What is House Rules (Coliving)?

House rules in coliving are the shared agreements that let a house of remote workers, freelancers, and nomads live together without anyone ending up in a murder podcast. They're less "corporate policy" and more "things we've learned the hard way so you don't have to."

Unlike a hotel's terms and conditions (which nobody reads) or a landlord's lease (which is mostly about who pays if you break the fridge), coliving house rules exist to protect the vibe. They cover the practical stuff: quiet hours, kitchen cleanup, how to handle shared groceries, what to do if you eat someone's leftovers labeled "DO NOT TOUCH, Lukas." But mostly they're about one thing: making sure ten to twenty people from different countries, with different sleeping schedules and different opinions on how loud jazz should be at 11pm, can live well together.

The best coliving house rules feel less like rules and more like a shared promise to not be a nightmare.

Why House Rules Matter for Digital Nomads

You've probably lived alone, or in a flat with one flatmate who was mostly absent. Coliving is different. You're in a house with twelve people, all working remotely, all slightly addicted to the shared kitchen, all competing for the best spot with natural light on a Tuesday morning.

Without some shared agreements, that setup deteriorates fast. Not because people are bad, but because everyone brings a different version of "normal." Normal in Germany is not normal in Brazil.

Good house rules solve this quietly, before it becomes a weird tension nobody wants to name. They tell you when the kitchen closes, who restocks the olive oil, and why you cannot leave used coffee cups on the coworking desk (we will find you). They make the whole experiment work. Coliving communities that last take them seriously, without turning them into a bureaucratic nightmare.

At Casa Basilico

In Tarifa, the house rules had one line that everyone actually remembered: if you cook, you don't clean. That's it. One rule, zero resentment. Fourteen people, market-fresh tuna on a Wednesday night, and nobody had to negotiate who was washing the pan. Fabio explained it at dinner on day one, between pouring wine and arguing whether Tarifa anchovies were better than Catalan ones. (They are.)

In Oaxaca, the daily tortilla run became an unofficial rule: whoever's up first goes. It's not written anywhere. It just is now.

Related terms:

Want to live somewhere the rules actually make sense? Come to Oaxaca. See what's included →