Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Washers & Dryers

[KAREN A CARLSON (kcarlson2]

What's "plus the kitchen"?

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 21, 2019, at 12:54 PM, Janet Murphy <janetmusicrn [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> Gee, we like to talk about laundry devices!
> At Arboretum Cohousing we have two laundry rooms, each with two washers and
> two dryers. They are regular household appliances. Two are slightly
> oversized which is well-liked. We have just started replacing them after 10
> years.
> The W&Ds are used by roughly half of our 29 "apartment-style" units, and a
> small handful of our other 11 units that sit independently of the two
> "apartment" buildings, so perhaps 20 families (that's one W&D set per five
> households, plus the kitchen). We have a laminated card system (dryer, no
> dryer) that helps us move our neighbors' laundry along so we don't have to
> wait for the laundry's owner to do it. Only occasionally am I unable to put
> my laundry right in.
> Proximity to laundry does encourage folks to use it, so one set on each
> floor would be nice. On the other hand, it is also nice to have two of each
> machine in one room so you can do two loads in half the time. This is a
> wonderful benefit I didn't anticipate, and especially nice for families.
> Larger laundry rooms are also nice for storage (soap, iron, lost socks,
> broom, drying rack...). We did install a closet and folding counters, but
> wish we had also installed utility sinks.
> People are pretty good stewards of the rooms and machines. The only issues
> I recall were a neighbor who used cloth diapers (frequent, *very* long
> loads), and an avid outdoors woman who put in laundry that was too dirty.
> Talking with neighbors takes care of problems like these.
> We don't charge for laundry or any of our collective amenities (guest
> rooms, garden space, room use, bike share, grazing garden...). We figure it
> all evens out, and charging reduces the use of the Commons, which we want
> to encourage for both social and environmental reasons.
> Murph
> @ Arbco
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