Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cooking and cleaning

[Muriel Kranowski (murielk]

When we started having prepared meals in the CH, which I think was early in 
2004 (we started out in residence with no CH), it was extremely 
loosey-goosey. People signed up to cook as the mood struck them and no-one 
ever signed up to clean, although spaces for cleaners' names were provided 
on the sign-up sheet.  Many meals didn't happen for lack of cooks.  A very 
few people ended up doing most of the cleaning and after a while they 
became resentful about it.

We could see that our meals program had to change but were flailing around, 
until a bunch of us attended the National Coho Conference in Chapel Hill, 
which I think was in 2006.  We got some great ideas there and we agreed to 
try a new system, which we still use.

It's still pretty loose (no actual requirements) but it's way better 
organized.  Before the next 3-month rotation, the Meal Teams coordinator 
posts everyone's names on a sheet in the CH foyer showing the commitments 
we had made in the previous rotation as to how many times we will cook and 
how many times we will clean. She leaves it up for a few days so we can 
change our upcoming commitment level if we want to or need to.  This is to 
accommodate the fact that people's schedules and lives change and their 
availability to participate may wax and wane through the year.

Then she puts up the resulting commitments sheet and a 3-month meals 
calendar with spaces to sign up to head cook, co-cook, and clean. Some 
people state their commitment as "My fair share" of cooking and/or 
cleaning, meaning that the Meal Teams coordinator is authorized to put them 
down to fill empty slots for a "fair" number of slots; the rest of us sign 
ourselves up according to our agreed-on commitment.  We have a 
Sunday-evening prepared meal all but once a month that calls for 3 cooks 
and 4 cleaners, and a Wednesday potluck that calls for only 2 cleaners. One 
Sunday a month is a potluck meal instead of a prepared meal and that also 
calls for 2 cleaners.

I think the Meal Teams coordinator frets quite a bit about filling empty 
slots when there are a lot of them, and it can be hard to get enough head 
cooks, which isn't a fair-share assignable position. Nevertheless, I think 
this method has been pretty successful for a group that doesn't go for 
absolute requirements.

As far as the cleanup for the prepared meals, we all bus our own stuff to 
bins of soapy water that are set up on a kitchen passthrough counter, and 
we scrape our plates off into the provided container. The signed-up 
cleaners take it from there, using the commercial sanitizer. There are 
usually 30 to 40 diners, but on the exceptional occasions when there are 50 
to 60, a shoutout for help will produce a couple of ad-hoc extra cleaners.

For the Wed-night potlucks, there are typically 10 to 15 people, and the 
cleaners usually prefer to use the residential dishwasher. Diners bring 
their dishes into the kitchen, scrape them, and set them up next to the 
dishwasher for the cleaners to do the rest.

I have one gripe about our system.  Cleaner teams are supposed to finish by 
sweeping the dining room floor around the serving areas and the tables, 
especially where kids were eating, but often do not. After a meal the floor 
is often left looking, how shall I put it, disgusting. I'm not sure if this 
is from not knowing this expectation (it's included in the probably ignored 
Rules for Cleaners sheet that is on the fridge door) or just wanting to be 
done and go home. Is anyone assigned to sweep the floor after meals in 
other communities?

   Muriel
   Shadowlake Village Cohousing