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Advice on keeping kosher

So, since I began converting, I’ve been trying to keep kosher. However, I’ve been realizing that for me, doing so is more complicated than I realized.

To start: I’m a 20 year old college student, and I live in a house with 4 roommates, all non-kosher. Now, I’ve done pretty well so far with most of kashrut. I went vegetarian, so for the most part none of the rules are an issue for me. The only real problem, however, is utensils. At the moment, I don’t own any pots or pans, I’ve been exclusively borrowing from my roommates ever since I started college. I do have some random things, mostly baking items like muffin tins or baking sheets. I do also have a number of small utensils like whisky and spatulas, but none of them are kosher.

Basically, in order to be truly, strictly kosher, I’d have to replace all of my utensils and buy new pots and pans. I’d be willing to do that, but then the new problem becomes: how do I keep them kosher if I share things like the kitchen sink and the oven with my non-kosher roommates? I can’t really institute any new house rules (we have enough roommate tension already, I can’t really be adding to it right now). We do have a stainless steel sink, so theoretically it could be koshered before I use it (though I’d have to learn how to properly do that). The oven, idk how to handle, though I’m not sure how common it actually is to keep that kosher, I’ve only seen it mentioned once in a random thread online.

So, what I’m really asking is: do y’all see a way that I could actually keep kosher in this situation? Even if I get all my own utensils, I’m not sure I can guarantee they’ll stay kosher and that my roommates won’t mistakenly use them. As much as I want to properly keep kosher, I’m not sure how invested I can be in making sure my whole kitchen is kosher what with my 4 non-kosher roommates also using it. I’m planning to live on my own next year if I have the money, so being strictly kosher then would be a heck of a lot simpler. Obviously, ideally, I would fully keep kosher now, but. Do y’all think maybe it’d be better to try to focus on adopting other mitzvot that don’t require so much physical upkeep and investment, and go back to keeping kosher once it’s more feasible? Or is keeping kosher more important?

Tl:dr – trying to keep kosher but struggling to do so because of non-kosher roommates. Any practical ways to work around this?

submitted by /u/transandpans
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Source: Reditt