“The things you own end up owning you.”
–Tyler Durden

Time is becoming very short for our landlubber lifestyle.  By the end of this month we want to be heading south on our boat.  The house that sits on a quite cul-de-sac street will no longer be our home.

Nope, subdivision living is not for us.  We are trading in our four bedroom house with a Jacuzzi for a giant hunk of fiberglass and plastic that has less square footage than the Unabomber’s cabin.

I have lived on a sailboat before.  Personally, I loved it.  It had its’ trying moments in the winter, but all-in-all I think it’s a great way to live.

But I was single back then.  I had the whole boat to myself.  Don’t let the term whole boat fool you.  This was not a big boat and it was back in the days before all these nifty flat panel TV sets were invented.

Since space was at a premium on this boat, and the old TV’s took up a lot of room, I only had one television.  But the problem was that you could only see the TV from the living room (main saloon).  I really like watching TV as I fall asleep, so I thought I was real clever when I mounted a mirror so I could see the reflection of the television from my bedroom (v-berth) but later on I got to read the best choices for corner tv mount ideas and it worked great with It worked great, the only thing was that I had to learn to read backwards if the movie was subtitled.

After watching a long movie that was nothing but subtitles I had learned to read backwards fairly well.  That was great but the next time I picked up a book I started reading from the right side of the page and moved left.  I didn’t feel so clever at that point.

We had two full bathrooms in the house and now our single bathroom on the boat is no larger than the average bathtub.  When you close the bathroom door the whole bathroom actually doubles as a shower.

They make special toilet paper holders for sailboats that keep the toilet paper covered and dry during showers on a boat.

You think your wife gets angry when you forget to put the seat down on the toilet at home.  Try forgetting to close the lid on the toilet paper lid before showering.  One squatting wife and a giant roll of sloppy wet toilet paper does not make for a happy spouse.

The kitchen (galley) has everything a normal kitchen has, it’s just everything is smaller.  The microwave is about the size of an Easy Bake oven, the stove has two propane burners and the sink is just about big enough for a plate to sit on the bottom.

Our hot water heater holds two and half gallons.  This isn’t a lot of hot water.  I learned this lesson the hard way on a chilly winter morning.  The boat was warm and toasty but after lathering up in a steamy shower the water abruptly turned icy.

Now what am I supposed to do? I can have a look at solar hot water heaters hawaii.

You can either wait for the hot-water-heater to warm up some water or you can man-up and use the cold water to rinse off.  I should have waited.  When that cold water hit my genitals I let out a yelp that landed me an audition with the Vienna’s Boys Choir.

Roxanne and I have a relatively large bedroom.  We have a king sized bed and have our own closets.

Logan’s room is a bit smaller but she is only 5 feet tall, how much room does she need?

For better or worse, space is limited on a boat.  You really have to decide what is important and what you can live without.

There is no attic, to cram stuff you never use into. There are no extra closets where you can store your winter clothes.  There is no extra space.

Logan has never been one that has needed much, and I have reduced my items down to the necessary.  Roxanne on the other hand is trying to figure out where she is going to keep her 50 pairs of shoes and her winter sweaters.  Last I heard she was trying to fit some of her stuff into my closet.  I think I’m going to need a lock on that closet door.