Cool Things & Ideas for Student Houses

If you’re about to move into your first student house, in this post we’ll take a look at some things that could make it one of the best homes you ever live in.

Some of these things will improve your quality of life. Others are things everyone can use, which could make you very popular with your housemates!

A Cafetiere

Some people call it a “French Press”, but it’s much more fun to call it a cafetiere.

Don’t know what a cafetiere is? Let us explain. It’s a vessel, made from either metal or glass, that you use to brew coffee. Add a bit of ground coffee, then fill it up with hot water. Leave it to brew for a bit, then slowly press down on the plunger. And voila! A few cups of high quality hot coffee await you.

Why is this a cool thing for a student house? For two reasons. First, coffee can be expensive, and as a student you probably won’t have the funds for daily trips to Starbucks. But you can get a cafetiere for as little as £10, and all supermarkets stock bags of good ground coffee that’ll let you fill your cafetiere multiple times. So you can enjoy high quality coffee every day, for less.

But the main reason why this is a cool thing for a student house? Few things smell better than freshly brewed coffee. It’s a rich and evocative scent that’ll make your student home feel a lot more homely.

Head here to read our full guide to saving money on coffee as a student.

A Slow Cooker

Another thing that’ll fill your student home with rich, nourishing scents! But more importantly, it’ll enable you to eat well while saving time, energy and money.

Most slow cooker recipes essentially involve throwing a load of ingredients together and leaving it to cook for a number of hours. So you could prepare your ingredients and switch your slow cooker on first thing in the morning. You’d then have a healthy and hearty meal waiting for you when you get home from uni – and a house filled with the comforting aroma of good home cooking.

Many slow cooker recipes will feed multiple people, so there could quite easily be food for your whole house. But if not, you could chill or freeze your leftovers, meaning that a single slow cook could give you enough meals to last for days – or even the whole week.

A Food Processor

Staying in the kitchen for now, it’s unlikely that your student house will come with a food processor. But once you start using one, you may wonder how you ever got by without.

Whether it’s an elaborate food processor with multiple fittings and settings, or a small handheld blender, this is the sort of thing that can unlock a whole new world of possibilities in the kitchen.

It can make food prep faster and easier, which means you’ll spend less time cooking and more time doing whatever else you need to do. You can use it to make batches of soups, to give you a whole week’s worth of meals from a single set of ingredients. Or you can use it to blend fruits to create energising smoothies.

Board Games

Some people are really into board games. But there are other games that almost anyone can enjoy.

Visit a few charity shops and you’ll likely find some of the all-time-classics for next to nothing.

These are the sort of board games that almost guarantee good times for everyone:

• Twister
• Scrabble
• Hungry Hungry Hippos
• Articulate
• Trivial Pursuit
• Cluedo
• Chess
• Jenga (OK, this one’s not a board game. But still!)

With a stock of board games, you can organise games nights with your housemates. Or at the very least, you’ll always have something to turn to when it’s raining, everyone’s skint, and you can’t agree on what to watch.

Stay away from Monopoly though. Some call that game “The Argument-Starter”.

A Games Console

You don’t need a pricey current-gen console to enjoy gaming. Retro consoles can be much cheaper, with huge libraries of classic games offering endless hours of both single- and multiplayer fun.

In fact, if you want something you can enjoy with your housemates, offline local multiplayer is often much easier with retro consoles than it is with current-gen consoles.

So whether it’s Mario Kart on a GameCube, Goldeneye on an N64, or Micro Machines on a MegaDrive, embrace retro gaming to make your student house a hub of wholesome yet insanely cool good times.

A Pinboard

Finally, something a bit more practical.

Hang a pinboard either in your hallway or your kitchen. Everyone will then have a place to put all those useful things that might go missing otherwise – such as your landlord’s telephone number, takeaway menus, receipts, and so on.

A whiteboard would work just as well, while also providing a blank canvas for you to all leave messages, notes, reminders and doodles for each other. You might want to look for a magnetic one which attaches to your fridge.

Still Looking For Your Student Home?

We’re here to help!

First, you’ll find loads of guides on our site to ensure you get the best from your student accommodation.

Nottingham’s our specialty, so start by taking a look at our guide to the best places to live in Nottingham.

Then take a look at our guide to the best questions to ask when viewing student houses.

And if you need a hand finding the perfect place to live, look no further! We were once students too. We know how to bring you the best rooms and still manage to keep things simple. So let us help you find your ideal student property today.