Kehrwoche

Kehrwoche is an undeniably Swabian invention. Like it's relatives, Spaetzle and the Swabian dialect , it is something that comes naturally to all natives, and leaves us foreigners a little confused.
Kehrwoche itself only occurs in multi-family buidlings, and is the solution to the eternal question, "who is responsible for cleaning the common areas of the building?". In keeping with the people of this lineage, one cannot hire cleaning people to care for these common areas, simply because that would cost money. But how do we make this fair? Kehrwoche solves the problem by splitting the duties up weekly by family. Tasks usually involve taking the correct garbage cans to the curb on the correct days, mopping the cellar floors, sweeping the driveway and road in front of the driveway, mowing the lawn in the summer, and cleaning the entryway. The most amazing part is that a Kehrwoche usually means also kissing your Saturday goodbye, as tasks can take more than 4 hours to complete.
Kehrwoche is one of my major fears here, because I just know I won't clean properly, which will lead to people talking about us (the biggest punishment of all in our town.) In order to calm my fears, Joern decided to take care of the lawn of our building in exchange for the escape of Kehrwoche resposnabilities. Therefore, for the past 3 years, I have been able to successfully not face my fear. Of course, all that changed last summer though, when our building manager placed a new set of rules for lawn care and disposal of clippings that Joern could not agree with. He sent in his resignation as grounds-keeper in August, which meant that 2008 brought with it the dawn of Allison's experience of Kehrwoche.

Since there are 8 families in our building, our first week began today. Somehow, we avoided getting the "sign" that magically apppears on your front door at midnight Monday morning. Our first task was tonight, to make sure the bio-garbage made it out to the curb for pick-up tomorrow. Misson complete.
Now, we just have to remember to put the can away properly tomorrow, and of course, to clean properly on Saturday, and this will be a piece of cake.