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Tiny House Blog: Helpful Tips For Downsizing (PART 3)

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The third and final part to my Helpful Tips For Downsizing series has just published on Tiny House Blog!

If you or anyone you know could use a little hope and inspiration for beginning the process of downsizing or organizing, please take a moment to consider the tips and tools I’ve described in Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. (Click each link for the individual posts).

 

If you missed the announcement on how I became part of the Tiny House community, click <HERE>!

 

Did you find this article helpful? Please share it with anyone you know that might need a little help getting organized.

If you’re still stuck, send me a message and I’ll be glad to help you ‘sort it out’ :)

 

 

 

 

 

Tiny House Blog: Helpful Tips For Downsizing (PART 2)

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Are you ready for Part 2?

Click through to my article on Tiny House Blog to learn some helpful tips on how to make a decision about what to keep and what to get rid of.

 

You can find Part 1 <HERE> on Tiny House Blog.

If you missed the announcement on how I became part of the Tiny House community, click <HERE>!

 

The third and final segment of this series will give you some new ideas on what to actually do with everything… from displays to donations to storage. Stay tuned!

 

Did you find this article helpful? Please share it with anyone you know that might need a little help getting organized!

If you’re still stuck, send me a message and I’ll be glad to help you sort it out :)

Tiny House Blog: Helpful Tips For Downsizing (PART 1)

Do you get overwhelmed with clutter? Does it stress you out to open your closets? Can you find what you’re looking for in your home? Are you getting ready to move to a smaller space?collect memories

I’ve put together some helpful tips on HOW to actually begin the process of downsizing. For those of you that have already moved onto a boat or into a smaller home, you know this is no easy feat. For those of you that are dreaming of your new boat or preparing to move into a smaller space, I hope these simple tips will help make the process a little less daunting. They are also good things for anyone to practice to stay clutter free, downsizing or not!

You can find these tips <HERE> on Tiny House Blog.

If you missed the announcement on how I became part of the Tiny House community, click <HERE>!

Part 2 comes out in a few days with tips on HOW TO DECIDE what to keep and what to get rid of.

 

Did you find this article helpful? Please share it with anyone you know that might need a little help getting organized!

If you’re still stuck, send me a message and I’ll be glad to help you sort it out :)

 

Bath time!

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It’s bath time once a month for our pups. I’m sure this will be happening much more frequently once they are swimming everyday in the salt water :) It just takes a little patience and a little love.

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Both dogs got a good brushing from their daddy and Gunner gets a treat so he’ll be good for the deshedding process. Its amazing how much they shed and this is not good when you’re a liveaboard. If you’re not careful, the dog hair will fall into the bilge and could clog up the pump. Although oblivious to it, we don’t want the boat to start smelling like ‘DOG’ :)

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We try to pick a sunny and warm day so they dry quicker after bath time. As long as Gunner has a treat or toy to chew on he entertains himself while Betsy gets groomed.

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Every once in a while Gunner looks back to make sure the hose isn’t coming his way again…

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Then back to the bone :)

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Betsy is pretty tolerant of the whole process. She knows that when she’s all clean she gets to snuggle under the covers with her daddy! Spoiled girl.

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Both puppies get their nails trimmed and ears cleaned after their bath and Betsy gets real excited when we tell her she has “pretty nails” :)

Next bath time will be on the aft deck at anchor, place warm where the coconuts grow…

What’s that SMELL??

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Our marina is beautiful, but there is no denying that the water here in western Florida is just an icky shade of murky brown. There is a ridiculous amount of sea life and barnacles and when you combine that with the warmth you get a frequent need to inspect and clean everything that is exposed to the water. We left our dinghy in the water for just two days and it had a healthy coating of algae started on the bottom!

When sea life is left stagnant (for example in the plumbing lines to the heads before we arrived at the boat in late September) it can create an awful stink. We thought we did a pretty thorough job cleaning out the lines but the stink just never quite left all the way. Remembering the seastainers hadn’t been cleaned in a long time, they quickly became our prime suspects.

First step, close the thruhulls!! This was a no brainer but could have easily been forgotten as neither of us have much experience with maintenance on a boat. We were kind of prepared and had a huge wad of paper towels underneath each strainer before unscrewing the wingnuts on the strainer but neither of us were prepared for how gross the inside of it was going to smell.

Sure enough, they were totally gross!! After cleaning up the overflowing seawater mess in the bilge, we pulled the first strainer out and it was coated black. This one was for the main engine intake. We pulled out the second one, which filters water for the generator, air conditioning and aft head, and it wasn’t as black but it smelled 10 times worse!! We used a small hand pump from Wal-Mart to suck out the rest of the nasty stinky seawater from the glass cylinder and got it outside in a hurry.

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Upon closer inspection on the dock, our two seastrainers had tiny little clusters of shells and barnacles growing inside them. Maybe a common occurrence for seasoned cruisers but it sure was fascinating to us!! A little scrubbing with a metal brush and some pressurized hose water did the trick. All shiny and new again! Well, not really new, they are starting to get holes in them so next time we clean them we will put in new ones. But for today, it’s good enough :)

Another first for us in learning how to keep our Mary Christine in ship-shape!!

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