Hostel Guide: How To Use A Shared Kitchen Without Being A Jerk

Sharing spaces with strangers can be confusing if you’ve never had to do it before, and adding the stress of travel on top of it means a lot of new travelers end up doing things that cause stress to themselves and other guests. I’ve noticed specifically that a lot of people don’t know how to share a common kitchen area in a hostel or coliving space.

This post is full of tips and guidance from my own travels and stays in many, many hostels over the years. Admittedly I do get very annoyed by people misusing shared space, though some of it might be cultural differences I think the majority of people just don’t consider that a shared kitchen is NOT, in fact, their own personal kitchen where they can do whatever. So I put together this post!

Some of this might be obvious, but it’s good to have the basic stuff explained so everyone’s on the same page.

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Shelves for guests to keep their dry foods, HI New York City Hostel.

What's In This Post

1. Keep your stuff contained to a specific area.

Hostel kitchens usually have spaces set aside for guests to store their food. The better ones will assign shelves and/or fridge space to a specific room or bed, but otherwise you just have to find an empty space and do the best the can.

What I recommend doing is looking at how much space you have BEFORE you go grocery shopping. You don’t want to buy a ton of vegetables or frozen things and then not have space for it.

Also keep in mind that you’re sharing this space with other people, perhaps even people who haven’t checked in yet, so you shouldn’t take up ALL the available space. I saw a guy once buy a huge tub of mushrooms and other veg, and use every shelf for his own groceries. With 10+ people also wanting to use the kitchen, we were shit outta luck until he cooked his food.

Please be considerate of the space provided not only for YOUR use, but for other people, as well.

2. Mark what’s yours, and throw out the old stuff.

Once you find a place to put your things, put your name, bed/room number and the date you’re checking on on it. There’s usually a little sticker sheet you can use to do this.

It’s typical that people forget stuff in the fridge and then check out, leaving it behind, so the sticker helps staff know whose stuff is whose and what needs to be tossed. Whether they get to it on time or not is up to scheduling, but generally you shouldn’t be leaving your trash for others to pick up.

If you’re in a hostel for a while, be sure to keep an eye on your stuff and throw out whatever’s empty or gone bad.

Part of the kitchen in Yeha Guesthouse, Jeju City, Jeju Island, South Korea.

3. Don’t touch other people’s stuff (unless they say it’s okay).

So there’s two aspects to this: unlabeled food, and moving labeled food to make room.

If you find unlabeled food somewhere, that doesn’t mean it’s up for grabs.

Hostels usually have a shared shelf where guests can put things they either don’t need any longer, or that all guests can use (like spices). Those are okay to take. But random things on other shelves are a no-go. Would you want someone taking YOUR food just because you forgot to put a sticker on it? No way!

Also, if you find old things in the fridge, let the staff know before you toss anything. You don’t want to be accused to stealing someone’s stuff, even if that stuff is rotten.

And the other thing is moving people’s food to make room for your food. Generally I think this is okay IF you make sure to do the following:

Whatever you move is moved to a nearby space and not in an entirely different cabinet or fridge.
You move it to the same storage kind as before, so fridge-fridge or shelf-shelf, not take things out of the fridge and leave on the shelf.
You move the food in such a way that the container it’s in stays shut and in one piece.

This’ll keep other guests from scrambling to find their food that mysteriously disappeared. Or, say, the lid’s been knocked off and someone else’s soda dripped into an otherwise good box of leftover Chinese food… (speaking from experience).

4. Shared meals are a great way to get to know people.

This is one of the most fun things you can do in a hostel kitchen!

Not only do you get to eat good food but you get to make a bunch of new friends, too. And it’s a great way to try local food items that you might be unsure of, like interesting vegetables or fruits that you’ve never had before.

When I stayed in Yeha Hostel in Jeju City, me and my new hostel friends had a few dinners together. It wasn’t anything super fancy, but we each got something interesting at the grocery store (soups, fruits, etc.) and then shared it with the others. It was delicious AND fun!

Related: Jeju Island Travel Guide

Teeny tiny kitchenette in Holy Sheet Hostel, Bangkok, Thailand.

5. Clean pans and shared kitchen instruments ASAP.

Basically, the stuff that people need to use needs to be cleaned right away. This is especially important in kitchens that don’t have a ton of different pots/pans/utensils, or very tiny spaces. You might be done cooking your meal, but the person coming behind you needs the pan that you just used and it’s not their job to clean it.

Hostels generally don’t have staff standing by to wash dirty dishes, either, so after your meal you’ll have to clean all your plates and stuff. Do it before you leave the kitchen, and don’t let it pile up in the shared sink, okay?

6. What’s that smell?

Different cultures have different food smells, and some meals are smellier than others. If you have a sensitive nose, so might the other people in the hostel. You might want to refrain from making certain foods in the shared kitchen, especially if they’re the kind where smell lingers.

Some local foods have intense smells, too. For instance, if you’re in Southeast Asia, durian is banned from nearly all hostels because of its smell, and if you bring it in the staff will know immediately and make you throw it out.

Hostel kitchen in Vientiane, Laos. Only one induction cooker, see.

7. Everyone wants to cook at the same time.

That means the kitchen will be busy at breakfast, lunch and dinner times.

Don’t hog the kitchen resources and cook something that takes an hour or more to make when it’s 6pm and everyone wants to cook; let other people have a chance to cook their stuff, too. That means you’ll have to temporarily make more simple foods, or use more instant/microwaveable elements if possible.

Mostly I see this happening with people who want to make homemade soups, chowders, curries, etc. that need to simmer for a long time and use multiple burners to make. If you want to make that, do it during a quieter time of the day and stash it for reheating later on.

8. Basic food storage safety is important.

Don’t leave open containers of food in the fridge! It’s just gross, and you never know what could fall in there when you’re not around. People move things all the time and spills happen more often than you think.

Be sure to also fridge things that need fridgeing, and don’t try to keep refrigerated items in the cabinet (ew).

If you’re cutting raw meat, use a plastic cutting board and wipe any juices from the counter. That sort of stuff, okay?

Shared kitchen in Blackpool coliving house. Everyone had an assigned cabinet and fridge shelf, which helped a lot.

9. You can talk to people in the kitchen! It’s okay!

The kitchen is actually a GREAT place to meet other travelers and hang out, especially during breakfast. Say hi, ask how they’re doing and what their plans are, and have a nice conversation over a meal.

Talking to people in the kitchen is expected and encouraged.

10. You might want to bring these things with you.

Sometimes hostel kitchens aren’t well-stocked in certain things, so I recommend bringing a few items with you (or buying them at your destination) if you’re planning on doing a lot of cooking.

sponge and washing-up gloves
reusable container with a lide
clips or rubber bands to close bags
your own spork

I’ve been in some nice hostels that have disgusting kitchens, so I’m always glad to have some of my own stuff. The sponge is especially nice because you know it’s clean and still has a good scrubber.

Final Thoughts: Hostel Kitchens

Hostels are a wonderful way to meet other travelers and save money on accommodation, and I highly recommend staying at them. That said, you need to be willing to share space with strangers– and to do your best to accommodate space for those strangers as well. Keep things clean, store your food properly, and say Hi the next time you and a fellow guest run into each other at the coffee maker.