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

[R.N. Johnson (cohoranda]

I would definitely put in a vote for the planning early option, as well as 
charging money for anything stored in common spaces. We decided to use the 
common house garage as temporary storage for three months and 4 years later are 
still trying to pry individual stuff out of the common house. Part of the 
problem is that people had to move other people's stuff to get to their own 
stuff, and things got jumbled. The other problem is that there is little 
incentive to clear your stuff out of the free common space, so people save 
things they probably wouldn't save if they had to pay even a token monthly 
fee.  We have managed to liberate half the garage for bicycle and tool storage.
Randa Johnson
New Brighton Cohousing
Aptos, CA