Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: personal storage in common house

[Diana Carroll (dianaecarroll]

I assume you mean large storage space for boxes, not a "cubby" in the CH.

We have both, though it was kind of accidental.  We had originally planned
to build our homes on slab, but the contours of the site actually required
4 of the buildings, containing 10 of the units, to be built on foundation,
ie: a basement.

What actually happened is too long a story for this venue (unless you
really want to hear it) but the end result is that some of that basement
space was purchased by the owners of the units above, and some of it
remains common space for community use.  One of those uses is for
individual storage.  Residents rent space by the square foot, at $.40 per
square foot per month.  (We came up with the price to be competitive with
nearby "self-storage" facilities.)  We discussed that some folks might like
to build cages or containers for their storage, but so far, no one has, we
just have taped off areas.

(Some of the space is used for a wood shop/work shop, and some is used for
community storage of building materials and such.)

For many of those folks without their own basements, this storage space is
very valuable.  In fact, we are trying to figure out what to do if more of
the basement space gets purchased/dedicated to other uses.  Another
building for storage?  Who knows.

I think all of us DID downsize our belongings significantly when we moved
here...most of us moved from larger homes into smaller ones.  Even so, our
homes ARE smaller than typical for family sizes in the area, and even the
streamlined lifestyle many of us aspire too requires A Place for Our Stuff.

Diana

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