Tiny Floating Homes: Dos Libras
Last week I shared a personal story about one of my Favorite Things I brought with me when moving onto a sailboat last year. Inspiration for that post came from my friend and fellow cruiser, Tammy.
Now I’d like to give you a little perspective and introduce you to Tammy’s own tiny floating home. Tammy and her husband Bruce live and cruise on a 45′ sailboat, Dos Libras, with their two cats. Tammy has put together a great article and photo tour of what a typical liveaboard sailboat looks like and I’m thrilled to be able to share it with you!
*The following post and photos are being republished with permission from Tammy Swart, originally published on her blog, Things We Did Today. The original post can be found here: <HERE>.
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!)
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.
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 clothes and blankets we carry around and we’d be set!
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.
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.
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.
That’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.
** You can read more about Tammy’s Tiny Floating Home on her blog, Things We Did Today. For more details and specs on Dos Libras, click <HERE>.
By Jody Pountain for the [Tiny House Blog]
My father and his wife lived on a sailboat for years. At first it was docked in Key Largo. Then they set sail and traveled around all the Caribbean islands for several years. Unfortunately, when Hurricane Hugo hit they thought they were in safe port but their boat was destroyed. There was very little they could salvage in fact they felt luck to have survived. They had an increible experience and do not regret it- but my father now lives in southern New Mexico in a small house he built by himself. The closest water is Elephant Butte Lake- he no longer sails.