Final Saturday, the biannual occasion of communal cleansing at my BRF (Bostadsrättsförening) befell. In the event you don’t already personal a flat in Sweden, you might be most likely not conversant in the very fact, that the truth is, you can not personal a flat a Sweden. Technically talking, you personal two issues, the best to reside on this flat, and part of the constructing(s) belonging to your BRF, being proportionate to the scale of your flat compared to the entire. With this comes not a communal spirit (not) but additionally the duty to maintain communal areas. After all, everybody pays a month-to-month payment which works to restore work, clearance of snow, restore of washing machines, however by way of outside areas, a joint effort of all residents is required.

 

Historically this takes place in October (höststädning) and April (vårstädning), and the occasion is introduced via a chunk of paper (en lapp) caught to the entrance doorways three weeks upfront. All residents then spend these three weeks arising with a very good excuse for not attending, or scheming a method of leaving the constructing unnoticed. The identical used to use to myself and my husband, based mostly on the premise that 10.00 am on a Saturday is much too early for any human being to participate in any bodily labour. We’d not even had had breakfast at that time! Now, with our kids round, 10.00 am on a Saturday is ridiculously late, and conflicts with our lunch hour, and afternoon fika! However the children make the entire thing tougher to keep away from. Though I’m lazy and individualist, I don’t wish to cross that on to my offspring, so regardless of a delayed lunch, we do attend.

Our BRF has a historical past of poor management and low attendance on the subject of this occasion. Completely different methods have been utilized in an effort to counteract this, though none have proved significantly profitable. Shifting the entire occasion from a weekend to a Tuesday night at 6 pm (meal time!) hit all-time low, however not far was the yr once they recruited the native dictator to assign duties. Extra democratic approaches have been tried since, a technique which lasted just a few years. This spring, nevertheless, the purpose of consensus was overtly questioned by a few Austrians who had been courageous sufficient to talk overtly about individuals simply pretending to be doing work, as no single individual really knew what was to be executed, and everybody was petrified of getting it incorrect.

So due to the Austrians (who didn’t present up this time), this most up-to-date occasion, going down final week, was very properly structured. The invitation clearly said that everybody wanted to join duties listed on a chunk of paper (ansvarslista – listing of duties) posted on the door to the tvättstuga. Neighbours who had been unable to attend the precise occasion had been invited to assign themselves – and full – duties upfront. This was adopted by a collection of slightly threatening letters (arga lappar), with the identical message, showing in our submit field the next weeks.

As the large day got here, the listing was nonetheless empty, and though we appeared within the backyard (to which the ansvarslista had been relocated) 45 minutes late, no pen had touched that paper (silent riot). My husband and picked raking leaves instantly, solely to find this – properly no less than all of the rakes – had already been taken. So we went for weeding. We spent half-hour on this, arguing about what vegetation would qualify as weed (just about every little thing, in line with my husband) and never (just about something, in line with me). This was as unproductive as not doing something in any respect, so we swapped to scraping moss off tiles.

 

This went properly, till the stock of vegetarians (for the BBQ) started, now utilizing a special listing. To be able to reward contributors, the BRF had invested in 10 kgs of sizzling canines, rolls, mustard, ketchup and a few saft, which means a chance to community mid-through labour. We declined (blaming the youngsters) and shortly retired to our flat (blaming the youngsters) and watched the entire occasion from our kitchen window. See photographic proof above.