Somebody’s gotta do it

Students living in apartments face chores other than laundry — like cleaning the bathroom

By Marissa Conrad

The Daily Northwestern

For Communication sophomore Ariel Mele-Algus, moving out of the dorms next year brings one thought to mind: dinner.

“My biggest concern is only eating ramen,” said Mele-Algus, who will be moving to an off-campus apartment with three of her friends.

Mele-Algus’ other main worry is cleanliness. She said her room probably can’t get any messier than it is now, but she’s not looking forward to the dreaded task of cleaning the bathroom. But somehow, she said, the chores will get done.

“We’ll just figure it out as we go,” she said.

From cooking and cleaning to grocery shopping and paying bills, moving off campus means moving into a new world of responsibility. While some Northwestern students prevent domestic distress through a system of chore assignments, most say they rely on less-structured methods to complete housework.

“We at first tried to do job assignments, but that didn’t really work,” said Medill senior Rachel Sax, who lives in an apartment with three female friends. “Now, whenever one of us has time, we do what we can.”

This system works in her apartment because “none of us are dirty people,” Sax said. But other NU students cannot say the same.

“After a certain point, you don’t want to clean up after someone else, so it just accumulates,” said Communication junior Ali Agalar, who lives in a house with four friends. “It starts in the kitchen and just spreads.”

Agalar said his roommate’s attempt to establish a rotating cleaning schedule quickly fell apart.

But a system of structured chores thrives inside a three-story house at 2013-15 Ridge Ave. The Members of Society Acting in Cooperation (MOSAIC) cooperative home, or the co-op, is a federally recognized nonprofit business where residents apply to live — under the condition that they will pitch in with the housework.

“Everybody has a big chore and a small chore,” said Alley Pezanoski-Browne, a Communication sophomore who moved into the co-op during Fall Quarter.

Big chores include cooking and shopping, she said, while small chores range from recycling to feeding the cat.

The co-op’s house manager coordinates the chore schedule after house residents submit their preferred tasks, but much of the enforcement rests on the residents themselves.

“Social pressure works pretty well,” said Pezanoski-Browne, who also is a photographer at The Daily. “There are (more than) 20 other people to make sure things get done.”

Pezanoski-Browne is responsible for dinner — she cooks every Sunday.

“It’s definitely harder to cook for 24 people than it would be to cook for myself,” she said. “But it’s definitely nice that there’s so many people to split up the house needs.”

Other NU students said they think the every-man-for-himself approach is the best way to handle off-campus responsibilities.

“We each cook on our own,” said Andrew Tannenbaum, a Weinberg junior who shares his off-campus apartment with three friends. “We have our own food and do our own shopping.”

And others simply place their responsibilities on different shoulders — like those of the cooks at their favorite Chinese restaurant. Communication junior Cole Pederson said he and his three roommates often rely on take-out for dinner.

Julianne Biroschak, a Weinberg senior, said although she and her six roommates cook for themselves, they don’t clean often. They don’t have to.

“We have Merry Maids come once a month,” Biroschak said. “It’s part of our rent.”

Students who don’t — or can’t — rely on maid services or Burger King, however, have to do their own cleaning and cooking.

But most maintain they take care of the chores without any strict assignments.

“The kitchen gets dirty — fast,” Pederson said. “But we haven’t really needed a system. It gets to the point where it’s just gross and it has to get done.”