Sunday, November 30, 2014

Cool Before It Was COOL?

Never let it be said that I was any kind of trendsetter... I had bangs when nobody wore them... now that I've let my hair grow to all one length... the "Cool People" are wearing BANGS!!!

After spending decades aspiring to a bigger house full of more (useless) things... we've thrown it all away and moved onto our 45 ft floating home.  It has now come to my attention that there is a new movement afoot... the Tiny House Movement.  HA!  We're finally on the leading edge of something!!!  We were doing something cool... before it was cool!

Tossing years of collected stuff out and walking away induced a healthy dose of stress.  But once the deed was done, it became less difficult.  I will admit that we have not gone "cold turkey".  We do have a pretty big boat... and we still own a townhouse where some of our things are stored.  But the amazing thing is that I really have to think hard to remember what those things are!!!  (Mom, that doesn't mean you can start selling things off!)

The garage V-Berth
Moving from almost 2,000 sq. ft. onto this small (comparatively speaking) boat, was accomplished in stages.  We moved onboard two years ago with our favorite things and household items we thought we would need, and then continued bringing things from the house as we needed them for a while. That eventually dwindled to nothing, and then we began to actually take things OFF the boat in the never ending fight against Clutter.
Port side v-berth

Starboard side v-berth
Clutter is a problem in a small space.  If a thing had no designated place, it must either find one or GO!  Every few weeks, usually spurred by a search for something, we identify things that we forgot we had.  Toss!  Now if only we could make good on our vow to never experience Winter again... we could offload about half of the the clothes and blankets we carry around and we'd be set!







V-Berth as a Guest Room
Fortunately for us, we have a lovely garage v-berth that we use to store things used less frequently where they can be out of sight and out of the way until we need them.  Unfortunately... those things must be shuffled to temporary homes whenever we have guests aboard.




























V-Berth stuff shuffled to the Aft Cabin
Off the charts on the Clutter Scale!  Don't get me wrong... we LOVE having guests!  But if you come to visit us, prepare yourself to live as if you're spending the weekend in the bottom of a teenager's closet.













Why would we want to leave all of our STUFF and do this?  Well, the reasons are different for everyone considering downsizing... but for us, it means that we no longer have to divide our time between caring for a home, and cars (and a job) and doing what makes us happy... SAILING!  We can spend our time doing the things that we enjoy doing.  We can travel together and see parts of our country (and the world) that so few people ever see.  Every day can be different from the last... and all the while, we're snug as bugs in our cozy little home.


Making pancakes in my little Galley
Now I'll get to the fun part, the part where you get to see how we live.  But before I do, I have to say that we are so very lucky to have found this boat.  Lots of Cruisers are living happily with so much less than we have.  And... there are also those who have far more luxurious floating homes...  We have found the perfect niche somewhere in-between... Even "Tiny Houses" can be as individual as the people who live in them.

Galley

Our "kitchen table" Starboard side saloon

Our forward head (bathroom)

Port side settee main saloon and nav station 

My vanity in our aft cabin

Port side aft cabin showing our drawers and hanging locker

Our bedroom

In suite head (bathroom)

The aft head with designated shower and bathtub
Thats's IT!  That's all there is to it.  Everything you've seen shows all of our available living space down below.  We do spend lots of time in the nice center cockpit with full enclosure to keep out the elements.  Our boat has a lot of hidden storage space below the floors and inside the built in furniture.  Living in a home this tiny, the builders have taken maximum advantage of every possible inch of useable space.

Are there things we miss about living in a house?  Well sure... Bruce misses having a real garage to store his tools.  I miss having a full size bathtub and our cozy reclining leather chairs that we used to watch TV in upstairs... but the tradeoff is that we now get to lounge on the deck and watch nature and the world go by.

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We love living in our tiny floating home.  Our friends Jody and Peter (their blog: Where The Coconuts Grow) also live and cruise on their tiny home S/V Mary Christine.   Jody blogs for Tiny House Blogs and has extended a little bloggy love our way in her latest post titled Favorite Things.  Read about it HERE.

10 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tour of Dos Libras - you have no idea how nice it is to see that ours isn't the only v-berth that seconds as a storage area!

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    1. Yes we've encountered LOTS of Cruisers out here who use the v-berth as a storage room. Always a shuffle when guests come!

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  2. I don't think there has ever been one boat I have been on where one room is packed with things you may just need. Having said that you seem to be packing so much in there it is a wonder you are still floating.
    Fair winds my friends

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    1. Mark you would be surprised how many of those things we DO end up needing. We provision a lot more than we HAVE to, so a lot of the storage boxes up there are comfort for me. We will see after our season in the Bahamas if I think I can do without some of it...and then there are the winter things. We are GLAD we kept them because we didn't get south fast enough. Everybody out here is freezing this year! Also surprising is the fact that we still ride high on our waterline. I guess a big boat handles the load better than some. Thanks for reading the blog and for your comments. I hope you come back again and find something you can relate to better. I'll pop over to your blog and see where you're coming from for reference.

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  3. Replies
    1. Thanks Jody! I appreciate you thinking of us and we always enjoy your posts. Just wish we wer where you are right now.

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  4. Oh, how I'd love the have such a roomy boat .... beautiful! Storage is definitely gonna be a challenge for us. I've caught up on your posts and glad to see you're back on the move and headed South. Sounds great, and whales?! Magical!

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    1. Yes we are pretty excited to be moving again and the whale was over the top exciting. I can't wait to see how your year unfolds. One month down...

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  5. Beautiful boat tour...wish I had that kink of room....Like you said though you never know when you need something you took off.

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    1. Thanks Richard... yes, I'm sure it's very different. Sometimes I feel embarrassed with so much room! Still, you spread out to fill what you have.

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