Coliving is a hot new trend amongst young people and entrepreneurs in the New York Area.
It basically entails a group of unrelated people sharing a house and it’s attendant responsibility, like rent and utilities. For more statistics on coliving, you can read SharedEasy’s detailed post about coliving.
What is Coliving?
According to Wikipedia, coliving is “a residential community living model that accommodates three or more biologically unrelated people. Generally coliving is a type of intentional community that provides shared housing for people with similar values or intentions.”
This means that coliving is basically living with strangers that have things in common with you and forging bonds of friendship and relationships with these people.
The website Common, has a similar and slightly different definition of coliving. “Coliving is a modern form of communal living in which residents get a private bedroom in a furnished home with shared common areas,” defines Common in its comprehensive guide to coliving.
Coliving is very popular among students, workers, digital nomads, and people who are relocating to a new place.
Coliving is attractive to more and more people because it is affordable, flexible, and affords it users a sense of community. That’s all people really need in these times- a strong support system of people with shared values and aspirations that can hold your hand on days that you don’t feel strong enough to go it alone.
How Does Coliving Work?
Searching for a good coliving apartment is not that different from searching for love online.
You come with a list of specifications, some a hard pass, and others more flexible, and you go through hundreds of ‘applicants’ to find that one person that you know you have the most in common with, and whom you know would make a great partner for you and vice versa.
Searching for the perfect coliving conditions is exactly like that, except you are looking for the perfect space and the perfect people to share this space with.
With coliving, as with online dating, once you decide to commit to it, you are presented with a lot of options which can be very daunting.
The first thing to do, after making that monumental decision, is to decide what you would want from an ideal coliving website.
Make a list of services you would want them to offer, and then proceed to do your research. When you find the one that meets your specifications, you go for it.
The thing that is different with coliving as opposed to a normal roommate living situation is the fact that the basic chores are taken care of. Depending on the company that you decide to go with on your coliving journey, everything from cleaning to grocery shopping is taken care of.
This leaves you free to focus on work, school, freelancing, or any other thing that currently keeps you busy.
Perks of Coliving
When you sign up for coliving, you sign up for peace of mind and real, lasting relationships with your housemates. A comprehensive list of things you enjoy when you sign up for coliving includes:
An affordable, comfortable living arrangement that fits your budget and your specifications,
Access to amenities such as laundry services, gym, etc.,
- Cleaning services. This has to be the most interesting part of coliving for me. Imagine never having to devote hours of your life trying to get some stain out from between the shower tiles. Think of how much more productive you would be.
- A chance to build long-lasting relationships with like-minded people. Coliving affords you the opportunity of meeting people that you never might have met on your own. Some of these people might even turn out to be lifelong friends, or may go from friends to lovers!
- Peace of Mind. Peace of mind in these times is an absolute necessity. Coliving takes all the ‘money’ tension out of the roommate situation by being the one to collect the bills and the utilities in a seamless, painless process so you don’t have to spend hours agonizing about the perfect way to ask your roommate for the rent without sounding too pushy.
Now that you have an idea of how coliving can help, here are a few benefits of coliving.
Benefits of Coliving
● Coliving is affordable. No more stressing about how much of your salary goes to rent when you decide to colive. You just coast on, knowing that your money has paved the way for you.
● Coliving helps improve productivity. Think of all the time you spend on chores, and how drained you feel afterward. Coliving helps eliminate the drudge so you can spend more time on productive things.
● Coliving is flexible. If you’re not ready to commit to staying in a city or at a job, you can save yourself the stress of signing a lease and then having to break it mere months later. With coliving, you can just pay rent for the time you stay, eliminating the need for a deposit and a caution fee.
● Coliving is convenient. The coliving websites take away all the responsibility of household planning from you, which leaves you to use that extra time as you see fit.
● Coliving enables you to live light. Since the apartments are already furnished, the only things you need to bring are yourself and the household essentials like your toothbrush and toothpaste!
● Coliving gives an inbuilt community. Making friends as adults tends to be a little hard. With shared spaces, you don’t have to try as hard, as half of the work has already been done for you. You just need to show up, put your best foot forward,and hope that you form a bond with your housemates.
Conclusion
Now that we have taken the time out to look at the concept of coliving and how it is more than capable of meeting your needs, I hope you are convinced that it is a great thing to try.
When next you move to a new city, instead of rushing to sign a lease on some apartment, why not try coliving? It will be a very enriching experience for you.
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