Rediscovered joys of communal living
Monday, April 25, 2022 at 09:49PM 1980, freshly married, my beloved and I lived in a university college flat with one communal washing machine. We shared it with younger under-grads who were as thoughtless as most people are at that age; I couldn’t wait to be grown up enough to have our very own laundry with all the trappings.
When we moved into a house with all the bells and whistles, I was ecstatic. No waiting for the machine to be free, or cleaning up other people’s manky mess. No removing soft wads of lint from the dryer. Our own clothes line, just a few steps from the back door.
Ten years of towelling nappies followed, and we were doubly grateful for that old warrior of a machine, that we bought second hand when I was pregnant with our first. And even when we were done with nappies, the washing for a family of six was endless.
Now we have come full circle. On the cusp of retirement, we have downsized dramatically and reside in a modest apartment with shared laundry. Eight gleaming washers (no dryers, praise be) live in a communal laundry on the roof, where there are also an abundance of clothes lines, under cover but open to every breeze.
On the roof (where there is also grass, tables, barbeques, where our neighbours’ dogs frolic and we occasionally meet for drinks) we chat over the chores, putting me in mind of centuries of women (thankfully these days both genders are equally represented at the clothes lines) catching up as they scrubbed the bedding at the river side or collected water at the village well.
It works perfectly. I have rarely had to wait for either machine or line space and if I do, I’ve learnt that it’s no big deal.
I wonder if something else is happening here, not simply that we are at an age where we don’t have to launder so often. Could it be that people are learning that you don’t have to own everything you need? In a church we were involved with years back, there was an inventory of tools and equipment that families had that others could use whenever they needed – electric drills, wheelbarrows, trailers.
In a world almost destroyed by excessive consumption, massively overblown housing for some and none for others, the insatiable desire to possess, could the humble old communal laundry be pointing the way to a return to sharing things and facilities? As the old saying goes ‘live simply, so that others can simply live’.
Reader Comments (2)
Nice. Very nice, Clare.
When we lived in student accommodation in San Francisco we had a similar experience Clare. But it was not a communal laundry but other forms of sharing life. Meals, (Can we share your pasta if I bring a salad?) (Can you spare me two eggs} drinks each day at 5pm, (I called it sherry hour) child minding (I've got a class tonight can you mind the kids?) Our lives we intertwined in so many mutually helpful ways. When we came back to Australia I was homesick for communal living.