Dorm items! Part 2: Food/"Kitchen" items

I'm back! Here is the food/kitchen items that I promised you. This is part of a series on dorm items that my friends and I found useful for our first year of college. I'll post a little bit about how this applies to Michigan State University and some of their dorm rules/items that serve this purpose, and then I'll post pictures and links for the items that I show. Note: None of these links are affiliate links, nor am I recommending that you buy these items off the sites shown. This is just to give you an idea of the online site's price, so you can keep an eye out for it.

Now, if you're a freshman at Michigan State or if you live in the dorms, you are required to buy a meal plan. These meal plans are awful (in my opinion) because they are ridiculously expensive, and they have 100 meals/week, with no other options. Unlike other schools, you can't swipe other people in unless you have guest meal passes (which requires opening a Sparty cash account on your meal plan). And seriously, what kind of person actually goes to the dining halls 100 times a week? I don't think that I ever went under 80.

That said, the list of kitchen appliances allowed in the dorms is very small. No rice cookers, no "George Foreman style grills" (I was so bummed, I really wanted to bring my panini grill). No crockpots, no toasters. You can have a microwave and refrigerator, though. I will also mention that my roommate had a rice cooker in our room (as did a lot of her friends, or so I am told), and even though we were suitemates with the RA, we never got in trouble for it. (We also had a ginormous space heater, against my will, and we never got in trouble for that, either).

Anyways! Here are some items that I personally had in my dorm, that my friends had, etc. I also included some foods that are well-suited for dorm life.

My roommate had a coffee maker kind of similar to this. This is a Mr. Coffee 5-cup coffeemaker. The point was, she had a small and cheap coffeemaker for first semester. Neither of us drank coffee, so she used it for boiling water for tea/ramen. I know a lot of college students do drink coffee, so I'm including it on the list. Make sure that you buy filters, coffee, creamer, sugar for it. (Actually, you could probably get away with taking some from the caf.)

Second semester, my roommate replaced the coffeemaker with an electric kettle. Not sure if this is the exact brand, but whatever. The coffeemaker took up a lot of space on our counter (on my half, actually...), so she got an electric kettle instead. I hated this thing with a passion, even more so than the coffeemaker (I just can't win) because it wasn't silent. I had a really old water boiler at home that was almost silent until it was done (when it started whistling). This made noise while it was boiling which was really annoying. Anyways!

I also want to mention that my kuya from Pilipino American Student Society apparently uses his to make ramen in. And my friend's roommate used it to boil eggs in. Multi-use? I never tried either, because I always used her rice cooker to boil water since it wasn't as loud or annoying.

If you're going to buy a microwave, get one like this Haier one, because they're supposed to be under 750 watts. No one comes to check apparently, but if you prefer to stay on the safe side. I didn't have a microwave in my room because I had brought the mini-fridge, my roommate didn't want a microwave, and I did not want to get stuck lugging both a mini-fridge and a microwave back home in my small car. First semester, since I was eating in the dining halls and stuff, I didn't usually miss it, but in second semester, when I didn't want to run into people when I left my dorm, I wished that I had one.

Also, the university offers a microfridge program through the University Activities Board (UAB), but I can't find the price on the site since it's summer, so take a look later. My friend's roommate rented the microfridge through the year, and it was pretty nice. It has a freezer! Also she didn't have to bother with taking it all the way home (although we did have a small duly to carry the thing all the way to Wilson on a very hot day).

Get a minifridge. This is a Culinair one that I found online, not the one that I used. You have to make sure that it is 5 cubic feet or less. My dad brought mine home on the day that I was set to move in (about an hour before I was going to leave), and it was huge, probably not 5 cubic feet. So, I don't recommend that. My car is super small, so it was a pain to move in and out with it. I will admit that I didn't really use my fridge, and if I lived in the dorms again, I probably wouldn't bring one. I only used it to keep my waterbottles cold since I hate warm water, and also to keep my apples. Other than that, my roommate filled it with a bunch of random things (she hated the dining hall food, so she filled it with food.)

These are really the only items that you might need/want. The rest of the items are just stuff that were useful to me, but are definitely "optional" on the packing list.

I would recommend bringing some paring knives. I didn't use this kind, I actually just "borrowed" one from my house, but I've used this brand before and they're easy to use. I just kept one in my dorm for cutting and peeling fruits. You could definitely live without it, but it was useful to me more than one time.

