I converted the stone house and the brick house to rooming houses — SRO furnished rooms with shared facilities. After a year it’s finally seeming like a good idea. Turns out there are quite a few people out there right now who for one reason or another need a basic, temporary place to live that’s cheaper than a motel. Divorced and supporting a house and family so can’t afford their own, had to move for work but the family’s someplace else, own a house elsewhere but can’t sell it, in town for awhile to care for an elderly relative, first real job and a huge college loan, internship, temporary job, etc.
At the moment anyway, that part of my rental world is working out. But now that I have all these roomers sharing common areas I have to keep the common areas in shape. I spend a lot of time tidying up, cleaning, and replacing stuff like light bulbs and toilet paper. It’s cutting into the time I spend rehabbing and pursuing part time work. I wonder when I reach the tipping point, when no matter how hard I work it won’t be enough. I think it could be soon.
But I know I don’t like to share a kitchen and bathroom unless the rooms are super clean. People have a right to expect that. I don’t wanna see a shit schmear in a toilet I’m sharing with two guys or find a hair in the tub.
I realized recently that I went many years when I was working full time without ever really cleaning my house. I paid someone to make it nice when I got home on Friday and the big, deep cleaning never got done. And I paid someone to clean my rentals between tenants.
When I had a part-time job in a gym during grad school I got re-introduced to cleaning products. There were new things likes Swiffers that I’d never used.
I had shelves of cleaning supplies and equipment at home left over from my life before work took over. Some of that stuff had been there for 20 years. I’m starting to use it up.