Cheers to the student life. Photograph: Halfpoint Images/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Cheers to the student life. Photograph: Halfpoint Images/Getty Images University Guide 2027 Students Water your plants and get an eye mask: 48 life rules every student – and adult – needs to know If you’re a fresher, this may be the first time you’ve ever lived away from home. So how should you socialise, feed yourself and look after your health?
Zoe Williams Sun 20 Sep 2026 06.00 CEST Last modified on Sun 20 Sep 2026 06.01 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google Y ou don’t realise until you leave home just how idiosyncratic every family is, and how many of its customs are tacit, invisible, or maintained by someone else. Now you’re among people who emphatically aren’t related to you. How would you have any idea which of your practices were universal, and which common courtesies your upbringing had totally skipped? How do you even know how to keep your own body and soul together without the behind-the-scenes input of parents, who also have peculiarities of their own? Here’s a starter pack on how to function.
Anything with blood goes at the bottom of the fridge (although fridge-sharing between vegetarians and meat-eaters should be negotiated first thing).
Refrigeration is a game-changing technology but it doesn’t work if you just leave food near the fridge, even for a couple of hours. Likewise, nothing that’s been defrosted should be frozen again.
Don’t put a cooked chicken on a board that hasn’t been washed since it had a raw chicken on it. Likewise, without getting overanxious about it, exercise caution around all raw meat. Don’t cross-contaminate utensils (that is, use the same knife on raw chicken and then salad, without washing it).
Hopefully, you won’t have a dishwasher, as washing-up is a life skill. But if you do, don’t put anything with an electrical plug in it.
Don’t use a wet cloth to protect your hands when you take things out of the oven. Use an oven glove.
View image in fullscreen You can’t go wrong with a bolognese. Photograph: Evgeniya Moskova/Getty Images The eating bit
Something quick that has protein in it and is not toast. Suggestion: an omelette.
Something that is a full meal, covers protein and vegetables, and can be eaten over several days. Suggestion: bolognese or vegetarian chilli .
Something that you can scale up to feed two or four without bankrupting yourself or showing off. Suggestion: pesto pasta, but please always add broccoli right at the end – such a small price to pay to not get scurvy.
Something that you can make for others that is comforting and nobody can take against or be allergic to. Suggestion: risotto .
Something that you can just pour boiling water over, like a cup of tea, only it’s food. Suggestion: miso soup or soba noodles.
It is actually quite hard to integrate fruit and vegetables into your diet if you’re cooking for yourself but don’t want to spend a lot of time on it. They don’t just magic themselves into food. You should keep a stock of things you can mainline raw while you’re doing something else – carrots, apples, tomatoes, cucumbers.
Everything is edible with the right chilli sauce: harissa, Tabasco, piripiri, sriracha, or for special occasions Hungarian pista or crispy prawn chilli oil. Likewise, pickles: lime pickle, gherkins, jalapeños.
You will probably be about 40 before you can be trusted to spontaneously grate ginger. Pastes in jars or tubes are a cheap alternative: arr…