Hey everybody, while I'm not starting a commune per se, I'm going to be in a group living situation. It'll be me and three other roommates, and its hopefully going to be a permanent thing. What I was wondering, is if anybody could share their methods of keeping the peace. What I mean is things like, what happens for grocery shopping, what are some of the best ways to communicate, etc. Any advice/wisdom/suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thank you!
first off I'll say have a good discussion before moving in about the rules, acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior. once that is settled the rest should just be good communication. for food there is a few ways of doing it, everyone splits the bill or everyone fends for themselves. the fending for themselves doesn't always work since someone always ends up eating other peoples food, hopefully replacing it with food or money... I found that just telling people directly but sensitively what the problems were worked some of the time, the rest of the time I have to treat my roomates like 6 year olds to get them to clean up after themselves. hope some of this has helped, from someone who took in someone from the forums and a friend and is looking forward to the day they(or at least one of them) leaves...
My only suggestion is TALK, talk, talk and talk. Talking is the only way I see these things working out. Make sure people don't harbor things instead of talking about them.
Thanks. We laid out a few house rules, I think that'd help a lot, and we decided that everybody would have a shelf in the fridge and cupboard and they supply themselves with their own food. Any ideas on what to do with group meals? That's the only thing we're a bit stuck on. one friend says we should take turns, but i'm a bit afraid of one person becoming a doormat and using their food all the time for the meals.
when we have meetings for the society we all go to the store together and buy food for the meal, everyone has input. then we split the costs/each pitch in and any leftover money goes to help buy the next group meal/treats.
