While it's true that living in a co-living space comes with numerous benefits - like having a community of friends, not worrying about your roomies not paying their share of the bills, not worrying about who will do the cleaning next week, among other advantages - it's also true that we all have a bit to learn about how to best share the spaces we live in with a unique group of people with their own tastes and interests.
The good news is that it's not hard to maintain good vibes and harmony in your shared space! Here are 5 tips to achieve it.
- Plan your meals before you pack your pantry.
How often do you buy food that ends up at the bottom of the fridge looking like sticky ghostbusters? This can be easily avoided if you plan what you are going to cook before buying food that you are not really going to use. There are hundreds of pages with tasty and practical recipes that can help you plan your next feast without overspending and wasting food.
- Use your luggage to your advantage
You are not using your luggage to full if you're not storing your out-of-season clothes and items that you don't wear as much but still hold space in your heart and don't want to get rid of. With limited storage space, your luggage represents your best ally.
- Keep common areas free of personal items
It is very tempting to arrive, take off your shoes and jacket and leave them in the living room, you will only rest for 5 minutes and then you can pick them up or leave your work material on the table the night before because early in the morning you are going to set it up to leave for school or work. However, when you live in a house where there are a variety of arrival times, departure times, meal times, etc., you never really know when someone else will need to use the pots, the kitchen or the table. To put it simply, if you are not present in the common spaces, your belongings should not be either.
- Performs group cleaning once a month.
While it is true that in most co-loving spaces cleaning is done on a regular basis; it is also true that the support staff does not touch the personal belongings of the inhabitants. Therefore, if there is expired food in tuppers, empty boxes of cereal, tea or coffee, broken-down items and appliances belonging to the inhabitants, etc., the cleaning staff will not get rid of it. This is why it is a good practice that, at least once a month, they get together to sort and clean the house and get rid of things that are no longer in use and just take up space.
- Respect your roommates
No one likes to come home hungry after a long day at work only to find the kitchen dirty, the pans dirty and piled in the sink and the table full of used dishes and realize that, before they can make dinner, they're going to have to wash and clean up to make it; or get up in the morning rushing to take a bath and find a pile of dirty clothes on the floor. If you respect your roommates' right to live cleanly and comfortably in their own home, chances are they will respect your right in return.
One of the great advantages of co-living is the community we form among all of us, so respecting each other makes the experience of sharing something pleasant.
