Lots of my random thoughts lately have been about storage space and tidiness. When you’re on the move on a sailboat, things get put away regularly because otherwise they’ll fall on the floor and break. Also, when we were living at the dock, I saw clients regularly, so the boat had to be fairly tidy below. All of that has changed. And now, things are starting to bug me.

I’m having trouble keeping the boat tidy enough to suit us. Well, to suit me, actually. This is partly due to the number of projects going on all at once. So I think to myself, ‘well, this is short-lived’. But is it? Is it really? I don’t actually think so. We live with projects. Always have, always will. Life is meaningless to us without our projects; at least the evidence supports that statement. So why can’t I figure out how to do these projects and keep things down to a mild roar in the tidiness department concurrently? There is a solution. I just know it.

The meaning of this will become clear.

Today we sealed that forward hatch. I hope we got it right this time. I have two more to go so why put the cleaner and supplies away? I’d just have to get them out again. So they sit out on the counter in the shop area, along with thousands of other small things. It breaks my brain to think on keeping the shop neat. But thank goodness for that shop area! Without it this boat would be a mess all the time.

The bulkhead in the aft cabin is repaired and Mike has the fiberglass supplies out to do the new fiberglass tabbing at the top. I bought paint supplies for this project and those have no place to ‘live’ until I use them on the bulkhead. There’s a quart of paint and another one of primer, along with some rollers and tape just sitting in the cockpit. They look at me expectantly as I scoot by, but I just ignore them. It’s not their time yet.

All flat surfaces in the boat attract ‘stuff’. This is no different than in a house, but somehow it’s more irritating. I took 30 minutes yesterday clearing the navigation desk off. It looked great. Now it’s already collecting stuff again. I. Will. Win. This one.

I”m just going to take care of this now before it takes on a life of its own.

Mike took the microwave off the top of the cabinet where it has lived since 1992, the vintage posted on the sticker inside the door. It’s a Kenmore. Those used to be built to last and this microwave still works. Now what do we do with it? It’s on the floor until we figure it out. I am using it as a step stool to get onto the v-berth. I bet the 2017 microwaves would crumple if used as such. I feel a bit sorry for this vintage machine, demoted without ceremony from a place of glory in the galley to the floor of what is, in fact, the rumpus room. What a blow. I should put it with the electric tea kettle we can’t use anymore now that we live at anchor. It’s a bit forlorn. They would be companions in their misery. If we were in the marina, we’d put these things on the free pile and they’d be adopted into new forever homes in 20 minutes. In Gig Harbor? Not so much.

We also have a large plastic spool left from the Samson rigging line Mike ordered. It’s a cool spool. I’m sure it’s dead useful for something but we have no place to store it. It would be a dandy aft anchor rode storage thingy. We could store 600 feet of anchor rode on that thing and then set it up to reel the line right out. But the gosh darn storage issue! So what do we do with it? Right now it’s on the aft deck taking up space and bothering me with its presence. I hear it sighing loudly back there, unhappy that it’s not being used for something. This is a spool with high self worth. It knows its own usefulness and resents being made to wait for something worthy to do. I cannot bring myself to throw it in the trash. It feels wrong.

This would be a useful item if only I could find a place for it.

Mike is not satisfied with the many kinds of electronics charging goo gahs that create visual clutter at the navigation area. He wants to take over the spice rack that lives by the companionway and turn that into a charging station. I’m ok with that. He can have it. My spices could never fit in that space anyway and I forget it’s even there.

I had a great storage solution for my sandals. Note that past tense verb: had. I used the spaces created by this ladder that hung on the wall in the aft cabin. This made a great place to store all my sandals. (I am not getting rid of any of them, in case you’re wondering. That’s a firm ‘no’.) Now that we’ve repaired the bulkhead and adjacent wall in that cabin, Mike doesn’t want to hang the ladder back up. He wants to get rid of it. I agree the ladder is completely useless except for the storage potential it offers. Trying to use this to get out of that hatch is an exersize in comedy, if not error. Ask me how I know. If we don’t put this so-called ‘ladder’ back, however, then where will I put my sandals? Come to that, how will we get rid of the ladder?

I have mixed feelings about getting rid of this ladder.

We own a lot of hats. I get tired of a) looking for the right one and b) seeing them laying around everywhere like children suffering from failure to launch. I’ve collected them all and put them in one of those nice plastic beach carriers I got at Shin Shin. I should have bought twice as many of those. Very useful items. All hats now live in the Shin Shin green plastic beach carry-all. Come to think of it, if I did have a few more of these nifty carriers, I’d be able to use one or two to organize the supplies from all the projects while we are in-progress with those. Bingo! A solution! Maybe a trip to Shin Shin will happen. I sure miss my car sometimes.

I wonder what space I would be willing to give up for an on-board washer/dryer? I think about this alot.

These heavy PVC totes are really great. I want to get more of these.

We have too many books and notebooks aboard the boat. We both have Kindles with hundreds of books on them, but still I cannot bring myself to give away more physical books. Also I like the way they look. Having a bookshelf makes the boat feel like a home. A couple of Kindles just doesn’t cut that mustard. I think these books are going to stay, but perhaps I can let go of some of the notebooks. Most of them are blank, in case I get a wild urge to write by hand. I actually do that, so, yeah, I probably will keep them all.

Your thoughts on these storage issues are, as usual, welcome. Also let us know if you need a vintage 1992 microwave. Works great.