The Flat Surface Pattern

This page is a part of Design Patterns.

Its content is derived from the presentation "Building a Hacker Space" by Jens Ohlig and Lars Weiler.

Sustainability Patterns	Independence Patterns	Regularity Patterns	Conflict Resolution Patterns	Creative Chaos Patterns
Infrastructure Grace Hopper Community Critical Mass Strong Personalities Charitable Member	Landlord and Neighbourhood Anti-Roommate Séparée Kitchen Coziness Shower Membership Fees Anti-Sponsoring	Plenum Tuesday Sticky OpenChaos U23 Sine Curve	Consensus Democracy Command sudo Responsibility Debate Culture Anti-Bikeshed Private Talk Spooky Action Anti-Pattern	Old Hardware Key Club Mate The Library Pattern Flat Surface

Problem

Every usable flat surface eventually gets taken over by clutter.

Implementation

Promote self-responsability: unused stuff is easier to find where it belongs, and no unused stuff belongs to the flat surface. Regularly assign someone to declutter. Alternatively, throw away everything on the flat surface. End of discussion.