Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Coin- or card-operated laundry machines at cohos?

[Beverly Jones Redekop (beverly.jones.redekop]

I also support not charging for laundry.  Everyone who uses the common
house contributes to its being a lively and interactive place.  People who
attend community meals use hot water for dishwashing, but a dishwashing fee
seems counter to the goals.

People who are willing to lug their laundry to the common house are making
a community-oriented effort, in my opinion.  It would be easiest to just
have a private washer and stay isolated at home, but it's nice to bump into
neighbours while doing mundane tasks.  I think the common house is meant to
be more than a party room or club house as found in conventional
condo/strata complexes.

I think a laundry fee is suitable if there is also a parking fee, dining
fee, mailroom fee, playroom fee, washroom fee, etc... I'm sure that our
beer-making club has a laundry-like level of consumption for the hot water
involved in brewing, and I also appreciate them for keeping the common
house occupied and lively.



On Tue, 20 Feb 2018 at 10:30 Katie Henry <katie-henry [at] att.net> wrote:

> At my former community, we leased our washers and dryers (three of each)
> from a company that provides laundry room equipment to apartment buildings.
> Maintenance and service is included in the lease fee, so you have a
> predictable monthly expense. The equipment they provide is larger and more
> durable than units meant for home use.
> Leased equipment normally comes equipped with coin slots or card readers,
> which is how the company collects its income, but we decided we didn't want
> to charge for use, so instead we negotiated a monthly lease fee. I don't
> know if you could retrofit payment equipment onto existing machines. Would
> an honor system work?
> Whether or not to charge for laundry equipment is something you'll need to
> work out within the community, just like for any other amenity that
> benefits some more than others.
> In my situation, I was glad we decided not to charge for laundry equipment
> because, as a single, child-free person, the laundry room was the only
> common house feature that directly benefited me. I was happy to contribute
> my share to building, furnishing, and maintaining our vast kid-focused
> facilities and other spaces I never used -- bike storage, workshop, craft
> room, guest rooms, etc. -- so it would have rankled for the community to
> make me pay for the one thing I actually did use.
> If you do decide to charge for laundry room usage and not for other
> amenities, you may be passing the expense to residents of small units with
> no room for a washer/dryer or residents who may not be able to afford their
> own equipment in favor of residents with plenty of space and money. Is that
> really how you want to structure things?
> Katie Henry
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://l.cohousing.org/info
>
>
>
>