This Hamilton-Beach single-serve blender is on my want list for this year. I wanted it last year, too, but I never got it. A couple of people on my floor had one of these, and I really loved it. If you make power smoothies or whatever, this could be helpful. I didn't end up getting it last year because I didn't know how often I would use it, since I might not have fresh fruit on hand and my freezer didn't work. But I really want this, so I think I'll just buy it, especially since I'll be living in an apartment.

credit: motherjones

Water bottles. The water at Michigan State is really weird. I guess that it's unfiltered, something like that. I don't like it, and I didn't drink it. You have a few options for water. There are two re-usable water bottles in each dorm when you first move in, so you can refill them at the water stations. Supposedly (according to my roommate, because I never did that), even that water tastes a bit odd. Sparty's sells water, a small styrofoam cup for free and a large plastic cup for $0.25. Also, they sell bottles of water (some of them sell Dasani, which I love, or Absopure, which I hate), that you can use as part of your Combo X-Change. They also sell 12-packs of Absopure water, which my roommate would usually buy but, since I'm a brand snob (not really. Absopure just has a weird taste to me), I usually would buy myself a pack of water bottles at Meijer since I had a car. An even cheaper option (which we used at the end of the year) would be the plastic milk gallon-size water that is sold at the store, or the "tank" size ones.

I guess that's all the suggestions that I have for now... I'll update if I need to. Other than that, I just had a bunch of snacks and stuff. Just remember that you can always send me a message or leave me a comment if you have a question about Michigan State! I'll do some posts on each of the dorms that I've been in, since I know that incoming freshman will start getting their dorm assignments soon. A hint: I had my AOP on July 16-17, and on the 17th, they had put dorms on StuInfo. Note that these aren't permanent as they are used for billing purposes, but mine was correct. So around the middle of July you can check and then find a "Michigan State Class of 20--" on facebook and search your roommate. Before the official room assignments went out, I had already found one of my roommate (back when I lived in Akers).

Hope this helped! I know stuff goes on sale at random times throughout the summer, which is why I'm putting up posts like these.

`Rakuzen

Dorm items! Part 1: Organization/Storage

Hey guys, 

This is part of a segment that I decided to start doing on my blog. Once a week or so, I'll do a post on items for dorm living. I'm obviously not an authority on what you should and shouldn't bring and I'd definitely recommend that you look at other people's college packing lists, but I just wanted to show some items (with pictures) that helped my friends and I when we were in the dorms. I'll start off each post with how this applies to Michigan State University and some of their dorm rules/items. I would definitely recommend that you shop around for these items. I just picked the links randomly, mostly from Target, Walmart, and Amazon, but I'm sure that if you searched, you could find them for even cheaper. Also, none of these are affiliate links.

Today, I'll start with items for organization/storage in the dorms! I'll write about a couple different dorms, since a lot of them are different, and if you have any questions about specific dorms, just comment below and I'll try to find out for you. 

In Hubbard (North for sure, I think South as well) and Holmes: In terms of storage, the school provides you with a lot. There is a small "closet" with a pole for hanging clothes, and a shelf where you can store out-of-season clothes. They have a dresser with four large and deep drawers, and each of the desks have one drawer. They have a modular, stackable unit with two shelves and one drawer, which you can move around. 

In Wonders: There's not as much storage here, in my opinion (then again, I never lived there. But my friend did and I was there almost every day second semester). They have a dresser with six drawers I believe, because they're not nearly as deep as the ones in Hubbard. They have the same closet, with the pole for hanging clothes. Their desks are much nicer, because they have four drawers on the side (kind of like the one pictured, except instead of the plain wood backing on top of the desk, it's a cork board). But they don't have  the stackable shelves that Hubbard has.

Organization

This Sterilite 3-Drawer Medium Cart with wheels. Actually, I think my friend got this when her roommate left it behind but whatever. This is very tall, about as tall as the desks in Wonders (where she lived) and she stored her food and plates and stuff in it. The dorms provide a lot of storage space (in Hubbard we had a tall four-drawer dresser, as well as our desk and three stackable shelf things), but if you want to be more organized then this is perfect. And it has wheels! 

This Sterilite 3-Drawer Desktop Unit. I actually had two of these (although neither of them were exactly the same as the one pictured... One only had two drawers with the flip top lid, and the other had three drawers but a flat lid). I used one of them to store my makeup (and actually, I wish that I had bought this one for that purpose) and I think I got it for ~$5 at Walmart (note, the link contains a set of 4 from Amazon). I set the other one on my desk and put my school supplies like pencils, sticky notes, tape, scissors, etc. in it. This isn't really all that necessary if you have something to organize them in the desks because Hubbard has a pretty nice drawer, but I like being able to open it and sort it. 

