For housemates and households

Nobody wants a house meeting.

Shared living runs on arrangements nobody wrote down and grievances nobody raised while they were still small. This is for having that conversation once, properly, instead of six months of passive notes on the fridge.

What it is good for

The thing that is actually annoying you

It is rarely the washing-up. Working out what the real objection is — before the house meeting — is most of the difference between an agreement and a row.

More than two people in one space

A space is not limited to a pair. Everyone in the house can be in the one that holds the shared arrangements, and each person keeps their own private notes and their own guide.

Agreements that outlive the conversation

Who does what, by when, and what happens if it slips. Written down once, visible to everybody it applies to, and revisited later rather than relitigated.

A way to raise it that is not a confrontation

Draft it privately, work out the version that will actually land, and decide whether to send it or say it. Nobody is told you were thinking about it.

Shared means the arrangement, not your opinion of everyone.

What you mark shared is visible in the space. Everything else is yours: private notes, your own guide, your own read on how the house is going.

There is a level above private, too — material your guide can use to help you that is never quoted, summarised, counted or hinted at to anybody else in the house.

The three levels, in detail

Sort out one thing this week.

Free, no card, and nobody is invited unless you invite them.

For housemates and households — OnBetterTerms