Hunting and Gathering

I've spent the last year and a half drifting between houses on my path to job satisfaction. That means multiple housemates with multiple personality quirks. A few situations were happy cohabitations everyone in the group brought food home, everyone spontaneously re-filled the toilet roll, and everyone participated in cleaning up. Not everything happened like clockwork, but there was an organic structure of provision, which brings me to my question. 

Why is food provision and household cleaning traditionally one person's job? It's a lot to handle, being the sole provider of nutrients and cleanliness for a group of people who don't think about the mechanics of it or offer thanks for the effort. And what about those who live alone? How is one person able to put in a full work week - with overtime and travel time - and still manage to have a clean, tidy house and a well-stocked fridge (of things that are not slightly mouldy, given how often eating happens at home)?

I have a suggestion to offer. It's not my idea, but I think it's one that merits considering. Within any group of people, a variety of schedules, interests, and geographical locations present themselves. My family moved to Mauritius when I was a kid, and...well, grocery shopping in Mauritius in the early nineties was an interesting and culturally-enlightening experience. The saying went "you can get anything in Mauritius, you just have to know where to find it." Those places were usually tiny little stores, about the size of a one-car garage, stacked to the ceiling (often with bundles of things hung from hooks on the ceiling, haphazardly across the whole room) with a dazzling array of...um, everything. In addition, most of the good places to find things are on skinny one-way streets in obscure towns halfway across the island. So the community of ex-pat wives (who, by definition, weren't allowed work permits) formed an informal shopping collaborative. 

If someone knew where to get something another member of the group wanted - or even where to get the best fresh tuna  - a shopping trip was arranged. The kids (if we weren't in school) were piled into the back of the car, and it was a social/educational trip (we were inadvertently learning the kind of French and Creole needed to shop. We were also learning stealth evasion skills by standing behind piles of carpets/balls/zippers). Likewise, if someone planned a trip to a particular far-away wonder-cave, money was exchanged in advance, and the desired item was bought by proxy.

This works well in communal living arrangements. It's possibly the best way to run shared houses: a central shopping list that gets bought at the tastiest/cheapest stores as people pass them. Everyone saves time, and a few nights every week, you come home to the wonderful surprise of a cooked dinner. In addition, transport money is saved, because it's worked into the work-travel budget. If you or your housemates travel to other countries regularly, be careful of the laws governing importation of alcohol, tobacco, and food items. For example, in Denmark, you can't import Marmite or rusks. I'd hate someone to go to prison for importing yeast products for nostalgic reasons.