Josh-API

COLLEGE KITCHEN:

The freedom that comes with being a collegian is truly priceless. No more curfews, no dad scaring away every guy that comes to your door, no more mom cooking you delicious home cooked meals … wait, what!? Okay well the last one isn’t so great. Luckily now that you are out of the dorm and have a REAL kitchen you can now extend your food choices of pop tarts and ramen noodles to homemade lasagna, pulled pork tenderloins and tuna tartar … well, okay…maybe you won’t be actually making these things, but at least you now have the option to J Even if you aren’t the next Rachel Ray, you still need to have the basics in your kitchen.  Here’s my two cents on filling the college kitchen: 1.) The best advice I can pass on when it comes to a college kitchen is go PLASTIC. Even if you don’t have butter fingers like me, chances are one of your roommates will, as well as many of your guests.  Not only does your set gradually shrink as the items break, but cleaning up a glass spill is a pain in the ass. So buy plastic cups, plates, and bowls. And make sure you buy more of each then there are people living in the house – even if you are Susie homemaker, washing dishes tends to be on the bottom of the list of things to do for most college kids. (I won’t even begin to tell you about the war on dishes than happened in my apartment with my lovely roommates)…  Same goes for flat ware –STOCK UP. Lastly, if you don’t have a dish washer in your apartment, you need to buy not one but two drying racks for the dishes (trust me), as well as a big stack of wash cloths.

2.) When picking a table, make sure you check out your space first. If you have a small kitchen, you don’t want to throw a big table in there (don’t worry, you can always throw a fold up table in the closet for beer pong and flip cup). Chances are, you won’t be eating most of you meals at the kitchen table anyway, so why waste the space? At my apartment we had a built in breakfast bar so we skipped on the table and just bought bar stools – they are fun, decorative, and take up less room than chairs.

3.) Odds and ends: Out of all the rooms in the house, the kitchen often gets neglected when it comes to decorations and accessories. A few quick ways to add some *spice* to your kitchen include candy/cookie jars (your guests will love you), a fun wine rack, a funky clock, or a rad coffee pot. If your kitchen has poor lighting like mine did, a great trick is putting a mirror across from the window. The mirror will reflect the natural light coming in and brighten up your kitchen. Last but not least, if your kitchen is missing some color, throw down a rug next to the fridge, or by the sink!

*Side note for the gents: When using alcohol products as a decoration, do it with a little class.  That line of empty cans running across the top of your cabinets is disgustingly over –done and kinda gross. I promise no one is impressed by how much you can drink and it SMELLS SO BAD. Go on EBAY and buy some nice bar signs, beer mirrors, etc. Toss the bottles and keep the caps – (run them under some soap and water first) and they can be used to decorate in so many ways depending on how many you have: picture frames, fridge magnets, table tops, you get the point. Stay tune for tomorrow's post as I give you some hints and tips about sharing and decorating your bathroom.