Dirty dishes, food thieves and fire alarms: student kitchen etiquette

For many freshers, the thought of sharing a kitchen with people who are practically strangers can be unnerving. In my first year, I lived in Arthur Vick, where I shared a kitchen with a total of 13 people. The open-corridor halls of residence meant it often felt like I was sharing with the whole block. The range of campus accommodation at Warwick means you could be sharing with any number of people, from five to 19. As I’m sure you can imagine, this sometimes means kitchen chaos, but we could all do our bit to make sharing a kitchen that little bit easier. Here is an ultimate guide to student kitchen etiquette.

1) Clean your dirty dishes straight away

Living independently comes with having to do your own washing up. Nobody likes washing up, and at university, it’s pretty easy to fall into a trap of leaving them on the side “to deal with in the morning”. By the end of my first term at Warwick, the thought of washing up was nightmarish! Student kitchens definitely live up to the stereotype. It’s not unusual to see piles of dirty dishes left everywhere, some with week-old food left sitting there and starting to mould.

Whilst it may seem like a lot of effort to wash up after you have spent time cooking a meal, cleaning your dishes as soon as you have finished will save you so much time. You do not want to have to scrub remains off dishes a week later.

It can be extremely annoying when you want to eat your dinner on the table when it is covered with dirty pots and pans. Don’t be the passive aggressive flatmate who sends messages to the group chat and leaves notes lying around the kitchen (unless absolutely necessary) – instead, tell your flatmates to do their washing up nicely and they’ll soon comply when they’ve run out of forks and are having to eat their grilled chicken with a spoon.

2) Don’t become too attached to your cutlery – utensil and food thieves lurk in student kitchens!

Cutlery and food inevitably go missing in a shared kitchen. You will start off with a full cutlery set and end the year with one fork, someone else’s spoon and a knife. Sharing your pots, pans, and cutlery amongst your flat can save arguments over missing things. Don’t become too attached to your kitchen items.

It is never nice to open the fridge and find that your dinner for the evening is missing. The amount of milk in your carton will mysteriously decrease. A great suggestion for ensuring things don’t go missing is labels. In my flat, most of us labelled our cupboards and milk in the fridge, and we kept to our assigned shelves in the fridges and freezers, which meant I never had a problem with food missing.

For the open corridor accommodation, such as Arthur Vick, Jack Martin, and Rootes, lock your kitchen at night. If food mysteriously keeps disappearing, inform your Residential Life Tutor who will ensure automatic locking is in place for your kitchen.

3) Make a bin rota and recycle when you can

The bins will always overflow. Make a bin rota at the start of each term and assign a week to each flatmate where it is their responsibility to take out the bins during that week.

Student kitchens produce a lot of rubbish, so try and recycle where you can, and throw away glass bottles and jars in the larger bins on campus.

4) Respect your flatmates – even when pre-drinking and partying

It is a lot of fun when everyone gathers in the kitchen before a night out. Respect your other flatmates when hosting a large gathering in the kitchen, especially around exam season. You can hear everything in a flat – everything. Even those at the other end of the corridor will be able to eavesdrop on the conversations you are having in the kitchen if you are speaking loudly. Make sure you inform your flatmates of planned gatherings beforehand, and check that they don’t have big exams the following day!

5) Do a quick tidy-up before the cleaners arrive

I don’t know how my first year flat didn’t get a fine at the state of our kitchen on the day the cleaners would come in. We did get many warnings for leaving dirty dishes around the sink area and bottles left around from the night before. Luckily, living in on-campus accommodation means cleaners come a couple of times a week. Help the cleaners out by washing up dirty dishes the night before and putting rubbish in the bin, ensuring the surfaces are cleared.

6) Learn that a late-night fire alarm is inevitable

Finally, to top off the kitchen nightmares, someone will set off the fire alarm at 2am after burning the late-night meal they were cooking. You will see the whole block in pyjamas and dressing gowns as you make your way to the assembly point. Trust me, it wouldn’t be first year without a middle-of-the-night fire alarm.

Living in a shared kitchen is a once in a lifetime experience, and it is always a lot of fun to have some company when cooking and eating dinner. While the mess can be annoying, you will soon miss your first-year kitchen and all the memories made in there.