The College Apartment Checklist, Sorted by Who Buys What
Every college apartment checklist you'll find is sorted by room. That works fine when one person is buying everything. It falls apart when four people are buying from four different houses in the same two weeks, which is how a shared apartment actually gets furnished — and how it ends up with four toasters and no plunger.
So this list is sorted by who buys it. One question does most of the work, and the three buy-lists underneath it are the whole checklist.
The question that sorts the whole list
Before you add anything to a list, ask: can two people need this at the same time?
If yes, it's personal — everyone brings their own. If no, buy one for the apartment and split the cost. That's our rule rather than anyone's official standard, but it settles almost every argument on the list in about a second.
- A toaster: two people rarely need it at the same second, and when they do they wait ten seconds. One for the apartment.
- A phone charger: two people absolutely need one at the same time, every night. Per person.
- A shower curtain: only one person is in a bathroom at a time, but a second bathroom needs its own. One per bathroom.
- A trash can: kitchen, each bathroom, and each bedroom needs one. One per room.
Which gives three lists — shared, personal, per room — and a fourth that exists only because it fits none of them. That fourth list is the one that ruins move-in week.
Check what's already there before you buy anything
Do this first, because it can cut a third off the list.
On-campus apartment-style housing usually supplies at least a bed and a desk per person. Off-campus apartments are usually unfurnished, but "unfurnished" still varies: some come with a fridge and stove only, some add a microwave or a dishwasher, some include blinds and some don't.
Get three things confirmed in writing before anyone buys:
- What appliances are in the unit — fridge, stove, microwave, dishwasher, washer/dryer or a shared laundry room.
- What window coverings exist. Bare windows on a ground floor are a first-week emergency; blinds already fitted mean you skip an expensive line item.
- What the last tenants left. Student apartments turn over every May, and shared items are often abandoned in place. A working vacuum in a closet is worth asking about.
Ask the leasing office, and ask the outgoing tenants if you can reach them. Ten minutes here beats returning a duplicate microwave.
Buy this once for the whole apartment
Split the cost, and decide who fronts the money before anyone buys. These are the things that fail the "at the same time" test.
Kitchen
- Microwave (if not supplied), toaster, kettle or coffee maker
- One decent pan, one pot, one baking sheet, one colander
- Cutting board, sharp knife, can opener, bottle opener, measuring cup
- Dish rack, dish soap, sponges, dish towels
- Trash can and a recycling bin
Living and shared space
- Vacuum (one, and a cheap one is fine for nine months)
- Broom, dustpan, mop or floor wipes
- Router if the internet isn't included
- Surge protectors for the shared room
- Floor lamp or two, if the living room has no ceiling light
Bathroom (per bathroom, not per person)
- Shower curtain and liner
- Bath mat
- Toilet brush and a small trash can
- Toilet paper for week one, then whoever's turn it is
Cleaning
- All-purpose spray, bathroom cleaner, glass cleaner
- Paper towels, trash bags, laundry detergent if you share a machine
One rule that saves an argument in September: buy the shared consumables on a rotation, not a split. Somebody buys all of it this month, someone else buys all of it next month. Splitting a $6 bottle of dish soap four ways is more work than the soap is worth.
Buy this one per person
Everyone brings their own. Nobody needs to coordinate any of it.
- Bedding: sheets, pillow, duvet or comforter, one spare set of sheets. Check the mattress size in your unit before buying — student apartments are often full or queen, not the Twin XL you had in the dorm.
- Towels: two bath, one hand, one washcloth. More than that just means more laundry days.
- Chargers, extension cord, power strip for your own room.
- Laundry basket or bag, plus quarters or a laundry card if the building takes them.
- Your own plate, bowl, mug, glass, fork, knife and spoon — see the kitchen section below for why this beats one big shared set.
- A desk lamp, because the overhead light in a bedroom is nobody's friend at 11pm.
- Personal toiletries, medication, and a small first-aid kit of your own.
- A hamper you'll actually use. The floor is not a hamper, and in a shared apartment it becomes everyone's problem.
Buy this one per room
Cheap, easily forgotten, and each room genuinely needs its own.
