Cohousing-L Mailing List: mess in common house

[Hungerford, David (dghungerford]

Judy Baxter wrote:

>How do you deal with personal items (shoes, sweatshirts,...), toys, dirty 
>dishes and cutlery, left around in the common space?  In our experience, 
>these sometimes, but not always, belong to kids.  stuff belongs both to 
>residents and non-residents.  

We have a lost and found basket and a "give-aways" basket on a counter in one 
of the bathrooms.  If someone finds shoes/socks etc. in the Common House, 
they just dump them in L & F.  The weekend cleaners do the same.  
Periodically the items are laid out on a table in the dining room with the 
warning that charitable donation is imminent.  The unclaimed stuff then goes 
to the thrift store (task falls to those the baskets bother most).  This 
keeps the CH relatively uncluttered.

David Hungerford
Muir Commons Cohousing
Davis, CA  dghungerford [at] ucdavis.edu