Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Common House Laundry

[Cheryl Charis-Graves (ccharis]

Our laundry is in the basement, in a small, windowless area. It is the most
frequently used part of the common house and is certainly the least aesthetic.
If it were in a sunlit porch where we could watch the kids playing and look up
through the common green, that would be a vast improvement over what it is
now. It fosters interaction in that you see people coming and going (if you
live close to the common house, as I do), but it could be vastly improved if
it were located differently. I hate doing my laundry because I feel
claustrophic in that room (and, let's be truthful, I hate doing laundry). But
I like socializing, so if the two could be combined . . . ? I'd probably need
less underwear!

Cheryl Charis-Graves
Harmony Village in Golden, Colorado
where a double rainbow lit up the sky on the Solstice evening and we felt
doubly blessed

John Abrams wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> Quandry about laundry:  As we at Island Cohousing design our Common House,
> we would appreciate some comments about laundry.  Having seen many common
> houses with laundry in the cellar, we thought it would get better use, be
> more pleasant, be more accessible, and be more convenient if the laundry
> were on the main floor.  But now we're grappling with the issue of devoting
> such prime real estate, which is limited, to the laundry area when there
> are so many other competing needs.
>
> Can anyone comment on this?  Laundry in the cellar not so bad?  Important
> to be on main floor?  Why or why not?
>
> Thanks for your thoughts -
>
> John Abrams
> Island Cohousing and South Mountain Co., Inc.,
> Martha's Vineyard, MA, permits nearly in hand, site planning complete,
> house and common house design mid-stream, expecting to begin site
> development this fall.