Jody Pountain 
In a tiny space, comfort is very important. We can use lighting, paint, temperature, texture, furniture and fabric to help achieve a level of comfort that suits us best. I may live a much more simple life than I did before but I am still a homebody and I still value the warm fuzzy feeling I get when I am home, no matter how big it is. Despite the downsizing I did two years ago to before moving onto the boat, I retained a good …
Just because I choose to live in a tiny floating home does not mean that I am exempt from having claustrophobic moments. Yes I love the tiny spaces of my home that are just big enough to hold the essential items, but there are other times when I curse those spaces with tears and frustration. You see, maneuvering through tiny spaces on a boat is WAY different than moving about tiny spaces on land. Those that live in tiny houses on land, or even on wheels, …
Meet Varuna, a 1968 Allied Luders 33 sailboat that was miraculously brought back to life just two short years ago. Once a derelict and unwanted little mess of a boat, the unthinkable happened on July 5, 2013. Matt and Hillary Wilson bought her with a bright and cheery vision, and a little determination. Piece by piece they turned Varuna into a tiny floating dream home! On Matt and Hillary’s blog, Very Well Salted, you can find a complete collection of posts documenting the transformation: DIY Boat Projects There, …
I chose to live in a tiny floating home to be able to travel to beautiful tropical islands, Where The Coconuts Grow. Just as other parts of the world face natural disasters like tornados and earthquakes, the part of the world I live in faces volcanoes and hurricanes. Just last month I was checking for an update on the underwater volcano, Kick ‘Em Jenny which happens to sit in the most preferred navigational route when sailing from Carriacou to Grenada. I knew we’d be sailing …
Storage solutions for tiny spaces require a great deal of creativity. Whether your on land or on the water, you’ll find dozens of helpful ideas on my good friend Carolyn’s website: The Boat Galley. Carolyn has lived aboard a boat for 6+ years and began compiling all of the tips, tricks and lessons she has learned along the way. She started The Boat Galley in 2010 and it has since steamrolled into a comprehensive and invaluable resource for liveaboards and landlubbers alike. She focuses on practical ways to …
Life happens so fast and I’m always on the go. I often forget to stop and take everything in. It’s the quiet moments of the day that don’t come often enough, but when they do, an overwhelming feeling of gratitude reminds me to give thanks for my tiny floating home and all the opportunities that have come my way. Almost two years ago I chose to sell most of my belongings and move aboard a sailboat with my boyfriend and my two dogs. Adjusting to …
As if living in a tiny floating home wasn’t unconventional enough, the way we get around would definitely be considered alternative transportation as opposed to having a car. Our sailboat carries us long distances but sometimes it’s not practical to move the boat to get to where we need to go. It’s essential to have a kayak, dinghy or rowboat if you live on the water. We opted for an inflatable dinghy with an outboard motor. Size and Type: Before setting off on our journey, we scoured …
Meet Ron and Jackie Skelton, a young Midwestern couple that had the typical American life; work, a house, cars, some travel, and even the dog. Take a few minutes to read their story, told by Jackie, and find out why they ‘left it all’ for a tiny floating home out on the big blue and beyond! “I was working as a Public Health Nurse and Ron was working around the Great Lakes as a commercial diver, jobs that we both enjoyed. We were living the …
You may remember the post I wrote several weeks ago about Storing Pet Food in Small Places. Living in roughly 360 square feet of living space presents many challenges for storing essential items like food products and I was thrilled to let you all in on my little secret. The SoftStore30 bags not only solved my problem of storing bulk quantities of dog food in storage compartments that are less than generously sized and oddly shaped, but they also solved my concern for keeping the …
Electricity is something we all take for granted. Power lines are strung from house to house, from every street corner, in every office. Rural communities, downtown hubs and all structures in between all have the ability to plug in and pay for individual power usage that is pulled from the grid. What about tiny houses on wheels? What about tiny houses on the water? We are mobile and don’t often have a fixed placed to plug into at the end of the day. RV parks …
Refrigeration in a tiny floating home is an essential part of our systems. Most liveaboard boats are equipped with refrigeration, though some are not. Some people simply store food with a cooler packed with ice. Where I like to travel, ice doesn’t last long so it was an easy decision to place value in outfitting the boat with an efficient refrigerator and freezer. The refrigerator currently on board was installed on the boat before we bought her. It’s an Adler/Barbour Dometic air-cooled CU-100 ColdMachine consisting of a …
Whether your house is tiny or whether your house is ten stories tall, a bed is a normal thing you would expect to find in a house. Everyone needs a place to sleep. Sometimes, you may find normal things in not so normal spaces… The mattress in my tiny floating home is a convenient *cough* trapezoid shape with three sides against the wall. The short side underneath the fan is exactly 52″ long. I don’t know what Ted Brewer was thinking when he designed this …