Eco-living Finca la Palmera is a Sustainable Coliving Project. We are set up as a non-profit organisation with the aim to enhance physical & mental wellbeing by living together in community and in harmony with nature.
In order to keep it this way, we depend on your individual collaboration to make this project & its community thrive.
Since we are not a big fan of house rules, we have done our best to keep them to the bare minimum:
- Keep everything clean & tidy
- Be mindful of each other
- Do not feed the dog
- Enjoy!
Our experience however has shown us that each person interprets those rules in their own unique way. So rather than adding more rules, we want to give you a good overall understanding of how this community works. You are about to be part of it, please read it.
Non-profit Organisation
Now before you start getting worried: We don’t expect you to work in our vegetable garden (if you’d like to give a hand though we are forever grateful :-)
We simply want you to understand that Non-Profit means that we are not doing this to accumulate wealth but out of passion and conviction for the cause and most of the hours put into this project are unpaid which is why we can be charging the price we are charging.
Every € you have paid is directly going back into the project and even so we can only sustain this project because there are plenty of people in the past 5 years that have offered their help and collaboration.
You are not a guest here, you are actually a member of this community during the time you are living here. So, if you find that there is something missing, broken or could be improved, rather than complaining about it, communicate it, feel free to come up with solutions and if you can contribute to providing it, even better.
Example: you find the kitchen knives aren’t sharp enough -> ask us where you can find the sharpener and have a go. Apply this example to other problems you find too and you might even end up learning new skills :-)
Eco-friendly Project
Don’t worry, we will not judge you if you flew here, we don’t expect you to be vegan and we are not trying to pretend we have all the answers to climate change.
We are simply trying to implement best-practices for what we believe are the most pressing topics and we would love for you to join us on this mission by:
- Consuming less (turning off lights when you are leaving a room, being mindful of the use of water, avoiding buying plastic bottles and using the filtered water we are providing,...)
- Buying locally (use the little store in town rather than Aldi, buy from our local fruit & veg guy who comes every Wednesday, the Fish guy on Fridays,...)
- Avoiding chemicals (all the cleaning products we provide are organic and most of them hand-made, please use them. We are aware that there are some animals around the Finca not everyone is necessarily fond of. They are still part of nature and we have consciously decided not to declare a chemical war on them, please accept it)
- Recycling (walk those extra 50m around the house to separate your glass, plastic and aluminum and only put small non-recyclable items in the general kitchen waste. Use our compost for any vegan kitchen scrapes and empty the bin in the garden when it’s full. This way you help create new, healthy soil for our plants)
- Being mindful of food waste. Anything you are not using but someone else might -> put it in the community shelf/fridge part. Check what’s in the communal food compartments before buying more of what’s already there
Community-living (coliving)
Don’t panic: We don’t do any tedious “weekly planning meetings” and we are not the kind of crowd that gathers every morning to hold hands and chant mantras.
Each person has a very different idea of what a community looks like or what would be ideal. Now we cannot please everyone and we certainly don’t want to force anyone to do things either.
The one thing we ask you to do is to participate in our tradition of family welcome & goodbye dinners.
It helps new people settle in and get familiar with who they will be sharing a home with for the next month. It is also nice for everyone else to connect, check-in with each other and spend some quality time.
Same is true for goodbyes so it is very much appreciated if you can arrange to be present for those events and join in the preparation of them (we take turns, usually the last person who has arrives is in charge of organising the next welcome and the person leaving is the one organising their own goodbye).
Any other meals, outings, events, workshops, skill sharing sessions etc. are optional and very welcome. They are what really makes the community bond and grow, so please take initiative (otherwise nothing happens) and propose it in our whatsapp group.
If you make a new friend and want to go to the beach with only him/her, that is totally fine. But if you are planning on watching a movie together in the chill-out room which is a communal area you cannot exclude anyone so the nice thing to do is directly invite everyone and put it in the group.
Depending on who is staying, what each person’s hobbies, interests and work schedules are, more or less activities of one kind or another will take place. It’s best to just roll with it since it is not something any of us can influence.
The biggest challenge usually revolves around noise & cleanliness (or rather the lack of), so in order to not be “that kind of person”, please make sure you:
- Use headphones when you are in meetings, take longer calls from your room, if you want to put music on speaker check with the other people present
- Respect that the Yoga Platform is our silent corner. Use it for meditation, chilling, reading, work-out. If you follow an online class, use headphones.
- Store your items in your room. If you are not working, remove your laptop from the office so someone else can take the space. Same is true for clothes, bags etc.
- Clean ALL of your stuff in the kitchen IMMEDIATELY. It’s a life skill to already be cleaning while you are still cooking, that way when you finish the next person can use that pan and cutting board. Don’t leave it for later, sit down for your hour lunch break while others get frustrated with your mess. Remember to also wipe surfaces and leave the sink clean too.
Our top 5 advice for happy community life
1) Self-responsibility: you are responsible for your emotions, don’t blame others
2) Communication: if you don't say it, people won't know it. Speak your mind. Use a nice way to deliver messages
3) Compassion: try to see/feel the other person and what they are going through rather than judging them
4) Sharing is caring: whether this is food, skills, knowledge, a ride, passion, good vibes
5) Keep an open mind and let yourself be surprised by the magic that happens when people get together
Thank you!