General Discussion

Ginormous bag of baking soda. Easily my favorite cleanser and a fairly safe product for clearing slow drains (half a cup tossed in the drain + 4-6 quarts really hot water). Also helpful for deodorizing laundry and cleaning up grease spills. Take out a half pound or so and toss it in an airtight container to use for cooking when you first open it. I get one every few years from Costco since the sucker weights 13.5 lbs.

Barkeeper's Friend. Fairly non-toxic and is fantastic for cleaning scorched pans and stainless steel anything.

Cordless vacuum cleaner. Even a cheap one is helpful because when you're exhausted you can do a small area and call it good.

Parchment paper and/or silicone cooking mats. Absolutely fabulous for clean-up and improvement of baked items.

Any sort of blank or color-coded stickers you can write on and can be easily removed. I have a bad time with remembering where things are if they're not out in the open so to combat clutter I put things away and label containers. I also use them to put expiration dates on food so I can tell right away what's getting really old without trying to figure out expiration or best by dates. Avery makes a good set of removable ones.

Weekend/Too tired to do laundry bag:

2-5 days clothes and hygiene products, spare pair of shoes you can walk in.

Emergency bag:

Check your state for relevant supplies based on natural disasters in your area. I prep for power outages, freezing temperatures, earthquakes and tsunamis.

Maybe not home items… but speaking of keeping your pantry stocked (speaking as someone who is vaguely lazy but mostly just has executive disfunction):

- Pasta! If you like pasta at all this is a FANTASTIC way to go. It takes so long to actually expire you might as well say it doesn’t, and you can prepare it a lot of ways if you want some variety. Get some shelf-stable pasta sauces like marinara, Alfredo, or pesto and you’re good to go for awhile. If you have the time and like to cook it’s great for actually making more gourmet sauces—pasta is ridiculously versatile

- Other stable foods like rice, cans of soup, ramen, what have you. Stuff that’ll keep but you’ll actually eat

- Get some spices! Whatever kind you like (anything as simple as salt and pepper, to cooking herbs like parsley or chives, to specific mixes you really like such as cajun seasonings or Italian seasonings). They’re good to have on hand bc sometimes you just need to spice up a bland meal that you would be sick of otherwise

- Lazy meals. Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes I don’t want to put effort into cooking things. I keep a few boxes of mac and cheese on hand (and the milk and butter for them ofc) for when I don’t want to bother with cooking myself

- Even lazier meals. For me it’s just the adhd, but honestly if you’re super busy and tired some days it’s just good to have something you can chuck in the microwave and eat. That way at least you’ll eat SOMETHING if you don’t have time for anything else. Mac and cheese cups are good because you only need water, and frozen meals are fantastic to just heat up and go



Speaking of mac and cheese, though: get an instant mac cooker if you can find one. They’re GREAT. You literally put water and the contents of a mac and cheese box in the microwave, heat it up according to the instructions, and add packets/milk/butter. It takes like 5 minutes instead of whatever the stovetop does. You can hypothetically use it for regular pasta as well but you’d probably have to experiment with cooking time for different shapes

This is how I’ve kept myself eating through the business of college, lol

Nice! I’m not much of a cook in general, but I’ve found a special fondness for making pasta dishes. My favorite is a spicy carbonara, but I actually got my parents (who’ve always been indifferent to gnocchi) to like it with a chicken/bacon white sauce. I rarely have the energy to make meals THAT involved but something about a good cream tomato sauce is miles better than storebought

Too bad store-bought will keep for ages on the shelf and my favorite cream-based sauces don’t reheat that well. Still good, but they’re not the same as fresh off the stovetop

fire extinguisher, but also know you can't just blast that thing like you're in a water gun fight, always operate it from a distance from the fire. I also always have a box of baking soda used for cleaning, with the top ripped off and within easy reach in case of kitchen/grease fires.

drain covers for tubs/sinks will save you grief down the line. It's always a pain calling even the best landlords to take care of things, and most aren't the best in the first place.

also just a general tip, I've moved a lot and *every time* the washer is gross. Please don't think that just because it's a machine used for washing, it's clean. It's probably full of gunk that can and should be taken care of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfbeKcr2UHU

A set of tools. Just a basic one to have on hand, some pliers/hammer/screwdriver/wrench; a socket set if you want to be fancy but honestly I only ever use my 10/12/14mm. Buy a couple of nice clamps to throw in there and a pack of zip ties (and never travel without a few zip ties).

I move around a lot, I try to keep my belongings to a minimum and strike a balance between how fragile/functional/expensive they are. Like don't buy the cheapest pans, but an expensive non-stick set will not survive a couple of rounds of roommates. I have watched people ruin their own sets, it's chaos out there.
(hot take, every pan is a non-stick pan if you pre-heat properly and use a bit of oil)


Anwway, good luck! Any problem you run into can be resolved. I've had many disasters happen and learned from them all.

Freezer bags. Those cheap little plastic bags that you buy in a pack for 100 or whatever. When you buy a kilo of meat (or a few pounds, whatever your measurement system), but can’t eat it all at once, you can divide it up to freeze the rest for next time. For example, maybe a pack of raw chicken has four portions in it; put one portion each in four bags -just defrost a bag for a few hours before trying to cut/cook it.

If you need to buy pots/pans, and have a gas /open fire stove, try to get pots without bare metal handles, they’ll get hot and might burn you.

Keep a big box handy to toss your recyclables into, it helps out everyone! You can also get a box to dump your potatoes into if you eat them regularly, keeping them in their store bag can make them rot faster. Yeah, rotten potatoes smell soooo bad, they also become putrid liquid.

A kettle if you like tea or coffee, or need the water boiled for pasta.

A few 9litre round wash buckets, about $1 at the cheap stores: they always come in handy in case you need to hand wash a uniform, or fill up water to wash the car with, or clean your home after dusting.

A little shower caddy that sticks to the wall? It’s nicer than bending down to pick up the shampoo off the ground. Yep, I’m running out of ideas other than the usual stuff like a vacuum, microwave, ect.

First aid kit? Eh... just get some headache medicine, bandaids, and some betadine. That’ll keep you going and probably cost less than a whole kit. Any medical stuff that you need beyond that may be varied or specialised for a certain problem, which the kit might not cover.

A sewing needle and tweezers, for when you get that splinter stuck in your hand that you need to dig out. You don’t need it until you start to go crazy!

Your own nail clippers?

A basket to dump your toilet paper into next to your loo, if you have space.

I always wash dishes by hand instead of using a dishwasher. I like the “wonder cloth” because its easier to manipulate than a sponge. Is this just an Australian product? It’s a really thick, almost furry feeling square cloth, about 15cm or 6-7inches that you can use at the sink for washing your dishes. Lasts ages too, it doesn’t need to be replaced for months and stays cleaner than a sponge.

A sandwich press. You can cook hashbowns in it in minutes without anything but a bit of parchment/baking paper to line them with. Same with chicken schnitzels. Heck, I’ve even cooked/squashed sausages in there to make the dinner happen faster than a frying pan. Oh, and the toasted sandwiches are pretty nice. Gosh, what would I do without my sandwich press?

Most dinner times don’t happen without the frying pan for me. It’s just how I cook any meat thing, while the peeled/cut veggies get boiled in a pot with water for 20 minutes to go with it. Super simple.

Cheese grater? Spatula, tongs, ect, I’m sure you know what you need to cook with XD Good luck, have fun!