I wish that I had this one for my storage supplies. I'm not usually that organized (I'm really messy unless I'm supposed to be studying or doing homework...) but when I get in a cleaning mode, I really like organizing. I think I'll buy this one before I go back in the fall, actually. 

My friend had an ottoman like this one. I can't find a link, so I'll update with one, but I'm pretty sure I've seen them at Walmart and Meijer and Target. Pick one that lets you store stuff inside, and you can use it to store pretty much anything. My friend used it for extra clothes, and it provided a seat and also she used it to climb onto her bed. (Her bed wasn't lofted, but even so it stands about four feet high. Which isn't fun if you're short like us. I just put one of the University-provided wooden shelves under my bed and pulled it out to get on my bed at night, but her dorm (Wonders) didn't have them. 

This. It's a Sterilite Stacking Basket, Size Small, but I can't find a link that matches. I bought a pack of three (in pink) from Target and used them to store my nail polish (the ones that I bought with me, anyways), and left the other two at home. I had another basket (Sterilite brand too, I think, that I bought at Walmart) that I stored in my drawer-dresser to organize food. It's also a nice way to keep things separate if you/your roommate don't want to share. 

Some of these Hello Kitty buckets. I really love Hello Kitty, so yeah. Anyways, the price on Amazon is a total rip-off, because I ended up buying a lot of these from the dollar section at Target. These were awesome and useful. I used one for my makeup brushes, one for plasticware (so we didn't have forks and knives strewn across the room...), one for the makeup that I wore daily (since I had an 8AM and didn't want to be running around the room while my roommate slept).

I had a couple of things from the dollar store, too, that I took pictures of before I started setting up my dorm, so I'll probably update with those. You can see a couple of them in my dorm haul post, but I did buy more after that post, so I'll update later. 

My next post will be food-related items for the dorm. 

Hope this was helpful if you're starting to plan out checklists and moving lists! I know that I started thinking early and getting some boxes ready early, but I was still scrambling, last minute, on move in day. But here's some items that were useful to me and my friends, just to give you an idea if you happen to see them on sale! 

`Rakuzen

End-of-the-year

You know it's bad when it takes four months to update. Sorry! I am actually all moved out of Hubbard, done with my freshman year. I have a lot of posts in mind and hopefully I will get around to them now that it's summer!

First of all, if you're an incoming MSU freshman and you're finding this because you're researching your new school, CONGRATULATIONS ON GETTING ACCEPTED! I love MSU a lot. This really was one of the best years of my life to date, I had an incredible experience at MSU and I hope you do too!

Last year, I did a post on AOP, so if you're interested/scared/nervous and want to read up on it, I wrote about my experience there. If you go into my archives a little, I did some posts on things that I bought for moving in.

I guess this is just a little bit of a catch up. I feel like it would be kind of pointless to do move out posts since everyone's already moved out, so I'll work on doing those later.

Opening the floor to you readers! If you have any questions about East Lansing or MSU, I'll do my best to answer them! I did get some pictures of my empty dorm right before I moved out, so I'll try to post them up. And I know that dorm assignments don't come out until August, but if you're curious, I've been inside: Yakely, Wonders, Case, Holmes, Hubbard, Akers, Owen and Van Hoosen dorms. And if you've been assigned to another one and are curious about how the dorms look, just let me know because my friends were scattered around all of campus.

So, an update on me first, I guess. I have:
1. Become an e-board member for Pilipino American Student Society. Yay! I am treasurer, and super excited about it. Stop by the table at Sparticipation in the fall, it's such an amazing group and you'll have a lot of fun.

2. Picked a place to live next year! I will be living in Van Hoosen Hall with two of my friends. Van Hoosen Hall is an on-campus, all-girls apartment building. It is so nice in there! A meal plan isn't required and it has a kitchen, living room, bathroom, and a bedroom. And air conditioning. I am so ridiculously excited.

Err... I guess that's all. For now. Anyways! If you're an incoming freshman or just looking for things to decorate your dorm, feel free to follow my pinterest board: http://pinterest.com/rakuzen/dorm-room/

Anyways, ask away you guys! You can comment on the post or email me at rakuzen.lee[at]gmail.com, if you like. I'll definitely be posting more now that it's summer, so stay tuned!