Public/Private Options

by Raven Glomus

Twin Oaks has several systems that I think are worth looking at by communes in general and which use what I am going to call public/private options, that is, giving folks the choice of sharing or not.  

An example of this is the communal clothes area at Twin Oaks, called by most folks “Commie Clothes”. Many of the communes seem to have a Commie Clothes spot (I know that both Acorn and East Wind used to and even small Glomus Commune has a place we call Commie Clothes), but I want to focus on the one at Twin Oaks.  Commie Clothes is an example of what I call radical sharing, trying to figure out how to share as much as possible.  

One spot in Commie Clothes, Twin Oaks

The way it works (at Twin Oaks, at least) is that communards go to thrift shops and yard sales and buy up lots of cheap clothes. It’s all organized in Commie Clothes, which takes up most of a floor in a building at Twin Oaks. Any member can go in and take whatever clothes they want and wear them and keep them as long as they want. 

Here’s where what I call public and private options come in.  If someone wants to, they can just wear something and toss it in the communal laundry and it gets washed by someone who gets labor credits for doing the work and gets put back in Commie Clothes.  On the other hand, if you really like it, you can keep the piece of clothing–but you have to wash it and take care of it.  You can privatize anything in Commie Clothes, but the cost is that you need to do the laundry.

A similar situation exists with bicycles.  There are lots of bikes around Twin Oaks.  They are a major means of transportation around the community (which is large and spread out) and occasionally between communities.  At Twin Oaks, any member can pick up any public bike that has been left around and ride it to wherever they need and leave it somewhere where they or some other member can pick it up and take it to their next destination.  The bicycles are all taken care of (organized and repaired) by the bike managers.  You can also take one of the bikes and make it your own, but if you do, you need to take care of it–either repairing it yourself or using your labor credits to have the bike manager fix it.

Bike central at Twin Oaks

What I like about these systems is that they give you a choice: do you want to keep the thing communal and share it with everyone, or do you want to make it your own?  If you decide to privatize it, the cost is that you need to take care of it yourself.  I love that Twin Oaks has come up with systems with options and that the private option comes with a price.

I think that other communes could learn from these systems and they could easily be set up in other places.  I wonder what other systems could be set up in similar ways so that folks can share but also have options.  Any suggestions?