Hey there! In our slightly chaotic home, there will be a room available from the 1st of November. We’re a group of 5 people who are currently working, studying and/or being lazy, living in an apartment without very much space.
In a lot of ways we are something in between. We are trying to live as a community and share as much as possible, but we all have different ideas about in what way and to what extent we want to live in a collective way. We respect and enjoy that everyone has defined differently what living together means to them. Every person has their own room. Some of us like sharing their sleeping space, some feel uncomfortable about strangers sleeping in their bed, in some rooms you’re allowed to search all the draws for a pair of underpants to borrow, and with some people, a closed door means they do not want to be disturbed. What you find in the living room you may use, but that does not means that you can just throw it away or break it.
Some of us are interested in animal rights and live a vegan lifestyle, some others quite enjoy to say things that are quite discriminating against dogs. Some don’t have a problem at all with killing animals for food, and some cannot digest dairy products anyways. We don’t feel the need to make a problem out of these differences, but within the flat, we eat mostly vegan. We buy our food communally and try to buy mostly organic food. When someone cooks something, it’s enough for everyone and vegan.
Some of us try to adapt a less civilised lifestyle by trying to recycle more and waste less, the more DIY everything looks the better. Some have high expectations in the interior design of the flat and want everything to be neat and clean. Some are constantly putting bizarre items on the walls, some others would rather prefer a lot of space and emptiness. This has created a weird mix of styles within the flat that blurs the differences between crappy and alternative and between bourgeois and hip.
Some of us are politically active in different ways and some are interested in leftist values on a theoretical level. Some have a passion for discussing about gender roles, whereas others don’t take the sarcastic usage of polical incorrectness too seriously. It is very important to us that our flat stays a place where opinions and knowledge can be exchanged without anyone being indeliberately pulled into or pushed out of these discussions*. We don’t think much of the tendency in some circles to use a leftist lifestyle and political attitudes for creating hierarchies and competition about who can make the most alternative and cool and radical and politically correct impression.
Some of us are spending a lot of time with their studies, some are doing paid work on a regular basis, some have a very active social life and some are spending a lot of time on the sofa. We all have in common that we invest a lot of time and energy in the communal living, and some strong friendships have evolved out of that.
We are living in a quite ugly new building, a single gray and olive-green concrete block. This has some advantages and some disadvantages. Inside the flat, the walls are not very sound-proof, so it’s not possible to be very loud at night. The walls to the neighbours and the windows are exceptionally sound-proof though, so for parties there is no time constraint. The ceilings are low but quite stable, so you can hang up your bed, but it’s going to be in your way. We have a large comfortable living room with a kitchen corner, a south-side balcony, 5 rooms and an olm living in the storage room. Our flat is on the ground and first floor, most rooms point south. On the south side of the house there is a playground, so there is roughly any car noise, but a lot of child shouting.
The available room is 11 m², 255 € per month (will probably be 260 € soon) and has some furniture that would love stay there. Among the flat equipment there is a circular saw, a server, a Nepalese pressure cooker, a washing machine, an epilator “for men”, a chandelier, a fridge, a stuffed hawk, an empty picture frame, a dishwasher, a bed on the balcony and a toaster (half of these words we had to look up). Included in the rent are all costs including internet, only the communal food expenses will add to that.
We are looking forward to hearing about you and about what you can contribute to the flat. If you are interested, write us an e-mail and give us a first impression about you.
Best wishes,
the inhabitants of Britzer Kiste
* Some of us think that we should mention here that we are aware that the fact that we are all white and cis-gendered will itself exclude some people. Some others of us think that the mentioning of this fact could exclude or scare off people who do not have experience with leftist values within an academic context. The discussion about this has now taken more time than the writing of the rest of the text. The condition for everyone agreeing with this note appearing here is to add the following: Blablablablablablablablabla.
