Powerhour

✨ The weekly communal cleaning session.

Time and place

Mondays immediately after CoMe (or at 11 am when there's no CoMe) we stay in the same room to distribute tasks. Then K20 and K22 will be cleaned for a maximum of 2 hours.

Initial meeting

Power Hour Task List

There is a Power Hour Task List for the most relevant tasks.

The facilitator decides how to assign tasks to people.

Usually, it goes something like this:

The facilitator goes through the tasks briefly to find out which ones are of priority this week. Visitors are given tasks first so that they can be paired with more experienced Kanthausians easily. Then there is a round in which people can grab their preferred task. The facilitator makes sure that no important task is left and that everybody has something to do in the end.

This meeting should not take more than 10 minutes.

General Info

Most cleaning supplies are stored in the Intermediate Storage Room.

If the layout of the house is not clear to you, please refer to the expfloorer.

If you can’t clean immediately after the Power Hour meeting, please do it in the next 2-3 days.

History

In November 2015, during the pre-history of Kanthaus (yunity), several people stayed at the Liebermenschhaus ("Lovely-people-house") in Mainz. This was a living collective formed by some people of the Livingutopia network. They organized a weekly "Putzparty" ("Cleaning party") which was horribly early on a Thursday (if memory correct) since it was the only time that all the residents where able to make. They would split tasks and clean for an hour or two as their main cleaning action of the week.

Many other experiences were made during the pre-history period, none of which seemed as good. The "Powerhour" was pretty much directly copied from the "Putzparty" and included in the Collective Agreements at the founding of Kanthaus, at 10:00 on Thursdays.

In mid-2023, the time of Powerhour was changed to after CoMe (i.e. 11:00 on Mondays) in an effort to "concentrate" Kanthaus activities, to leave people more time to focus on non-Kanthaus things.

Analysis

The topic of communal cleaning is evergreen and there are many systems. The Powerhour has some advantages:

• simplicity: meet at a given time, get task, clean for an hour, done
• regularity: you can plan with/around it (i.e. when Powerhour happens & when house cleanest!)
• mutual-monitoring: everyone is there, everyone sees who gets what task
• reliability: people less likely to forget
• community: doing something together in time can be bonding

Detailed description of tasks

Vacuuming Central Rooms

• get a vacuum cleaner from the Intermediate Storage Room
• vacuum all of K20-1 and K22-1 except the staircases

Vacuuming Staircase K20 Plus

• get a vacuum cleaner from the Intermediate Storage Room
• vacuum the K20 staircase and whatever needs vacuuming in K20-0, K20-2 and/or K20-3
• skip the basement

Vacuuming Staircase K22 Plus

• get a vacuum cleaner from the 2nd Bathroom
• vacuum the K22 staircase and whatever needs vacuuming in K22-0 and/or K22-2
• skip the basement and workshops

Communal Closet Sorting

• sort the clean communal clothes into the fitting spots in the closet
• mind the sizes!
• sort out ripped or torn clothes
• fold towels and put them into the closet in the Main Bathroom
• fold tea towels, put them in extra basket together with other kitchen things
• fold duvet covers inside out and in a way that one can read the size written on the bottom
• bring bed cloths, kitchen textiles, clean butt towels and sorted-out clothes to Intermediate Storage Room. Place them in designated boxes.

Mopping Central Rooms + Main Bathroom

• wait for the vacuuming to be finished
• then get a mop and bucket from the Intermediate Storage Room
• mop the Main Kitchen, the Snack Kitchen, the Dining Room, the Elephant Room, the Main Bathroom
• mop where you think it should be mopped

Deep Clean Room of Choice

• name one room and give it all your love
• this includes moving furniture to clean underneath, dusting book shelves or anything that’s rarely done