- A trash can in every bedroom and every bathroom
- A door stop or draft stopper if the doors slam
- A small rug for each bedroom if the floors are hard
- Curtains or a blackout blind for each bedroom window
- One surge protector per bedroom
- A hook or two behind each door
The one worth spending on is the bedroom blackout curtain. In a student apartment your sleep schedule and your roommates' rarely match, and a room you can darken at 2pm is the difference between a nap and no nap.
The things nobody buys, because they belong to nobody
This is the list that gets discovered at the worst possible moment. Every item here fails both tests — it isn't personal, and it isn't tied to one room — so it never appears on anyone's mental list.
- A plunger. Buy it in August. The night you need one, no store is open and no roommate is happy.
- A drain hair catcher for each shower. Costs a few dollars and prevents both a clog and a plumbing charge.
- A basic tool kit — screwdriver, hammer, pliers, tape measure, Allen keys. Flat-pack furniture arrives eventually.
- Batteries in the sizes your smoke alarms take, and spare light bulbs.
- A first-aid kit for the apartment, separate from anyone's personal one.
- A fire extinguisher for the kitchen, and a check that every smoke alarm actually beeps when tested.
- A flashlight that isn't a phone.
- A step stool, if any of you needs to reach a smoke alarm or a high cupboard.
Assign these at lease signing, not on move-in day. Write one name next to each. That's the whole trick — the reason these get missed isn't that they're expensive, it's that nobody has been made responsible for them.
The deposit list: cheap things that stop charges in May
Worth doing early, because the charges these prevent all land at the end.
- Furniture pads under every chair and table leg. Scratched floors are one of the most common deductions and the fix costs a few dollars.
- A drain hair catcher in each shower (again — it earns its place on two lists).
- A shower liner, changed if it goes mouldy, so the wall behind stays dry.
- A tray under the sink for cleaning bottles, so a slow leak doesn't warp the cabinet base.
- Photos of every room the day you move in, timestamped, including existing marks and stains. This is free and it is the single most useful thing on this list.
Now the correction, because most college checklists get this wrong. They tell you to use adhesive hooks or lose your deposit. In fact landlords in all 50 states are prohibited from deducting for normal wear and tear, and that normally covers small nail holes from hanging pictures, minor carpet wear, faded paint and light scuffing. Landlords can deduct for unpaid rent, unpaid utilities, damage beyond normal wear and tear, and cleaning beyond it.
Two honest caveats before you reach for a hammer: your lease can set stricter terms than state law, and anchors, large holes and TV mounts are a different category from a picture nail. So adhesive hooks remain the sensible default in a place you share and didn't choose — but hang the thing you actually want to hang, and stop being scared of a nail.
Also worth knowing on the way out: most states give a landlord 14 to 45 days to return the deposit, with 30 days the most common — New York is 14, California 21, Texas 30, Virginia 45. Check your own state's deadline and diary it, because the clock starts when you hand back the keys.
Kitchen: the honest version for four people
The kitchen is where the shared-versus-personal split saves the most money and the most arguing.
Buy shared: the cooking equipment. One good pan beats four bad ones, and four people almost never cook at the same moment.
Buy personal: the eating equipment. One plate, one bowl, one mug, one glass and one set of cutlery each, and they are yours. This sounds petty and it is the single best decision on this page — a shared dish set means the sink is always full and nobody knows whose turn it is. When the plate in the sink is yours, the argument ends before it starts.
Skip until you've cooked in the place: the air fryer, the blender, the stand mixer, the twelve-piece knife set, the matching canister set. Buy them in October if you find you want them. Most of them never get used and all of them have to be moved in May.
One number worth knowing: four people, four of each eating item, is sixteen pieces total in the cupboard — which is less than a single shared "service for eight" set, costs less, and washes itself because everyone owns theirs.
What to skip until October
Everything here can wait until you've lived in the place for six weeks, and most of it you'll never buy.
- A second sofa or armchair. Sit in the room first. Student living rooms are usually smaller than the photos and the sofa that fit on paper blocks the only walkway.
- A dining table, if there's already a counter. Plenty of shared apartments eat standing up and at desks, and a table nobody uses is the hardest thing to get rid of in May.
