Chore Extraveganza!

Hi Team! Deep thinking of chores is under way!

Here is a current list of all our CM chores as i know them (newly added mail getting and cheese making), as well as an estimated time they take per week (in hours) and a short description. Note that they have been divided up into categories (like cleaning, waste management…etc.) in hopes of creating more support and accountability around getting them done. With these estimations, we have about 28.75 hours a week total for chores. Divided by 17 (including when Jeff and Mistique move in) that averages to about 1.7 hours per week per person. Not bad eh? I would love to revisit chores and see where we are at time-wise and if we can we get everyone to about 1.5 to 2 hours!

PLEASE: Let me know if hours need changing, chores are missing, or other blaring omissions in the descriptions. Bonsai – your humanure chore was the only one that I have no idea how long it takes. I know you usually do it in one big hunk. Do you have a weekly estimate? I guessed one.

Waste Removal:

Trash/recycling – 1hr
*Collect trash and recycling in bins and from porch/trash area, bring to top of driveway every Wednesday. Trash is every other week, recycling is every week. Return bins after they have been emptied. Tidy trash area.
Far West – .75hr
*Far West Fibers is on 4930 SE 26th Avenue. Collect all items suitable to go to there (Hard plastics, Styrofoam, metal, electronics..etc.) , take them there, then sort them into the appropriate bins.
Kitchen Compost – .5hr
*Track fullness of kitchen compost empty regularly, rinse the container and return to kitchen.
Humanure – 1?? needs description

Cleaning:

Bathroom – .5hr
*Clean inside and outside of toilet; wipe counters, sink and mirror; sweep floor; remove any clutter; empty trash bin; clean shower
Community Room – .5
*Remove clutter, general tidy, dust, sweep floor, vacuum carpet
Micro Trash – .25
*Scan outside area, especially village green for bits of trash. Dispose accordingly.
Laundry Room – .25
*Track untended loads, remind people to move their stuff or remove it for them. Sweep and tidy.
Big Fridge – .5
*Remove all the things from the big fridge, dispose as appropriate. Wipe down inside. Return unspoiled items in an organized fasion.
CM Office – .5
*Remove clutter and dishes, clear surfaces, dust, sweep and vacuum. Lots of opportunities for organization!
Kitchen Laundry – .5
*Wash, dry and fold basket of kitchen laundry once a week.
Shoe Room – .25
*Organize shoe rack, sweep, remove clutter.
Surfaces – .5
*Keep surfaces in the hearth clean and clutter free

Food:

Sorceresses (2) – 1-3
*Track what food we need. Refill and organize bulk containers and food pantries as needed, place food orders weekly, pick up said orders and put the food away.
Tea/Spices – .5
*Track what tea/spices we need. Keep tea and spices full and organized. Place a bulk order monthly.
Cheese Making – 1
*Make cheese with goat milk. Needs training.

Accounting:

Receipts (2) – 1-1.5
*Collect receipts from envelopes and enter them accordingly. Needs to be trained.
Bill wrangler – .25
*Track who is more than one month late on their capitol contribution and remind them to pay/work out a payment plan together. Report to community with progress.
Car Bills – .25
*Collect receipts from cars and enter them into spreadsheets. Needs to be trained.
Bill Processor – 2
*Collect capital contributions and hearth pledges monthly, make sure they get deposited promptly, reconcile bills. Needs to be trained.

Maintenance/Repair:

Yurt Tending – .25
*General tidying and clutter removal. Track needed repairs.
Car Repair – 2
*Fix the cars when they break or figure out someone else to fix them.
Car Tending – .5
*Clean out car of junk regularly, vacuum as needed, get oil changes, minor repairs, keep car log stocked with new pages.
Kindling – 1
*Track kindling needs in the hearth, cut as needed.
Handy Persons (2) – 3
*Be available to take requests for things that need fixing, fix what you are able and get help fixing what you cannot. Can hire people to help when all other avenues have been tried.
Barn – .5
*Keep tools organized, sweep floor, remove clutter regularly.
Chicken Coop – 1
*Clean out poop and straw, replace with new straw. Clean out and refill food and water containers.
Mail – .5
*Pick up the mail and sort it into mailboxes daily

Can we add “mail” which would be picking up mail at box and sorting it daily. It might be a 0.5.

