Making a small space work

I must confess—I'm an organizer. I hate clutter. I hated it when we lived in a big house. I hated it when we downsized to a condo. I hated it even more when we moved onto Kintala. So it goes without saying that I still hate it on First Light. As a result, the first year and a half that we owned First Light before we launched, a good bit of our vacation work trips to the boat included projects to give us better storage options. Even though we've owned First Light now for 3-1/2 years, I'm still finding ways to improve our storage for maximizing it and making it easier to access. Since we're stuck in the anchorage waiting for a suitable weather window to head to New York, it seemed the perfect time to tackle an organization project I'd been mulling over for quite a while—the medicine cabinet storage area in the head.

First Light came with a single shelf behind sliding mirror panels that make up the medicine cabinet. I did gather up some plastic leftover boxes to line the single shelf with in an attempt to corral some of the loose bottles of stuff, but the lower bin always seemed to be a tangled mess of things which meant you could never find what you were looking for without removing all of it. Not ideal. Plus, there wasn't really any suitable place for stowing the things that live on the sink counter when we're stationary but have to be stowed for underway.

We happened to have an extra piece of 1x6 that would make two additional shelves, and the 1/4 round needed to support them, in one of our "extra lumber bits for whatever" storage areas under the pullman berth. Out came the miter saw, the drill, a few screws, and two hours later we now have four shelves. I still need to get a few more plastic boxes to organize the lower shelf a little better, but wow it's an improvement.

Eventually the shelves will get painted, but for now they've gone a long way to improving my mood.

I did a post (Espacios Utiles) about some of the storage space conversions that we did right after we bought First Light. Here's a few of the photos from that post as well as a couple other posts.

I needed a place to store my Sailrite sewing machine and sewing supplies. This cabinet under the lower helm station is huge and it was taken up (very unproductively) by a plastic four-drawer rolly cabinet that left a ton of space unused. We added a shelf above the sewing machine and a lip to keep the machine from sliding in rough seas.

We really lucked out with this find at Home Goods. It replaced the heavy upholstered furniture that was there with tons of usable storage. We keep all of our most used tools there like our drill, Dremel, saws, tapes, rulers, etc in the one, and in the other side we keep all of the sun screens when not in use as well as a couple of ukuleles. We have nine...yes nine... of them on board as well as two guitars which brings me to the next storage challenge.

We built this cabinet in our garage in St. Louis then transported it to the boat. My artist granddaughter painted the top with  a picture of Tim's first ukulele as well as the music from the very first song he learned to play on it. We sized it so it could be used as an end table, which meant that only four ukuleles could fit inside. What is a captain with UAS (Ukulele Acquisition Syndrome) supposed to do? Why, buy another bench or two with storage space of course...

We also converted a couple of hanging lockers to more useful storage spaces. Now, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people that like hanging lockers, but we don't hang any of our boat clothes except our coats and they go on hooks. So we divided up the lockers with shelves, one of which houses our clothes in suitcase zipper bags, and the other one which became our pantry.

By far the most challenging but rewarding storage project was one located in the pullman berth. There was a compartment that had been used for a washer/dryer at one point, then for an Engle fridge/freezer, and then when we bought the boat it housed a three-tier basket storage thing that used less than half the space. In addition to that, the hole was just that—a hole with rough paneling edges and no trim and no door. It rubbed me completely the wrong way so I set about to convert it. I built some shelves inside to house all of our hardware and some oddball tools like the heat gun and soldering iron, a shelf for our books that we give away, and other miscellaneous things that just didn't have a place anywhere else. Then I set about to custom-make some doors for it that would match the existing decor.

In addition to converting cabinets, a lot of organization is done with various plastic boxes and baskets. The top of our fridge has a low pin rail for which I was able to find some plastic boxes that fit perfectly. The boxes hold our need-quick stuff like flashlights and hats and keys and such as well as some oddball things for our instruments and some DVD cases.

Adding a couple magazine racks to hold the miscellaneous books that seem to end up all over the place also went a long way toward making the boat livable. And a couple really heavy duty hooks to hang the backpacks on became a necessity when our grandson was on board but they still get used now that he's moved on to Alaska.   

Organization is a highly personal thing. What one person can tolerate can drive another crazy, so it's best to discuss it out with whoever your partner is on the boat. Fortunately for me, my husband is just as uncomfortable with clutter as I am and is 100% behind any project that makes the boat less so.

But I still have a junk drawer...

gypsy muse ...

The relentless drive of getting the boat ready to go again is in a bit of a pause. We are awaiting parts from various places near (the heat exchanger in a shop nearby), far (traveler parts from the North East), and further (electronic bits being shipped from China – thanks for not bothering to mention that Amazon). We are still working every day.  The projects are less intense but still make life aboard better. Deb is making storage bags so I can get my tools under control, and reorganization of the tool area in progress. After years of working out of a very well organized rolling tool chest about the size of a basement freezer (I had two of them) it just drives me nuts to have to rummage through piles of tools tossed in drawers looking for the only socket that will work or an odd-ball pick. Boat projects take twice as long as land projects anyway,  Searching for tools with slippery fingers, greasy bolts between my lips, moving this out of the way to look in that, dents my otherwise sunny disposition and sours my normally positive view of the world. It also makes long, tiring days longer and more tiring.

While she works on my tools dilemma, which I think she is doing more for her own sake - making me easier to live with in "project mode" - than for mine, I have been replacing some rotting wood trim and sealing leaks in her galley.  Also, we have a whole new set of killer dock lines ginned up from a discarded (but still perfectly sound) anchor rode, and I am continuing on with the Spanish-lessons-that-will-never-lead-to-me-speaking-Spanish. (At least that is the way it feels.) All of which has served to remind me …


… we are living a pretty good life. For all of our struggles during this 2014 Hurricane Season in Florida from Hell, we are still on the boat. There is no time clock to punch, no demented boss to try and keep happy (Deb's old one, not mine).  There is no Board of Director Politics that will decimate a life on a whim (my old one, not Deb's).  Compared to our old economic standing, which was pretty good before the Boss / Board world dumped its radioactive waste into our lives, we are now near the bottom of the income pile. But that's okay. We don't need much, don't want much, and are very happy to be out of the Boss / Board empire.  Indeed, during my moments of sunny disposition and positive view of the world, it seems likely that the empire is flaming out in a spectacular fashion, which cheers me up to no end.  The further away we are, and the sooner it engineers its own demise, the better.

Our friend Guilles left the marina yesterday, escaping the rising flood of dock fees. He has become a good friend, another of the many we now count floating around this part of the world. Along the dock many other new friends are working as hard as we to get going.  Some are thinking of heading to the Islands this winter, several thinking of the Abacos after hearing about our time there last winter. S/V Kintala and her crew, though bruised and battered and economically challenged, may yet find a way across the Stream come winter, and find friends to call on once away.  What we can't get done on the boat before going will simply not get done.  But last year, running on the little generator, without an auto pilot, and living under a tiny bimini, was nothing but grand.  And we do have a nice solid foredeck and a new staysail furler.  The jug board is pretty, the main traveler should be like new, various leaks and rots are gone.  There is no reason next year can't be as grand as last.  And all this coming and going and planning and making do has served to remind me of another thing …

… in spite of it all, I love belonging to this band of gypsies.