My Story:

I grew up in rural Maine and spent a tremendous amount of time at a nearby farm community where three of my friends lived. I loved the chaos of sharing meals with a group of caring people.

In college I joined a fraternity and appreciated being part of such a close group of people that took care of each other, shared meals, and decided how we wanted to live together. After graduating I continued living in the fraternity for another year.

Moving to Boston and living a year in an apartment with friends I was interested in finding myself another living community option. I discovered coop houses where people of all ages live together in a house with each person renting their own bedroom and sharing common spaces with shared agreements for chores, buying household items, food, conflict resolution, etc.

I found a coop in my area that had an opening and applied. They filled the room before I had a chance to make it to an interview. I found another coop that was closer to where I wanted to live and had an opening, so I applied. Again I didn’t get an interview before they filled the room. Doing a bit more internet research I found a whole lot more coops in Boston and applied to two more coops with openings, interviewed at both, and got a yes from the one in Medford before I heard back from the other coop in Allston. I seized the opportunity and accepted!

Why was it so challenging to get into a coop? Why wasn’t it easier for me to find out about cooperative houses in my city? What if I hadn't lived communally before, as many coops require previous community experience? Perhaps there are ways for people to learn more about cooperative living?

In 2013 I started a coop house with a great group of folks with a healthy living theme. Co-creating the coop involved getting a lot of advice and help from friends and coop experts. It was not as easy as I thought and took a lot of emotional and physical work. There was a moment when I literally cried with joy at our first house meeting after moving in together and another moment, late at night, where another housemate and I hurled insults back and forth. The process has been an incredible learning opportunity with the biggest realization being that coop living is hard. Recognizing that I still feel that living cooperatively is absolutely worth it, I am motivated to share what I've learned so that it may be helpful to others in their cooperative living journeys.