Great, added!

wow spell! great work! for receipts, we’re currently doing an average of one hour per week.

Thanks yikes! :)

I can do the mail chore if needed, although I might not be able to sort it every single day.

Hey Isobel, One of my chores didn’t make it on the list, and that is my “animal mama” chore. Includes tracking the needs of the goats and the chickens, doing maintenance and repair work on their structures, making sure there are folks tending them daily, training, making decisions about the herd, etc. Probably 1-2 hours a week (if I average it out. sometimes it takes a lot of time, and sometimes not much)

Thanks elliott! Brenna – this brings up an interesting question about what we consider chores, and I’m not really sure why the distinctions are the way they are. I would be happy to make this a chore, and wonder why milking would not also be a chore? Also I wonder about membrane and other working groups? Would it be more helpful to be a bit more comprehensive in the chore list and include these things? Then it gets into the question of how many hours a week total we would like to ask of each other. The number 10-15 hours per week is what seems to be what folks are throwing around the represent the current reality.

Ok! I did another calculation based on a more comprehensive chore list that includes Animal and people tending. This is what i would consider an ideal version, where we have both a physical ecology and social ecology working group.

Animal Team:

Animal Mama – 1-2
*tracking the needs of the goats and the chickens, doing maintenance and repair work on their structures, making sure there are folks tending them daily, training, making decisions about the herd, etc.
Goat Milking (7 people) – 2 (14 hrs. per week total)
*Feed, water, and milk the goats twice a week, let the chickens in and out, make sure they have food and water
Chicken Coop – 1
*Clean out poop and straw, replace with new straw. Clean out and refill food and water containers.

Working Groups:

Membrane – 1
*Attend regular meetings. Responsible for humans coming and going on the land. Read up about it!
Physical Ecology – 1
*Track physical needs of the land as a whole. All permanent changes must go through this group.
Social Ecology – 1
*Track social dynamics of CM. Be available for mediation, thinking about how we interact, trainings…etc.

SO! If we include all these as chores in the grand total, it comes to about 4-4.5 hours per week per person. Add 5 hours for a kitchen shift and the weekly meeting and that comes to 9-9.5 hours per week per person for a honky-dory clean and humming community! This number right now is less in reality, since we don’t have so many working groups.

Importantly, this list does not include hours spent:

*Land Tending
*TLC Farm work
*Construction projects
*Small groups outside of meetings
*Taxes and other structural/financial things
*Socializing
*Probably other things

Full disclosure! I am not just doing this for fun! I actually have an agenda! It feels super important for me that we all agree on how we would like cm to function and what we expect of each other. Hopefully, laying out all we do/would like to do around here in more detail will help us get there. Through this I hope to minimize resentment/guilt between us, increase accountability, have a clear answer for new (and old) residents when they ask what is expected of them, and increase the visibility of all the important work we do.

Does this look like a picture that is nice for where you want to live? Does each of us putting in 10-15 hours per week on average feel doable? How do you feel about something like this being part of the vision document?

hey spell, this is awesome! i’d love to help with this, and i think it might work best to copy the latest version into a “wiki page” so that we can all edit it. to do this, just do “create page” and choose type “wiki” — then any of us can directly add to/edit the chore list. for example, i think it will help to include a little detail about the chores, to help understand that amount of time involved. eg.: car mgmt, as currently done, includes not just maintaining the logs and doing fluids and regular maintenance, and doing logistics for keeping them legal, but also fairly regular larger repairs and troubleshooting. on average over the last 3 years it’s probably 4 hrs/wk. but maybe this should change? thus the seeds of a conversation over priorities, etc.

thanks again! this is awesome.

Okay! I will get a page started with the list of names and faces involved in the current chores teams. I’ll make a wiki page so that it is open to editing. Thanks brush!

Okay! I will get a page started with the list of names and faces involved in the current chores teams. I’ll make a wiki page so that it is open to editing. Thanks brush!