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A Collective House is about shared living:

  • it is neither a commune, co-housing, nor a co-rental place but a type of loose intentional community
  • it is a creative response to extremely high urban real estate prices and monthly rental fees
  • it keeps rents low and cost of living low while increasing sense of community
  • it is a return to normal tribal way of living (before modern nuclear and partial-nuclear family living)
  • it is usually composed of interesting housemates doing very interesting projects
  • it is not suitable for those who just want to save money; the community aspect is essential.

Ways to start or join a Collective House

  • gather a group; do some visioning ~ 3 month, craigslist potential housemates, more visioning, and let things coalesce
  • to find available spots in collective houses: craigslist keyword "collective" in the "housing" section

Typical Rules

  • every one has to participate in household chores (it keeps the place democratic)
  • rules are kept to a bare minimum and reviewed regularly for appropriate tweaking
  • establishing mission statements and common lifestyle goals is good (some do) but optional (some don't)
  • long term commitments, although good, are not mandatory nor enforced
  • one of the biggest collective decisions to make is to pick a foodstyle for shared meals
  • many houses end up choosing Vegan as the foodstyle all can agree to live with (housemates can supplement privately)
  • many houses agree on some degree of kitchen permaculture
  • it is important to accept that sometimes a housemate leaves and a new one come in
  • it is important to accept that some housemates are "deep cleaners" and others not (must enforce only agreed minimum cleaning requirements)

External links

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Authors Bruno Vernier
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Language English (en)
Translations Turkish, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish
Related 7 subpages, 12 pages link here
Impact 2,809 page views
Created April 21, 2010 by Bruno Vernier
Modified February 11, 2023 by Irene Delgado
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