Authors and attorneys, Janelle Orsi and Emily Doskow, have developed a model they call “four degrees of sharing”. The first degree requires minimal cooperation and no planning, while the fourth degree requires extensive cooperation and long-term planning. The whole model can be read here:

They assign sharing rental housing or a single family home to the second degree of sharing. While I agree that there is more cooperation and planning involved than say a neighborhood pot-luck, my take is that the amount of cooperation is dependent on the people sharing. Home sharing could be first degree sharing. It all depends.

What do you think?

At a conference in the summer of 2009, home sharing was declared “An idea whose time has come”. But this is not a new idea. It is an old, old way of living. History is full of examples of individuals sharing housing. Farm helpers lived on the farm. Teachers and preachers boarded with families. Servants lived in the owner’s homes, aristocracy lived with the king, apprentices lived with their masters. Work came with housing. Families lived in multi-generations. Widows took in boarders. Immigrants sharing tenement apartments. Look back in time and history is replete with examples of people living under the same roof.
It’s a good way to live. It’s worked for centuries.

In sharing housing, the kitchen is the center. Everyone has to eat. Few people have the money to eat all their meals out. So how do you share a kitchen?

The easiest is to have separate food. This avoids conflict around shopping, meals, cooking, meal times, tastes, guests, money, etc.  The refrigerator can be divided so that each person has their section of the fridge. Shelves and cabinets assigned to different people.

Some prefer to have meals together. It’s communal, it builds relationships. On the practical side, when you share food, you also share the basic tasks of shopping, cooking and cleaning. By sharing, you  simplify. For instance in a house of five adults, one person can cook one night and also do the dishes. That means that for four nights dinner is made and dishes cleaned for you. It can also save money, since you can buy in bulk.

Which is better? Depends on what you want.

What good sharing kitchen arrangements do you know?

Article on Healthy Aging website.  From article:

“Social participation and integration have profound effects on health and well being of people during their lifetimes,” said Berkman. “We know from previous studies that people with many social ties have lower mortality rates. We now have mounting evidence that strong social networks can help to prevent declines in memory. As our society ages and has more and more older people, it will be important to promote their engagement in social and community life to maintain their well being.”

Does this mean that seniors who share their homes fare better than those who live alone? What do you think?

The ad you write needs to have six types of information:

• Location
• Features of the room and house
• Something about who you are
• What you are looking for
• The financial informaton
• Contact information

The location is in the subject line or headline of a paper ad. The headline should also describe the basics. It is a house, apartment, and how many people there already.

The features should describe the attractive qualities of the room and the larger house/apartment. Is it sunny? Close to public transportation? Have an eat-in kitchen? An outdoor yard?

Describe the current occupants briefly, usually the sex and age range is sufficient. Include any animals. Describe how the house is used. Is is active with people coming and going? Or is it quiet? Do people have regular work schedules? Does anyone stay home all day?

Describe what you want in a house mate. This is an important piece of the ad, because it is here that you make it possible for the right person to go “oh that’s the right place for me.” Fair Housing law requires that you not advertise gender or age of what you are looking for, but you can certainly describe a quality you are looking for.

Then put in upfront what the cost is, the utilities arrangement and the deposits required. No point in talking to anyone who can’t meet those basics.

Contact info: Don’t put your name. Use an anonymous email account for the advertisement.  A phone number is fine, if you have caller ID.  You want it to be easy to ignore someone if you’ve decided that they aren’t right for you.

That’s it. Simple? Sort of. Try to be descriptive and interesting in short sentences. Good luck.