Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Laundry machines--reducing damaging use of machines

[Philip Dowds (rphilipdowds]

Cornerstone Cohousing has five washer/dryer pairs — one pair located in each 
residential hallway of two different apartment-like buildings.  So these 
machines are not centralized in a common house basement, or other 
semi-unsupervised area.  Most apartments do not have privatized washer/dryers, 
and most of our 9 townhouses DO have their own washer/dryers, although in each 
case there are some exceptions.  When we opened up in 2001, most of the 
machines were donations from previous residences, but now, most are purchased 
new.

Each separate machine load gets logged into a book, and a quarterly usage fee 
is charged to each household.  Money collected from these fees is isolated in 
the accounting system, and used for repairs or replacements as needed.  At this 
point, I’d say we’re buying a new machine every year or so.  Thus far, the 
laundry fees collected have been doing a reasonable job of keeping up with 
maintenance and replacement, although the most recent evidence is that we could 
be falling behind a bit.  The machines show little or no signs of abuse; the 
problems are mostly those of ordinary wear and tear over the years.  No service 
technician has complained to us about improper use.

Thanks,
Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

> On Feb 24, 2018, at 8:16 AM, Catya Belfer <catya [at] pobox.com> wrote:
> 
> If anyone in MA has pointers on rental/leasing/commercial contracts, I'd
> love them!
> 
>     - cat, on Mosaic's Laundry room team
> 
> Catya Belfer   -  www.catya.org
> Technical Director   -   www.cohousing.org
> Cohousing in MA - www.mosaic-commons.org
> 
> On Wed, Feb 21, 2018 at 10:00 AM, Elizabeth Magill <pastorlizm [at] gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> The question of coin or card operated laundry machines brings up two
>> questions for me...
>> 
>> For those who rent laundry machines, do your machines break often,
>> does the rental company replace/fix them quickly, and do they complain
>> about the wear and tear on them?
>> 
>> And, for those who charge for washer and dryer usage, do you think
>> that improves the way people treat the machines?
>> 
>> At Mosaic Commons (in Berlin, MA) we have what feels like a large
>> number of repairs needed on machines we own, and each time the repair
>> person insists that our users are causing the damage by overfilling
>> them.
>> 
>> The rental option is intriguing to me.
>> 
>> --
>> -Liz
>> (The Rev.) Elizabeth M. Magill
>> Minister to the Affiliates, Ecclesia Ministries
>> www.ecclesiaministriesmission.org
>> www.mosaic-commons.org
>> 508-450-0431
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