay mill to scrape me a 2:1. Although, now I say that, I must face up to the fact that that the problem with my degree wasn’t the tech, it was me. And having a 2:2 is quite funny. Well, it is now.
A clock
I’m told that University students need a time device separate from their phone that is battery-operated; this looks pleasingly practical, non-ticking and inexpensive. It’s the sort of item that just doesn’t die or ever get lost, that you will still have when you are 50.
A sheet of First Class stamps
About every three years I buy 100 first class stamps, they live on the hall table and we steadily work our way through them. It used to be an excellent cost-saving measure as you are shielded from rises in stamp prices. But the bloody bastard PO are changing the rules and now I have to use up all my stamps by the end of January 2023 or I have to swap them for new-style stamps in what looks like a torturous process designed to make you not bother. Anyway, tuck a strip of recently-bought stamps somewhere where your student won’t lose it, they will come in handy I promise.
Coffee maker
For the young coffee addict in your life: proper coffee without needing a cafetière. We have TWO of these Aeropresses for the older coffee addict in my life.
Quick-dry towels
Microfibre towels pack down to nothing and do the job well. For long hair, quick-dry hair turbans are terrific - I use one whenever I wash my hair and I’m not even a student (unless you count studying the bottom of a wine glass). If you have a particular dorkster as a kid, you can have a joke as you hand it over about Ford Prefect and the importance of always having a towel.
Toastbags
A delicious cheese and ham toastie in even the mankiest of communal toasters.
Power bank
I was a big fan of those power-bank extra battery thingies until I had a succession of them break on me. They’re not cheap and I dislike intensely throwing anything away but particularly electronics. Does anyone have a really good one they can recommend?
Stikins
Because one boom box/set of AirPods/set of pool slides looks very much like another, these sheets of indelible little stickers are very handy. I am slightly ashamed to say that I have managed to bring up two children who are famous in all the institutions they attend for leaving all their stuff lying about - nothing leaves our house without a sticker on it so that it least it can be returned to the right prison cell classroom. I’m assuming this is bad parenting on my part but maybe all children are like that.
I have also come across a company recently called My Baggage, which will ship your bags anywhere at reasonable rates, meaning a lighter car-load, or that you can accompany your child on the train, or for any other many reasons why you might not want to drive a jam-packed vehicle to Durham.
Door wedge
For wedging your dorm room door open to facilitate socialising.
Boom box
I have had other brands of portable bluetooth speakers in my time and the bluetooth always stops working after a while – but I had my UE boom for 5 years. It worked perfectly right up until it was stolen out of my car’s glovebox - shortly before the car itself was stolen. (Genuine question: should we move to Stroud to get away from the rampant crime in Kentish Town?) This one I have linked to is their newest model and is waterproof so your Fresher can listen to Today in the shower at 7am. Ha ha, only joking, they will have it confiscated in the first week for playing The Final Countdown at top volume every 3am for a week. Again, this one I have linked to is black but if you can find one in a jaunty colour, do, otherwise it is very lose-able.
Over-radiator towel rack
Just a general life essential for everyone. I’ve got one in my kitchen right now. This one looks like a clever and snazzy design. Your child may not to any laundry but at the very least they might wash their pants from time to time - with this they dry overnight. My friend Clarissa Ward who is chief international correspondent for CNN, and is always diving into ditches to evade bombs in e.g. Ukraine or Syria, takes with her into the field only two pairs of pants. One on, one being washed in a sink/drying. University is a war zone of sorts.
… while I’m on the subject: Febreeze
Frankly, we all wash our clothes too much. Underwear, sure, but everything else if not actively stained, doesn’t need much washing. Hang up the item, spritz with this bad boy and leave to air. If it’s good enough for Stella McCartney…
Scissors
Who doesn’t need scissors? I have 4 pairs in my kitchen alone.
Tupperware
For making healthful and economic packed lunches to eat in breaks during 8-hour library study sessions. No, they will of course use these to keep drugs in. My top tip from chef friends is DO NOT get nesting boxes – get three or four exactly the same size, then when ultimately one of the lids gets lost you will have replacements. Top tip! Put a Stikins on the base and the lid so there is no doubt about whose drugs they are.
Headphones
I love my AirPods, they are really brilliant, but even I have had some heart stopping moments when I thought I might have lost one. If your kid is really organised and on it, consider blessing them with a pair of these. If it can’t keep track of its house keys, get them a giant pair of over-head cans instead. What with an up-tick in Zoom lectures, they will need some.
Pool slides
Because communal dorm bathrooms are the most rank, shudder-some places in the world. If Adidas made HazMat suits I would recommend one of those. If for some reason your Gen Z wunderbabe doesn’t already have a pair of pool slides, they need some.
Plug extender with USB ports
Because electricity is everything.
Tray or chopping mat
So that petit Zuleika can put her lunch or dinner essentials down on a reliably clean surface without having to clean an entire disgusting student kitchen. Simple trays are also, I am told, very useful.
Hot water bottle
Superfluous and stupid until you need one. And then you really need one. There will be one evening when your child will be cold, sad and homesick and while you can’t be there, this hottie bottie can.
String lights
To cheer up even the most depressing box room. I remember I brought a set with me to university and people used to walk into my room and go “Wow, your room is nice” and I was like… seriously people… it’s just the fairy lights. I recommend these.
What else is good? Please share with the group.
I think recyclable paper is OK, then there’s no hot water, detergent, mould spores on unwashed plates to endanger students’ lungs
One of those hanger things with loads of pegs so you don’t have to tumble your knicks and bras or leave them to dry in a communal area.
First aid kid incl period supplies.
Gift card to nearest supermarket. Better than cash IMO.