We need 1 volunteer
We are group of friends (20-35yo), a mini multicultural Collective living in a house in Ghent; a really interesting, culturally rich and sparkling city. We highly care about DIY,environment, cycling, recycling, shareconomy and social, we would love you to actively collaborate with us.
Along our working tasks we also do many nice activities, such as language exchange, international dinners, outdoors, nature and going out to dance.
**LONG TERM (10hrs/week) At least one year, no food**
From this month we search also for one person to stay long term.
You need to have EU citizenship or permission (visa) to be in Europe for at least one year.
TASKS
15 hours a week
At home there are always things to repair, maintain working, clean and organize, we are looking for one skilled person who can think about it, something like a housekeeper but focused on the maintenance, organization and administration of the house with responsibilities as well.
You should be able to volunteer independently but you will spend some time with other volunteers in order to get the right knowledge and learn some handy stuff -)
OFFERING
We offer a small & rustic private room, a bicycle, a cargo bicycle, and a small treat on the end of the month (based on the done tasks), food is not provided.
The working schedule in average 15 hours a week: Two half days of 5 hours (mostly Monday and Tuesday) and ~1 hr a day for 5 days, you can schedule the works as you want (when possible) and you will have time for your activities (extra job, studying, chilling out, traveling).
IMPORTANT FOR US
No Drugs or Alcohol Abuse at home.
TASKS
1) House organization, cleaning and managing
Check the safety at home (smoke detectors, electric installation).
Check that is all OK with everybody at home and jump in for problems.
Organize, order and keep tidy where/when is needed.
Buy home shared products (soaps, paper, mop, brush...).
Follow up that the everybody follows the home cleaning plan: eventually, you can clean for the person who does not clean, then you get a bonus each time.
Your personal cleaning task is to keep the kitchen tidy and empty the dishwasher.
Help the neighbors when needed.
2) Post & Administration
Get post-mail and forward-scan it digitally via email.
Small paper work (print, go to the post, collect a parcel).
3) House Maintenance (whatever you are able to do)
Preventive maintenance (maintain the house working good: Change broken lights bulbs, keep doors open/close smoothly, fill the gaps if there is wind coming from a window)
Fixing broken things (repair a broken sofa, repair dishwasher)
Electric/onic reparations (we have an hi-tech house, a lot of light sensors, fingerprint door, electric appliances). Keep all appliances with a timer (auto-off).
Plumbing reparations (the plumbing system at home is easy to work on, made with “alpex”, you have eventually to install a sink, install some extra pipes, etc)
House appliances maintenance (check that the dishwasher gets cleaning cyclus regularly, clean filters of washing machine)
Making few extraordinary work to the house (paint, small building works).
Installation of new house equipment (dishwasher, washing machine, cabinets, curtains, hang a painting).
Paint on the walls (inside or outside)
Varnish wood (wooden floors, wooden cabinets)
Bike repair.
4) List unused stuff
At home we sell our inexpensive items we don’t use anymore (furniture, electronics, appliances...), we have an online shop, you have to:
Take pictures of unused stuff,
List it on the site,
Answer to potential buyers,
Ship the item or arrange an appointment (to let them collect it at home)
(you get a bonus for this: 50% - max 10 eur per item)
5) Guests (not often)
Welcome guests;
Prepare the room for them: clean the room, the sheets and the towels
(you will get a bonus for this task)
Of course you don’t have to do those tasks all the time, those are all the possible tasks in general.
Tasks schedule long term:
If you like self-organization it will be nice for you to live with us because you will get your own room and you will be independent in your works.
You should be stress resistant, because the working hours are not long but you may need sometimes to take decisions and responsibilities.
Weekly-scheme:
One day 10 hours (for time consuming tasks) or two days 5 hours;
One day completely free;
Five days 1 hour a day (keeping tidy, organizing, administration);
You should be reachable for urgent matters (it doesn't happen more than once every few months to have urgent issues).
The first month you will have to spend a bit more time in order to learn the tasks properly.
We discuss together the tasks on the beginning of the month, you have independence to do them and the most important is that the tasks are done, you are free to organize how/when to do it during the month.
Some useful skills for us:
You are an handyman
Well organized and good organizer
Clean & tidy
Capacity to fix problems and schedule work independently
Electricity, Building, Plumbing or Carpentry basic
You are willing to use google cloud software (gmail, Gdrive, calendar, hangouts, android)
If you like ecology, vegetarianism and bicycles, you are the best for us!
2016
Danish, Nederlands, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
Mostly we speak English at home, but many of us are polyglot
We believe that living together is not easy, but each of us has to do some effort in order to make everyday life at home enjoyable for everybody.
We are also sensible about ecology and we like to keep our home a place where we waste as less as possible (energy & products), we buy & sell second hand. One of your tasks would be also to keep everybody motivated about it.
We appreciate to spend time together but nothing is forced (we try to share at least the sunday dinner together).
In case of any issue we are all open to democratic discussions.
We are all couchsurfing friendly.
LONG TERM (One year)
Accommodation in a shared house in your own attic room (not really big, on the 3rd floor).
SHORT TERM (from February to May)
Accommodation in a shared room
THE HOUSE:
Old but charming building, nice places around, in the street is quiet with some green at the over-side,
It is NOT POSSIBLE TO PARK CARS IN THE AREA, we just have one parking space for our cargo bike.
The house is big (250m2) , two floors and with a lot of space.
In total we will be normally five (nice)persons in the house, maybe less (it depends also on the expenses and period) we mostly look for housemates from different countries and with ages between 18-35.
As we are couchsurfers we have often guests.
House provided of:
HI-SPEED Wireless Internet: 160mb/s the fastest connection of Belgium,with UNLIMITED data plan.
Common kitchen (super-accessorised with crockery and all kind of stuff: Bread machine, Coffee machine, 2 microwaves, hoven, 2 fry machines, kitchen robot, etc... if you take care of it you can use it all);
Common bathroom (each of us has his closet/compartment) ;
Second toilet on the first floor;
Big living-room;
Garden;
Washing machine/Dry machine;
Dishwasher;
Robot to clean the floor;
Fingerprint entrance door (you no need keys anymore!);
EXTRAS:
- We just renovated the electric installati
- We just made a new water installation + new boiler (water/heating) = comfort
- Automatic Light = Practical!
- Fingerprint door = you will never need to look for keys! 
SHORT TERM (from Feb to May)
We eat mostly vegan food, we cook for each other.
LONG TERM (one year)
Food is not provided, but you will get a bonus (on the first of the month) any time you do extra tasks (like this you have freedom of eating and cooking what you want), the more efficient you are the more bonus you get for:
Guests
Extra Cleaning tasks
Selling, we sell all our old stuff (appliance, furniture, electronics... ) at home instead of trashing it.
You may get a small bonus (money) in some special cases
