Visiting intern
We participate in a farm-volunteer program which intermittently brings us visitors who stay with us for a couple of weeks to try their hand at farming. It's been a couple of months, but tomorrow I'll pick up our next volunteer. We let visitors know, on the information sheet we send out:
"Living spaces are screened against insects, but
rather open. The shower is outside. We are casual about nudity inside and out."
But what they make of that varies quite a bit. We try to BE casual about it, to avoid embarrassing or pressuring anyone. Generally, we say nothing about nudity beyond what's included in our info sheet. Our house consists mostly of screen-walled spaces facing a central courtyard; there are no bedroom closets - not even any bedroom walls, really - and clothes are stored where they are handled - either in the laundry area, or for work clothes on pegs outside - so staying dressed in the house takes a bit of doing. We put up temporary curtains to allow a visitor to block the view between the sleeping spaces.
There won't be any naked work outside this winter - we are in the midst of a mosquito-borne dengue fever outbreak - but I like to stay as close to our usual routines as seems appropriate when a visitor is here, and to open enough psychic space that they can do whatever pleases them and makes them comfortable.
We'll see how it goes.
I like your approach of letting visitors know in advance that you are casual about clothing. I have a similar approach with the bicycles that pedal up to my home for warm shower and night's lodging. In 3 seasons of stating it up front in my profile I have had only request to wear some shorts while a guest was here. dozens of others have been fine with a nude host and many have given it a try themselves
Well, it's gone well enough so far. It was a cold evening and morning, so clothes seemed reasonable; after a sweaty morning's work it came time to go in for a cold drink and lunch and we came to the side of the house where the shower and pegs for work clothes are. I told the visitor they could claim spots there for clothes and a towel, or use their sleeping space, and proceeded to undress and shower myself. The visitor did not shower, but didn't seem to feel the need to end our conversation just because I did. So I felt comfortable enough to stay undressed through lunch, until it was time to go out again, and found the occasion to run a naked errand or two out to the barn, which helped make clear that was an OK thing to do. After lunch and a little more farm work, we planned a driving tour of the area; to clean up for that the visitor showered without any evident discomfort while I finished chores. (We've had folk who were very leery of the shower, to the point of showering only at night in the dark, or restricting themselves to the tub inside.) I found something to do at some distance away.
We're in Kona, Hawaii. We participate in the WWOOF program - which might stand for WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms - through wwoofhawaii.org and wwoofusa.org. It's a good program, not very tightly organized, but with strong feedback mechanisms. We are not scheduling past the end of our winter dry season right now, because Kona is in the midst of a dengue fever outbreak, which will become much more severe if it cannot be brought under control before the rains return.
You do: www.wwoofindia.org.
WWOOF is an international program. Each national / regional group operates separately. Note that WWOOF is not a nudist organization. As with Couchsurfing, doubtless by far the majority of farm households follow the clothing practices usual in their respective countries. The websites have feedback mechanisms so that the hosts and visitors can indicate how they were treated and how the farms met expectations. So if you don't set the clothing-optional expectation in your profile or earliest correspondence, you're setting yourself up for negative reviews.
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