Synopsis: A trick for shared kitchens
Every time I see a handwritten sign in a college dorm, usually taped above the sink, with an admonition "please wash you dishes," I take a moment to appreciate the futility of such an effort. There are couple of ways to think about the problem of dirty dishes in a shared kitchen: prisoner's dilemma, a public good problem, and an externality model. The simple version is that it's not a great strategy to do all the cleaning, because other people will take advantage of you. Since the incentives are lined up this way, solutions can be hard to find. You could try and impose costs for dirty dishes, or try and make the culprit leave the apartment. Often roommates try to impose costs by yelling at the offender, or by putting dishes in that person's room or on their bed. Some of the most gossip provoking drama arises from just this type of action.
One of the above ways of thinking about the problem gives a pretty good solution. I'll explain the boring econ in the notes1, but to cut to the chase, establishing ownership of dishes is a smart solution. You can establish ownership of certain dishes by separating them from the other dishes. Putting them in an unorthodox place makes them unlikely to be used by someone who doesn't respect the ownership rule. If you stash the dishes you always use, you'll always have access to clean, free-loader-proof dishes. One important detail is to aim for having only one dish of each kind, because it forces you to clean it whenever you use it.
Now, if you feel bad for deserting the rest of your roommates via this idea, you can always wash some extra to assuage the guilt.
I've found that this solution is extraordinarily effective on the mission, and in college.
Notes:
1. Public goods are defined as goods that are both non-rivalrous and non-excludable. Non-rivalrous goods may be easily used by multiple people at the same time, and non-excludable goods are available to anyone, with no way of effectively preventing any individual or group from using them. When these two criteria are met, free-loading occurs any time someone is silly enough to produce the good, because everyone and anyone can use the good without paying. The Clean Bowl Club essentially makes "apartment cleanliness" excludable to anyone but the user of the Club. Notice, "clean dishes" is rivalrous in the first place, which means it isn't technically a public good, but "apartment cleanliness" is non-rivalrous, making it a public good. In application, non-excludability alone produces free-loading in the "clean dishes" case, which makes its elimination crucial. In the "apartment cleanliness" case, since The Clean Bowl Club only achieves rivalry, the problem is not totally solved; the apartment as a whole will probably look messy, but those in the Club have excludable clean dishes.
2. Doug Clark, a roommate of mine who had independently figured this solution out, gets credit for the name "Clean Bowl Club."
Your point is well taken, but it does NOT solve the problem. You solve only half of the problem - having access to clean dishes. The other half of the problem involves the overall clean appearance and access to a clean kitchen space. How do you figure to make the general, publicly-owned kitchen space dirty-dish free? How can you enforce that roommates or companions wash the dishes they own? How can you account for their cleaning up their own messes, say on the countertop and such?
ReplyDeleteYour point is also well taken, I fully agree that the CBC only solves half the problem. I admit, I have never found a great solution for getting other people to clean up their stuff. The public goods approach to this problem predicts that the person with the least tolerance for dirty dishes will do all of the cleaning, and everybody else will free-load. If that person would rather tolerate the mess than clean it all, then you live in a dirty apartment, which seems to be the case for many college dorms. In that case, the Clean Bowl Club is a good way for an individual to salvage some cleanliness.
ReplyDeleteYou know as well as I know that a workable solution to the bigger problem is very difficult to find.
He who cares the least, wins. Right?
ReplyDeleteI made a habit of never, ever failing to wash my own dishes immediately after I used them. That way, I never washed anyone else's dishes, and no one else had to wash any of mine. I had to make sure I never slipped up or forgot one though, because I wanted to be able to be confident in my answer if any roommates ever accused me of not doing the dishes.
This probably only worked for 3 reasons.
1. I never slipped up.
2. I had a roommate that had a very low tolerance for dirty dishes, so she cleaned everyone else's almost every morning. (although she did get after the other roommates for not doing it very often.)
3. I had a high tolerance for dirty dishes. If other people left their dishes in the sink, it didn't bother me (unless the sink became completely unusable). I only was bothered/felt guilty if any of the dishes were mine.
After writing that, I'm realizing that you and I are probably after two separate things. You, to have the dishes done, and me, of not freeloading, nor compensating for others lack of effort.