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18 July 2016

Sailboat Storage Solutions | Maximizing Space On Our Moody 346

When you live in a tiny floating house with less than 300 sq ft of living space, you need to maximize every available nook and cranny for storage space. Gone are the days of large closets with room to hang up clothes, cupboards to store your sheets and towels and chests of drawers to stash your neatly folded t-shirts, sweaters, socks and unmentionables.

Of course, now that I no longer work in corporate la-la land, my wardrobe has been downsized considerably, but I've still been struggling to find adequate storage space in our aft cabin (aka our bedroom) for all of our stuff.

Here's what the seating area in our aft cabin in our Moody 346 sailboat looked like before we moved all of our stuff on board.


While I like the two port-lights (or windows) along the back wall, the shelves in front of them are perfect spots to add more storage space. The previous owners had a small basket in front of one of the port-lights and ever since them I've been on the hunt for the perfectly sized baskets of our own for those shelves. We do have other port-lights in the cabin, so it's not like I've shut out all of the light and ventilation by using this space for storage.

It wasn't actually easy to find baskets that were the right dimensions, but I finally found some at Walmart. They're made out of sea-grass with tacky faux leather handles and I'm sure they'll start rotting away in the humidity in a couple of years, but for now, they serve their purpose.


Each of the baskets came with a smaller basket, which I'm using to store smaller items. They're too large to fit on the shelf behind the seating area so they'll go tumbling down when the boat is underway unless I secure them somehow. I've got this cunning plan in my head which involves hooks and tie downs which might work. But, then again, it might not.


We do have a hanging locker next to the sitting area. Because we don't have clothes that really need to be hung up anymore, I think we can better use this space if we put shelves in it. And by "we," I mean Scott.



We also have this odd little vanity sink area next to the bed. It's no longer hooked up to the water tanks. One of these days, I think we should take the sink out and turn it into a storage area. And by "we," I mean Scott of course. He's in charge of carpentry. I just fix cars and diesel engines. Or, try to at least.


How big is your home? Do you have any clever storage solutions that you use?

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21 comments:

  1. Boats have a lot of storage space and it must be used wisely. New boaters tend to overload their boat and then finally figure out how not to overload their boat. We did that and now we've streamlined our storage spaces. Works far better and the boat isn't cluttered.

    Have a fabulous day Ellen. ☺

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    1. I've seen boat like that where you wonder where their waterline went to :-)

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  2. We're pretty fortunate and have plenty of storage space for our personal items (though if somebody has any creative ideas for storing three full-sized guitars and a small amp, I'm all ears!), so our biggest complaint is that most of our good storage space is forward of beam -- what were they thinking?!? But I have to tell you, one of the things I'm looking forward to the most over the next several months is unloading the years of stuff we've accumulated (like the aforementioned guitars) and streamlining down to the basics again.

    Cheers,
    Stephanie @ SV CAMBRIA

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    1. Fortunately Scott only has one guitar - three would be hard to find places for. He also has a cello, but that won't be coming on board :-)

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  3. I'm always complaining we don't have enough cupboard space in our house. Now I feel guilty - we have loads compared to you of course! Just too much stuff accumulated over the decades.

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    1. It's all relative, isn't it. We all manage to have more stuff than available space, no matter how much or how little our homes are.

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  4. Clever! You've used every spare inch.
    So have we but that's just because we have way too much crap.

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    1. When we moved onto our first boat, we got rid of a lot of stuff and for the most part I don't miss it at all. Just goes to show you we probably didn't need all of it to begin with. But, downsizing is never easy and if we had had the space I would have hung onto everything.

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  5. Oh I feel so guilty about all the stuff I'm hanging on to now, although some of it still belongs to the kids e.g. I have two wedding dresses hanging in one room. Only worn once! There is nothing under our bed - we had a case of bed bugs. Our old bed had a wooden frame and storage draws etc. Lots of places for bedbugs to thrive. After we got rid of the bugs we got a new bed, metal frame nowhere to hide! lol

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    1. Oh no - bed bugs, ick! I read that they're becoming a real issue no matter how clean you keep your home. I would definitely go for a metal bed with no place for them to hide.

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  6. Having a French boat we have priority storage for wine. None of this under the bed stuff :)

    We have a locker under the floor - a wine cellar. It holds about 50 bottles. This supplies the wine rack under the table. While eating, if we run out of wine all we have to do is reach under the table for a fresh bottle. Ya gotta love the French!

    Mark and Cindy
    s/v Cream Puff

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    1. We'll definitely be looking for your boat in anchorages! You're luck to have room for 50 bottles of wine and so accessible :-)

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  7. Looks like your wine is in a way too difficult to access spot! We actually have much less stuff now that we are not on our boat anymore. We left everything but four duffel bags on board for the new owners. No need for them to buy storage baskets or pets and pans. :-). Since we don't have a house at all anymore, we don't have storage areas. We use the places the home owners clear out in their homes for our stuff and other than that, everything fits in the back of our Toyota Prius.

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    1. It's actually not to bad to get to, but it does make you think twice about whether you really want/need that bottle :-)

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  8. We have water tanks under our beds - not nearly as exciting. But we also have a French boat with convenient floor wine cellars. (I mean, really, what else would you use that for? ;) )

    I am noticing that my storage is beginning to go much more vertical, particularly the closer we get to sailing away.

    I am lucky enough to have taken over 2 of the 3 closets that we have, but recently cleaned out half of it. To make room for coffee, of course. And I agree, the shelves are MUCH more useful than the hanging rods.

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    1. So jealous - another French boat with easy to reach wine cellars!

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  9. I love your "by we, I mean Scott", I use that same phrase all of the time! (insert different name; Bill) We have a modified queen bed in our aft cabin, so there is lots of room. We have an air conditioner/heater, hydraulic steering, emergency tiller attachment point, 50 gal tank, (don't ask what eww), spare lines in mesh bags, all stuff I don't really want to see.

    My wine is stored up front in the dedicated booze locker, where it is easy access. We also have an under counter locker in the galley, the previous owners named it, and we have kept the name, "the black hole of Calcutta" - be careful in there.

    Donna/Denali Rose

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    1. I figure if I say it enough times it will be like some sort of subliminal message and he won't be able to imagine anyone else doing the carpentry work :-) I love the "black hold of Calcutta" reference. I think that applies to my entire v-berth.

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  11. This is looking amazing. Smart storage can save our space and utilize the available one effectively. Thank you for sharing the post Sailor.

    I think baskets plays an important role in smart storage and can save a lots of space by arranging the things.

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