Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: wisdom wanted on common house kitchen cabinets

[Elizabeth Stevenson (tamgoddess]

We've had open shelves since we moved in, and I don't think there's ever
been any discontent with them. I think having to open and close doors would
be very noisy during the whole meal process. Glass doors seem to me to be
the worst of both worlds: opening and closing doors all the time, plus you
see the clutter anyway. Also, they need to be cleaned a lot. Don't
overestimate the amount of work people want to do in the kitchen. You want
to make it easier, not harder.

I don't think that signs help much-people ignore them anyway. There just has
to be reorganization on a regular basis anyway.

I would point out that Sharon's CH and mine are different in one important
way: we've been here much longer. Not to discount her ideas. It's important
to remember there are no one-size-fits-all answers in cohousing. But I would
expect that no matter what the system, it takes awhile for everyone to
remember where everything goes.

-- 
Liz Stevenson
Southside Park Cohousing
Sacramento, California
lilbert [at] comcast.net


> From: Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com>
> 
> On Dec 8, 2003, at 1:14 PM, Ellen Orleans wrote:
> 
>> In our common house, we are considering glass doors on our upper
>> cabinets in the common house kitchen. The idea is to keep the contents
>> clean while providing visibility as to what is in the cabinet without
>> having to open doors.
> 
> We took the doors off our upper cabinets in the theory that people
> could find things more easily. What we got was not only open messy
> shelves but they ALSO have pasted on labels of what is supposed to be
> on the shelves. Glass doors would be very nice but if your members are
> like ours they will still put up labels and signs and the shelves, even
> when organized, will  look messy. Some of our members are regretting
> our open kitchen for this reason.
> 
> I'm planning to do a floor plan of the kitchen tomorrow in hopes that
> it will help locate things more quickly than going around reading
> labels, try to get the doors put back on, and get label holders so we
> can get rid of the dirty goo that builds up from tape and adhesive.
> 
> Sharon
> -----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org

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