This list may not be glamorous or particularly exciting, but from experience, these things are very often overlooked and you will end up rushing out to buy them or continually borrowing them from house/flat/halls mates. Importantly, why forget stuff and end up having to buy it yourself? Make sure when your folks ask you that all important question of “What do you need for uni?” that once you've dealt with the really important stuff (like a shiny new laptop) that you make sure you don't forget these little things, guaranteed to make your student life that little bit easier!
1 Blu Tack
To help make your room feel more welcoming, posters are a great and budget pleasingly cheap way to decorate your room and give it some personality. Landlords won't take kindly to nails being knocked into walls or push pins, so use Blu Tack!
2 Tea Towels
If you are lucky and have a dishwasher then you aren't a proper student. Seriously though, washing up is one of those chores that simply has to be done sooner or later, so tea towels to dry up with are a must. Supermarkets, pound shops and home bargain shops are all ideal places to pick these up super cheap, make sure you have a couple so you can be using one whilst the other is washed and dried.
3 Sewing Kit
Buttons fall off, clothes get holes in them. A teeny weeny little sewing kit containing a needle and a few different coloured bits of cotton will be all you need, but can really come in handy!
4 First Aid Basics
Paracetamol. Asprin, plasters, cough mixture - there will be a time when you need them and after Freshers week, you'll understand that at the very least, headache remedies are an absolute must! Keep a few basics in as there is nothing worse than feeling poorly and having to traipse out to the shops to get medicine.
5 Laundry Bag
Dirty clothes piled in the corner of your room aren't great, likewise, taking armfuls of clothes to the washing machine means you are almost certain to misjudge the stairs you can't see, trip over and drop them all. You can get all sorts of laundry 'receptacles' but the most versatile is a laundry bag – it keeps all your dirty stuff in one place and makes it easy to move clothes to and from the washing machine or laundrette. It doesn't even have to be an actual laundry bag, a supermarket bag for life is ideal.
6 Toiletries Bag
In a shared student pad, you really don't want to be leaving your stuff around. That shampoo left in the shower will get used by other people, so make sure you have everything you need for your ablutions (what a great word that is!) in a toiletries bag that you can keep in your room and easily take in and out of the bathroom with you.
7 Stickers & Marker Pen
Whose milk is that? Are those your eggs? Avoid confusion by marking everything that is yours and stored in a shared area, such as kitchen cupboards or the fridge. Write your name on your stuff with a marker pen, or with a sticker with your name on. Sure, it's not going to stop people nicking your stuff, but if they do, at least they can't claim the defence that they thought it was theirs!
8 Radiator Clothes Airer
These clever little things hook over your radiator and are ideal for drying your undies or anything else you want for that matter. If you have to use a laundrette or only have a washing machine and no dryer in your accommodation, then this is a must.
9 Clothes hangers
These little things are often forgotten about and whilst most of your clothes might live the majority of their lives, quite happily on the floor, hanging stuff up saves space, cuts down on mess and means you don't have to face the awful bore that is ironing quite as often.
10 Food bags
These are a kitchen essential – great for putting left over slices of pizza in so they can be stored in the fridge; great for half used ingredients and for keeping most food items fresh.
11 Cookery book
There are loads of student specific cookery books out there that focus on cheap and quick food you can make. Eating out and takeaways are all well and good, but you will need to prepare food yourself at some point. It's a great way of making your budget stretch further and if you have even a vague interest in your health, cooking yourself is going to be pretty important. Look for 'meals on a budget' or 'student cookery books' and you'll have a wealth of ideas at your fingertips, meaning in theory, you'll never starve!
12 Bedding
You'll need two sets of bedding – when you take one off and wash it, you'll need something to replace it with so double up on your duvet cover, pillow cases and sheets and you'll be sorted.
13 Pasta is a life saver
Pasta is an awesome staple to keep in the back of your cupboard. Add to that a few cheap tins of Tuna and tomato soup or basic pasta sauce and you have all you need for a decent emergency meal, meaning that even when you are super-skint, you can still eat – hurrah!
14 Over-door hooks
These are super useful, put one over your bedroom door and you have instant hanging space for coats, towels and such like. They don't require drilling into the wall or door and are super easy to use and flexible too as you can move them around – they are also good for increasing storage space inside your wardrobe.
15 Document file or folders
When you move you will take on new responsibilities, and responsibilities come with paperwork. You'll be signing contracts and such like, which you will need to store somewhere safe. Don't just leave them on your desk – they will get lost. Invest a few quid into a box file or similar and put all of your important documents together in one place where they will be safe and super easy to find!