Could cohousing be for you?
Joining a cohousing community is to join a community of people with an intention to live collaboratively, and to share space, time and many resources. It’s a big decision - a bit like getting married! There can be great rewards, but it’s not all roses. Do explore your expectations of living in community and check them out.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- Would you like to live somewhere where you know, share values with and work and socialise with your neighbours?
- Do you want to live in a self-contained private home while also sharing living, cooking, dining and outdoor spaces with your neighbours?
- Would you like to benefit from the ecological and financial advantages of sharing some
facilities (eg laundry, guest rooms) with other households? - Would you like to know that children can play outdoors in a car-free environment?
- Would you like to cook and eat shared vegetarian or vegan meals on a regular basis?
And some more searching questions:
- What are your expectations of community life? Are they realistic? What would you enjoy about living in community? What would you find challenging?
- What challenges do you feel you would face around working collaboratively and sharing time, space and resources?
- Are you willing to take part in the (sometimes lengthy) decision making process and to be committed to finding solutions that everyone can live with and work for the good of the community as a whole, even if they are not necessarily the best for you personally?
- Could your travel needs be met by the car club? (See the document ‘everyday travel at Forgebank’ for more info on that).
- What contribution will you bring to the community?
- Are you willing to join a Service Team and contribute 10 hours’ work a month to keep the community running smoothly?
- Are you willing to contribute to cooking communal meals and cleaning the communal areas?
Community networker & group process consultant Laird Schaub lists a set of cooperative skills which he suggests are necessary for living with diverse people in community settings, and we recommend that you consider whether you have these skills. You can see this list here along with two more added by ourselves and a link to Laird’s blog about these issues.
After considering these questions, if you think that Lancaster Cohousing may be for you, read the following sections and the information on the rest of the site. Do some research about cohousing, and read the links at the end of the section on Cohousing as a way of living.
Then book on a tour, start to get to know us and check out your assumptions by talking to the residents!
