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

[Mariana Almeida (missmgrrl]

Hi Bob, 
We have a tally system - per load. I wouldn't recommend it due to the 
accounting. We have someone who does the accounting, but it seems silly to me 
to be that precise. Also, does everyone remember to jot down their washes? 
Seems implausible.

Instead, just charge a "per user" charge. So a household of 4 would be charged 
the same as 4 individuals. 
I might propose a high utilizer vs. low utilizer diffential. It seems that 
little kids, and teens in sports teams generate more laundry than the average 
mostly-sedentary adult. 
The key seems to be to set a reasonable rate for each load.... I think ours is 
.50 or .75 per load. Just figure out how much you need to spend to 
repair/replace and to run them and divide by number of washes. I'm sure it will 
come out cheaper than laundromats.
We have machines that seem to be abused and break down often. Buying a service 
contract has been key. 

Mariana
 Berkeley Cohousing
    On Tuesday, February 20, 2018, 6:49:58 AM PST, Bob Morrison via Cohousing-L 
<cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:  
 
   A ,modern washer is a high-tech machine that breaks easily if abused and can 
be very expensive to fix. Due to this, the capital and operating costs of a 
laundry room are much higher than 10 years ago. If some people in a coho have 
their own washer and dryer, they might not want to bear a share of the cost of 
the laundry room. Having coin- or card-operated machines would solve this 
problem. Do any cohos have them?

Bob Morrison
Mosaic Commons Cohousing
Berlin, MA
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