Cohousing-L Mailing List: Equipment -- Care Taking and Storage

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

(This is an FYI piece going into the blog on Cohousing.org. Not in response to 
a current question.)

Communities designing their common houses often ask about what they will need. 
What do people really use? What kind of storage is needed and what will go in 
it? Is an office necessary and for what? They don’t know about storage for 8 
snow shovels or 6 different kinds of brooms and mops.

When our water bills doubled at Takoma Village, we realized that in less than 6 
years our population had doubled in size. And it has continued to grow as 
households expand from one to two and three and four people. That expansion 
means more people donating equipment and more money to buy it — an up-scale 
gas-fired outdoor grill, a freestanding basketball hoop, a sun canopy for those 
grilling at BBQs, etc. 

All well and good, but the big picture is the increase in care taking tasks and 
in the need for storage. Who is responsible for ensuring that the cover is on 
the grill and the gas canisters are full? Who ensures that the sun canopy is 
folded correctly so it can be stored in its case without being damaged? 

In the third year we lived here, a resident wanted to make a donation in memory 
of her son. The community chose a freestanding basketball hoop. A place was 
found for it in the parking lot. But she didn’t play basketball and it never 
had an identified caretaker. It was used regularly when there were teenagers 
and parents who played there. But that age group cycled through, and it was 
taken care of only intermittently. It was hit by trucks and generally left to 
rust. After 14 years it barely stands.

 It needed to be kept in good repair—used or not, for future residents. 

When most of the under-six children had grown out of the playroom or moved 
away, there was a push to restock it for older children. Booster seats and 
toddler toys went to the thrift shop. Books were replaced at elementary school 
level and above. Many more things, like dress up clothes, were on the chopping 
block. But a year or so later we had babies and toddlers again who quickly 
needed those booster seats and we had to buy highchairs. There were no dolls. 
The learning to walk toys were gone.

We have always had a person in charge of the playroom, but we hadn’t thought 
about the rooms being used in cycles — the toddlers coming in waves. Some 
thought they were gone. We needed the room to be kept intact and cared for when 
few children were playing there just as it was when it was too crowded. It is a 
facility that is as necessary as the laundry room.

Along with each piece equipment comes the need for storage. When people wanted 
to purchase a large gas grill, the question was not will anyone really use it, 
but where will it be stored? Indoor storage was impossible because moving it in 
and out of the basement would be too cumbersome, and it did have canisters of 
gas attached to it. Where outdoors? If in a grassy area it would be difficult 
to move to the piazza where our old one was most often used. Would anyone use 
it beside the garden with the compost on the other side of a not-very-tall 
wall? It was too large to leave in the piazza all the time. And for BBQs too 
smokey and hot when used for hours.

We finally found a good place and a person to care for it. Then she left one 
early spring when no one was thinking about the grill or who would ensure that 
it was used properly and cared for.

Now, before every common house purchase, we have someone who takes 
responsibility for it and a place to store it. It isn’t as organized as that 
sounds but voices are there asking the questions and they are more likely to be 
addressed before something is acquired.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org