Cohousing-L Mailing List: Washers & Dryers

[Janet Murphy (janetmusicrn]

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