Guys, I have some great news! I’m finally moving into my VERY OWN apartment in a month! This won’t be my first apartment (shout out college apartment!), but this will be my first apartment with my husband, and most excitingly, *MY* first kitchen! So, in planning, I’ve made a list of my apartment kitchen essentials, and I thought I’d share it with you guys!
So I will break it down to a couple of categories that you can skip to if you’d like! You don’t need ALL of these, but rather what you think you will need. Not a baker, maybe skip a couple of the bake sets, it’s completely fine! But hopefully, this will give you an idea of the kind of things you want to decorate your kitchen along with!
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Serving tools for you and your guests!
You’re going to want to make sure you have beautiful dishes and serving tools for you and your guests whenever you’re eating. I love a good dinnerware set. This all-inclusive pack allows you to have a whole matching set, from silverware, cups, and dishes. Some include just a collection of the mentioned, and some include all the above!
Baking and cookware!
The pride and joy of MY kitchen! These are the tools that I love investing in and in making sure I have a variety of (because more than one may be used at one time – no lie). This includes everything from fry pans (with lids *very important*), saucepans, deep fryers, grill pans, baking trays with a cooling rack, and any baking trays for bread, cakes, and muffins! I also, as a food photographer, I love a beautiful set that I can use for photography, but it also makes me feel so wonderful when I see my beautiful dish in a beautiful dish (hah get it).
Also, I cannot stress how helpful a cooling rack is! Skip a burn mark by letting your goodies cool down with a cooling rack. This is definitely a good kitchen essential for your apartment! Check out my chocolate Crème Brûlée recipe here!
Kitchen tools to run your kitchen!
Ok, so when it comes to kitchen tools, there are a couple of different things that are important for you to have as a kitchen essential for your apartment!
- Knife set: you need the sharpest tools (but find some kid-friendly or clumsy friendly if needed), but nothing is worse than dull knives or not having the knife you need!
- Cutting boards: Wood cutting boards, I think about two or three different sizes would be perfect for your kitchen essential list. Use it functionally or decoratively, but either way, they will uplift your cooking!
- Kitchen utensils: tools such as whisks, spatulas, tongs, ladles, and wooden spoons will help you in your cooking time in various forms.
- Measuring cups and spoons: Unless you’re a magician, you may need help with how to accurately add an ingredient without going overboard.
- Peelers and graters: cut up your veggies, or cheese, or whatever else you can cut up in like two seconds!
- Colander: SO IMPORTANT, I literally cannot live without mine. So useful for not only pasta, but also when I want to drain out water from salads, and more.
- Pizza cutter: Knives will not cut it!
- Oven mitts: Stay safe! So safe! My best friends got us such a cute set from Anthropologie, but you can find good ones too on amazon!
Appliances to invest in!
Appliances make cooking and baking and even cleaning a lot easier and faster for you! They can be costly, but if you find a well-reviewed appliance that you know you’ll get a lot of use out of, get it! A few that I highly recommend and have saved my butt a few times are:
- Coffee maker: Ok so, my husband has a Keurig and I never had one before! I am so excited about this and I cannot wait to steal it from him and throw out my days of making too much of a pot of coffee or spending $$$ for coffee.
- Tea kettle: I drink a lot of tea, it’s a Somali staple. So for my kitchen essential, a tea kettle was high on my list. I prefer the traditional kettles because I use loose leaf teas and herbs, but if you are a fan of teabags or even other uses for hot boiling water, try an electric kettle!
- Toaster/Toaster oven: I know you love crispy bread, so I agree, this should be you’re a kitchen essential for your apartment!
- Blender/Hand blender: Remember when people used to give blenders as wedding gifts? Well as my registry is live, I am hoping so much that someone sends me a blender because I don’t think a week goes by without me needing to blend down a sauce, make hollandaise sauce for at-home brunches, or even smoothies galore!
- Mixer: Just like a blender, this is a necessity for all your baking needs!
- Food processor: I just put this on my list because I never had it at my old home. It was such a loss! So many times I wanted to quickly chop stuff up and this is a perfect help!
- Slow cooker or instapot: Need to slowly cook something so its so tender and savory? Or want to do that quickly? This is a live saver for so many to the point that there are whole cookbooks based on these!
- Microwave: Yeah, some apartments don’t come with this IMPORTANT asset, but no fear, you can invest in one!
- Milk frother: My favorite mini appliance! I love topping off my coffee with delicious milk foam to make it a latte!
- Air fryer: Two of my favorite vloggers, Chinutay and Aysha Harun, have been creating daily vlogs for the month of Ramadan (and cooking in each vlog, YUM). And almost every episode they always use an air fryer and by day three, I’ve just been convinced that I need this kitchen essential for my apartment! Such a quick and healthy alternative that I will buy within minutes of moving in!
- Water filter: I don’t know what kind of water you are provided with, but it’s always good to have clean water!
Hide things away with storage!
If you’re anything like me, you were taught how to cook for a family of 7 and not for you and your husband only. So as my measurements will forever be off, I know that storage for leftovers will be my best friend! This is a TOP essential for someone who doesn’t like to waste, or even just likes to hide away all the extra goodie they don’t want to be shamed for.
- Glass storage containers: Not to sound snobby but, glass is better than plastic (for environment duh) because it won’t melt in the microwave but you love your food piping hot. But also, it is good for the environment and cleans a lot faster!
- Reusable mason jars: As someone who loves making soups and small add-ons for my meals! Also technically all mason jars are reusable depending on how you clean it!
- Oxo pop container: HELLO, this (no lie) was the top of my list for my kitchen essentials for my apartment. I saw this everywhere, and it wasn’t until my friend’s house and saw how well she was able to organize her pantry and save space! You already know I have bought this.
- Coffee and tea organizer: It’s not cute to keep your tea bags or K- cups lying all over the place so, the smart thing to do is buy a nifty organizer!
Clean up with linens!
You need dish towels, dishcloths, and all the dish linens you didn’t think you needed because when a spill comes, or a stack of dishes need to be dried, do it – but cute!
Bonus: Decorations!
I know you want a cute kitchen after furnishing all these amazingly useful tools! Scout out for paintings, rugs, and upgrade things as you feel as must just to keep it fresh and unique to you! I love adding plants (especially herbs I need to use for cooking) and can’t recommend it enough. If you’re not a fan of your kitchen counters or backsplash, you can even upgrade those with contact paper blacksplash!
Well, that’s it! I hope this list has been able to help you create your list of things you’ll need, and find some good stuff on the list! Let me know what other kitchen essentials you have for your apartment!
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