- Anything matching. Matching furniture sets, matching bedding, matching storage — you're all leaving in nine months.
- Decor bought online before you've seen the walls. Colours, light and wall size all look different in person. Decorating a college apartment covers what actually works once you're in.
- Bulk anything, unless it's toilet paper. A 48-roll pack is the one bulk buy nobody regrets.
The move-out test: will you still want this in May?
Ask it of every item over about $40: who is driving this away in May?
A nine- or twelve-month lease means everything you buy in August is something you will move, store or throw away before summer. That changes the maths on furniture in particular. A cheap bulky sofa isn't cheap once you've paid to store it, or paid someone to take it, or lost your deposit because you left it in the parking lot.
Three practical answers:
- Buy the bulky things secondhand and locally. You'll sell them back to next year's students for close to what you paid, and the listing does the removal for you.
- Buy the small things new and cheap. They travel, they're yours, and they cost little either way.
- For anything shared and bulky, decide who keeps it before you buy it. Written down, in the same place as the rent split. This is the conversation that gets ugly in May precisely because it was never had in August.
If you're planning the timing of all this, our moving checklist timeline lays out the weeks in order.
Settle the money before the lease starts
The list is easy. The money is what goes wrong. Four things to agree in writing — a shared note is fine — before anyone buys anything:
- Who buys each shared item, one name per item, including everything on the nobody-buys-it list.
- How the shared costs get evened up. One person fronting everything and getting paid back is simpler than four people buying pieces, but only if the total is written down as it happens.
- The consumables rotation — who buys the paper towels, dish soap and trash bags each month.
- Who keeps each shared item in May, and whether the others get paid anything for it.
One more item that belongs on a college checklist and appears on almost none of them: renters insurance. It runs about $15 to $23 a month nationally — roughly $18 a month, or $216 a year, for a common policy with $30,000 of property cover, $100,000 of liability and a $500 deductible — and many insurers discount 5 to 15% if the place has working smoke alarms and deadbolts. For less than one takeaway a month it covers a laptop, a bike and the liability if a burst pipe from your unit reaches downstairs. Each person needs their own; it's on the personal list.
If this is your first place of any kind, our general first-apartment checklist covers the room-by-room version for someone setting up alone.
FAQ
What do I need for a college apartment that I didn't need in a dorm?
Everything the dorm supplied and the apartment doesn't: cooking equipment, cleaning supplies, a vacuum, trash cans, a shower curtain, and usually furniture beyond the bed. Check the lease first — on-campus apartment-style housing often still supplies a bed and a desk, while off-campus units are usually unfurnished.
Who should buy what in a shared apartment?
Sort by one question: can two people need it at the same time? Chargers, towels, bedding and eating dishes are personal. Cooking equipment, the vacuum, the cleaning supplies and the router are shared. Trash cans, curtains and surge protectors are one per room. Assign the leftover items — plunger, tool kit, first-aid kit, extinguisher — by name at lease signing.
What do people always forget to buy for a college apartment?
The items that belong to nobody: a plunger, a drain hair catcher, a basic tool kit, batteries and spare bulbs, a fire extinguisher, a flashlight and a first-aid kit for the apartment. They get missed because they aren't personal and they aren't tied to one room, so they never appear on anyone's list.
Will hanging pictures cost me my security deposit?
Usually not. Landlords in all 50 states are prohibited from deducting for normal wear and tear, which commonly includes small nail holes from hanging pictures, minor carpet wear and light scuffing. Two caveats: your lease can set stricter terms, and anchors, large holes and TV mounts are not in the same category. In a shared rental adhesive hooks are still the easy default.
How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit?
Most states set 14 to 45 days after move-out, and 30 days is the most common. New York is 14 days, California 21, Texas 30, Virginia 45. Check your own state, and take timestamped photos of every room on move-in day so you have your own record of what the place looked like.
What should I not buy for a college apartment?
Anything bulky bought new, anything matching, and any appliance you haven't yet missed — the air fryer, blender and stand mixer can all wait until October. The test for anything over about $40 is simple: who is driving it away in May?
