Co-Housing: What It Is + Why We All Need It
Stemming from a 1960s lifestyle in Denmark, co-housing is a community-focused neighborhood with private and shared spaces that residents use to gather, cook, and find support from one another.
Oftentimes, these shared spaces include a common house with amenities like a kitchen, laundry, and even shared tools like lawnmowers! (Where was this when I bought my first home and had to stock up on a shed full of tools I didn’t know how to maintain?)
Why co-housing is appealing to a lot of us
It takes a village. We’ve all heard it, and felt it. Housing costs are on the rise, but the statistic that is even more devastating is the amount of people who live right next door, and yet, feel completely isolated. Loneliness, you could say, is on the rise too.
So, it’s not a surprise that co-housing just seems like a better, less isolating option. This is especially the case if you want to save money, find a community, and feel like you’re not living an entire lifespan all on your own.
Parenting is a communal part, too
For most of humanity’s time on this planet, parenting has been a communal activity. Not something left to one or two parents (for a long time just one overworked mom if we're being honest) cooped up in their home, going a little stir crazy. Here, it really does take a village.
After speaking with dozens of moms, overall one gets the sense that they feel tired, overwhelmed, and isolated. From just getting dinner on the table, or trying to find a few moments of calm hiding in the bathroom, to feeling over-stimulated and on edge. Being a parent, and especially an overworked mom can be tough. Co-housing, done right, means many more parenting figures around and more time for parents to decompress. Better parenting just happens from there.
So, what exactly is co-housing?
Co-housing is when a group of people come together to share resources, living expenses, and everything else that goes into running a successful household. A co-housing community can consist of one household, or even extend to nearby homes. But studies show that the ideal co-housing community, as far as conflict resolution and making true connections are concerned, will include about 50 adults. Put plainly: co-housing is an attempt to recapture the more communal and helpful social ties of the receding past (and I think we can all say that is a refreshing, and long-needed change).
Examples of co-housing
Some of these may be familiar to you!
Neighborhoods with community gardens, gyms, and/or shared spaces
Smaller units with a luxurious main house and shared amenities
Multigenerational households or homesteads
Senior living
Communal and full of purpose
Co-housing can start to seem like an easy decision when you consider all it has to offer:
More, easy access to costly tools (like that lawnmower, weed wacker, laundry machine, etc.)
Connections — socially and to help when issues arise
Saving time, effort, money, and other resources
A better sense of community, less loneliness
Sustainable living (less waste thanks to communal tools)
A co-housing community means more helpful hands at the ready
Specialization is the name of the game with our modern economy. This ensures there are many, many jobs to go around. But, it also means there are some serious gaps in everybody’s — and I mean everybody’s —breadth of knowledge with the technology, software, and activities we all participate in daily.
Let’s say your washing machine suddenly stops working. In one scenario, trusty Google, this time, leaves you with more questions than answers. You can pay a specialist to come by and fix it at a dubious cost, which means gas, time, scheduling, and the stress this all entails.
Odds are, in a co-housing community, someone can help you out, and, failing that, someone might have a connection who can cut you a fair deal. Simply having more people around to solve the day-to-day problems and headaches that arise has the potential to save so, so much time and resources.
Saving money with co-housing
In addition to saving time and effort with the easy calculation that: co-housers = more available skills, co-housing communities also provide wider access to helpful devices and tech.
Does a small neighborhood of 15 homes need 15 lawnmowers? What if you could purchase, store, and maintain a handful of needed tools that are shared among all?
Creating a co-housing community can really bring out just how needless, wasteful, and even downright silly it is that every single person owns the exact same product as their neighbor next door (and that they might use once a week at most).
Living together in a lonely world
Loneliness has been steadily increasing for as long as it has been analyzed — roughly dating back to around the mid-70s. The effects of loneliness on the body and mind are well-studied: As the New York Times shared in 2022, “Being lonely, like other forms of stress, increases the risk of emotional disorders like depression, anxiety and substance abuse. Less obviously, it also puts people at greater risk of physical ailments that seem unrelated, like heart disease, cancer, stroke, hypertension, dementia and premature death.”
While by no means a cure-all for the sweeping problem of loneliness, co-housing is a humbling way to fight against this rising tide. Having a close-knit group at hand to help not only with finance and labor needs, but also your social and emotional needs can go a long way in combating feelings of isolation.
How to find co-housing communities
The Co-Housing Association of the United States is an incredible starting place with advice and resources for finding a co-housing community near you.
Believe us, once you’ve dabbled with this productive way of life, it may be hard to go back to anything but some sort of communal living. For more sustainable lifestyle ideas, see here and if you’d like, save this blog to Pinterest for future reference.