Students’ university shopping lists expand to include air fryers and steamers

It once included bedding, pots, pans and paracetamol. But it seems the checklist of university essentials now covers gadgets such as air fryers and steamers, as searches for and sales of these items have jumped in the run-up to the new term.

As freshers’ week approaches and thousands of students prepare to head to university for the first time, they face the perennial question of what to take.

Over the years, what has been considered essential has changed, but buyers at John Lewis have noted increased sales across many traditional and less traditional “back to uni” categories. Searches on its website for “university essentials” are up by 114% this month compared with this time last year.

According to John Lewis, online sales for air fryers were up by 21% last week. Another long-established essential that has seen a big uptick in sales is bedding. Sales of pillows, duvets and protectors in the anti-allergy “Off to uni essentials” range are up by 30%.

Double duvets are also proving popular, sales having increased by 74% in recent weeks.

A good way to ensure that you are taking only what you need is to create a “must-have section”, then “want” or “would be nice” category, as outlined on the Save the Student website packing list. They also have a friendly reminder: “You’re not moving to the moon.”

For many students, the basics will be largely the same as what students have taken for decades, according to Tom Allingham, communications a director at Save the Student.

“I’d absolutely agree that a lot of things you might need have changed over time, but … actually, a lot of the things that really are essentials haven’t changed,” he said. “It’ll be your basics – your crockery, your pans, duvet, bedding, all that kind of stuff, that’s really remained the same.”

You could get by with these absolute essentials, but there are other things Allingham points to for which “maybe the word essential is a bit of a stretch”, such as portable chargers, extension cables and partitions for shared bathrooms in halls.

Ikea, Argos, Wilko, B&M and John Lewis have all created dedicated areas on their websites guiding uni students on what to get. Even Urban Outfitters has a further education checklist, which ranges from the expected towels, crockery and bedding to a Stanley cup, flamingo glass lamp and XL Miffy Lamp, price £169.

While these pages can be a helpful starting point, they often include things you don’t need, Allingham said. “If you take a step back, it’s kind of obvious that what they’re trying to do is sell you the products that they have, so obviously they’re going to stretch the definition of essential to try to make you buy things that you don’t necessarily need.”

Companies and shops such as UniKitOut, Wilko, Ikea and Argos also offer bundles or “starter kits”, which are billed as a fuss-free way to get all of the essentials. These may be convenient, but Allingham suggests shopping around first and seeing if you can buy the things you need cheaper on their own. You can also do this when you get to uni.

“Starter packs or bundles of ‘essentials’ can be useful, but be wary of paying over the odds, or for things you don’t need. It may be that the shop has included a few things you wouldn’t otherwise have bought, or that you could buy individually for less. So do a bit of shopping around, as sometimes the convenience of a single bundle isn’t worth it,” he says.

People living in halls of residence or a shared house should also consider that their housemates may bring the same thing. “If you do just turn up with the basics, enough to get you through, and you decide later on: ‘Oh, actually, I could do with this extra little thing,’ then you can just buy later on.”