members who don't pull their weight cleaning
 

so two nights ago, when my brother and i were in paris, he received an angry phonecall at about 3 am local time from his very irate landlady (their chapter rents what constitutes their chapter house from her). this lady is neither a very nice individual, and is prone to exaggeration (among other things in the course of her phone call she swore that my brother's floor smells "like puke." it does not). She was livid at the state of the house, and proceeded to yell at him for 15 minutes (despite knowing he was overseas :mad:), then proceeded to call all the other brothers leasing a room from her. Basically, though she is overreacting, the fear is that if they do not placate her, they could be in danger of losing the lease and thus, their house.

But here's the real problem: my brother vented to me that although he and another brother try and keep the house clean, others do not. Dishes are left in the sinks. Rooms stink because their occupants never leave them, and in one case, no window exists to air things out. Some members keep their rooms immaculate but do not bother to keep the common spaces clean. The kitchen is a mess because dishes pile up and because brothers who are living in the house over the summer but who have taken off for a bit didn't bother to clean up before leaving.

He realizes they need some way to enforce each member's responsibilities for keeping the house clean, so I suggested having a contract between the brothers stating obligations and consequences for failing to fulfill assigned chores (whether on a rotating weekly basis or every man for himself).

Do you all (particularly the men on this board) have advice on how to make a group of 20 year old guys keep a house clean?

If it is the official chapter house, didn't they have to sign a lease agreement? There should be something in there.

Also, the Exec. Council, or whatever it is called, should discuss the problem because it could become a membership/financial/pr/whatever problem if not corrected asap.

An act of God...


Anyway, we had a chart on the freezer in the kitchen. Each girl was assigned a number, and the number rotated weekly through various chores. You had one daily chore the you would do (as needed) every day that week(such as trash duty, dishes, clean up after dinner, etc) and one weekly chore (vaccuum one level of the house, dust 2-3 rooms, clean out the fridge). You got a fine that went to the house fund if you didn't do your chores. I believe the fine was supposed to be higher if you didn't do your weekly chore...but we never had to enforce that. I believe there were enough daily chores that you only had the same chore twice a semester. It makes someone accountable for a certain area. If you try to make guys clean up after themselves, there's no accountability, and you get guys who argue about "Nah, dude, that was YOUR bowl left in the sink, I washed mine".

This is something for your house corporation to look at -- or at least report it to them because their power here is a little more complete :)

What I'd suggest is that y'all hire a cleaning service and increase rent to pay for it.. problem solved.

Not all towns have cleaning services, and some that do, have extremely sketchy ones. Even the big ones (Merry Maids and The Maids) around here have really spotty reputations - the consensus seems to be that the company name means zilch, it depends on whether or not the person you get is a good worker. I would seriously worry about theft with something like that.

Besides, I can't think of a worse lesson for 20 year old guys than "pay a little more $$ and you can continue being hogs while someone cleans up after you."

Definitely have rotating jobs for the common areas - and lock up the washable dishes and put disposable plates, cups and silverware in the kitchen. (Yes I know the environmental issues, but until they get things together, it's better than someone going psycho and throwing out perfectly good dishes that need washed, as we had a member who tried to do that.)

Have a few parents come by the house and see what it looks like!:eek:

Rental property is not covered by a House Corp. unless it is rented through them and then it is their problem to raise cain with the members.

If it is a rental property that is rented to the members and they have their Letters on it, the Land lord has the right to inspect, it is their right to protect their property value.

It is then up to the Officership to keep the house clean and safe for the members there!

If the members living there, then an agreement needs to be made with the landlord to be able to either have them removed from the house and rented to another member.

It would be a shame if they were evicted all together and not have a house for them to meet at and in.

They better get on the stick as the land lord is not at fautl, they are and has a right to be upset!!!!!!!!!!!:mad:

Why is the landlady complaining about a dirty house? All she has to worry about is them leaving it in the condition they found it-- or they pay to clean/repair the things they damaged. Who cares if they're not making their beds and leaving dishes in the sink?

Does the landlady live with the guys? I'm confused.

My guess is if they don't wash dirty dishes or leave food out for a while, it could cause a problem with ants/cockroaches.

Then that is the resident's problem, not the landlady's. If the guys want to live in their own filth, that's their right to do so.

Until they leave and there are roaches in the apartment making the landlady responsible for it. Enough of a problem and I would be that city codes would be violated.

People who are messy all the time are not the best at cleaning up when the lease is up. She's just heading them off ahead of time.

We're spoiled like that -- Edmond, OK is a pretty affluent town. There are a ton of cleaning services around -- although you're right, many are shady. Your best bet is to find a service through referrals only.

We once looked at a cleaning service, but instead, we went to a chore list. There'd be a rotating list of chores with a rotating list of names. Some guys volunteered to always do certain chores (like yard work).

I'm pretty sure that when we get our house built and everything, a cleaning service will be used for the common areas of the house. Whether your chapter house is clean or dirty is something which can have incalculable impact on your campus standing, not to mention the fact that keeping the place clean is a pretty cost-effective way of delaying expensive maintenance.

I believe our old house rules, I'm not sure how they are anymore since my involvement with our house corp. is minimal, stated that at any time a resident's door was left open, if his room was not clean and orderly, he'd be subject to a fine. I think that's a fair way of doing things -- if someone has their door closed, they're not affecting your chapter's reputation one way or the other. If that door is open? That room becomes an essentially public place.

Concur. It's also workable to have a rule that nothing gets "left" in the kitchen -- no dishes allowed in sinks, no "soaking" of dishes, etc. Also, if one needs to get anything out of the dishwasher and it has clean dishes in it, unload the whole damned thing. If it's full, run it, etc.

Just a little common courtesy can go a long way.

If they're already having a problem, I wouldn't suggest this method. You will always get guys who think "no one is looking, so no one will notice if I leave this bowl in the sink or just take one dish from the dishwasher". You will also have varying opinions of what constitues the dishwasher as "full". Actually, I take that back - it will be considered full when there's absolutely not one space left to stick a dish in.

That's how it works in my house :)

So who gets to scratch the dishes "clean" when they come out?

The wife and I are aware of the concept of pre-rinsing.