Clothing Management

[Cowpoos]

I am a week away from becoming a liveaboard and the only thing that I can't figure out is how to manage my clothing storage.

I work 5 days a week currently and have a uniform of sorts to wear. I workout in the morning 5 days a week also and then wear comfortable clothes at night.
I'm in New Zealand which is currently in winter, so I'm not just wearing a t-shirt and shorts all day.

My boat is 32ft, so not a huge amount of storage.

Based on this what suggestions do you have for managing clothes and linen aboard? Storage? What hacks have you found that work?

And please give me suggestions for questions I should have asked, but haven't realised I need to ask yet

[Pete7]

Think the answer is vacuum bags and a hoover to suck the air out. Sort cloths by season etc.

Pete

[Craig Cape Town]

+1 for the vacuum bags for anything that's not worn that often, as well as extra bedding. Find plastic bins with seal able lids that will fit snug into locker or other storage space. Bins/bags keep your kit fresh and dry. Before long, you will be smelling like a moldy old boat if you don't pack it into something.
Also, leave a sheet of tumble dryer fragrance paper in the bin. It will be like mom did your washing again.

[LittleWing77]

I used to have a colleague who kept a wardrobe (hanging closet) in a corner of her office with all of her business clothes in it. She would run to the office, shower at the office and change into her suit. Since we were downtown, she also managed this with a dry cleaning pickup service.

So the business clothes never went home at all... Might be a solution for you.

Good luck!
LittleWing77

[Benz]

I lived with a wife and three small girls on a 31' boat for years. You have no idea how much clothing they required. They valiantly kept things to a bare minimum, as did I, and still we often almost drowned in a tidal wave of laundry. Still, if it's just you on a boat, and you have access to a laundromat, it should be a piece of cake.
When I was living aboard and working, I kept my work shoes at work (still do, though I have a house). Then you only need one pair on board, along with flip flops and sea boots. Unless your job is super-sweaty or grimy, you can wear one pair of pants for half a week, so that means two. Same with shorts. One pair of nice pants for church, and you're all set.

[steve77]

If you have a car, it usually becomes a place to store the out-of-season clothes.

Best of luck with living aboard!

Steve

[Cowpoos]

Thanks for the suggestions so far.
What are you using for storing fresh and what do you use for storing used clothing on board? I don't have many lockers for clothes, so I need bins or bags.

[Pete7]

Stuff for laundry lives in a sail bag in the wet locker. The clean stuff in lockers and cabinets, unless its just the weekend and we leave it in bags. You need to watch out for damp or mold. If you have shore power, then a dehumidifier is probably essential and makes a huge difference for us in a UK winter.

[Benz]

The best sort of lockers--for any sort of storage--are ones that breathe. I store my clothes on open shelves, and the children's clothes lived in hammocks. It's worth the effort to ensure that all your lockers can ventilate, even if it means cutting holes here and there. Biggest design nuance I overlooked when building my boat.

[Simi 60]

We've been cruising 4 years full time now with a shot tonne of storage space on a 60 fter.
My wife's clothes, shoes, makeup, etc etc could all fit in an overhead luggage bag.
Same for me without the makeup.
Actually, she doesn't have any either.

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by Cowpoos

I am a week away from becoming a liveaboard and the only thing that I can't figure out is how to manage my clothing storage.

I work 5 days a week currently and have a uniform of sorts to wear. I workout in the morning 5 days a week also and then wear comfortable clothes at night.
I'm in New Zealand which is currently in winter, so I'm not just wearing a t-shirt and shorts all day.

My boat is 32ft, so not a huge amount of storage.

Based on this what suggestions do you have for managing clothes and linen aboard? Storage? What hacks have you found that work?

And please give me suggestions for questions I should have asked, but haven't realised I need to ask yet

When I was living aboard and working, I found I didn't like my dress shirts/pants folded up since they then looked wrinkled/unkempt. For those items made a clothes/closet bar to hang my clothes. The rest of the clothes/linens were folded/stacked in shelves that I made. The shelves reduced the stacked pile height which then helped reduce the mess when you needed to pull out something from the bottom of the pile.


Similarly worked out in the morning or rode my bike into work. The suggestion of having clothes at work is a good one and what I did. On other occasions, I brought my clothes in in a backpack. I did have the luxury of having a locker room w/showers to clean up before putting on my work clothes. If you keep clothes at work, you still will need a place to change. If you can't shower, wet wipes are your friend (and your co-workers).
Good luck, it's a juggle, but can be done.

[BlackHeron]

Boats make poor houses. Using one as such, tied up at shore is going to pose many other similar isses as a "live aboard" who spends their time working/playing/exercising on shore.

These issues mostly go away when you cast off the lines that bind you to shore and actually use that boat for what it was built to be. A dozen pair of underoos, a few shorts and T's, a couple of long shirts and pants, some underlayers and weather gear">foul weather gear...then you are set for your "wardrobe."

Landsmen will claim we are dirtbags, and berate us for wearing the same "outfit" they saw us in yesterday or last week. That is just jealousy talking. Landsmen gonna land.

[RickG]

I have kept my work clothes in a locker at the gym in the past, but now keep them in a hanging closet in my office. Another option is a clothes hanger for your car.

We are in the Caribbean now, so I keep all of my winter clothes on the rack too.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cheers, RickG

[barnakiel]

I found that the stuff I want to wear tomorrow I never lay it down, nor fold it, always hang it on a hanger. It just looks so much neater when you put it on in the morning. My clients love it.


Try to keep the boat as dry as one can in NZ winter. Moisture promotes mold and mold gives bad smell to any clothing that is not being used daily.


And so my last advice is to use those Japanese rules on getting rid of. I would not go full monty on this BUT a boat is not a house and having too much of anything (except friends, and cash) is bad. Keep what you love and then what you need and use. Give away what you needed in your land life to people in need around you, charities, etc.


b.

[Sailmonkey]

We decided long ago that our 32’ boat was too small to live aboard and hold the type of jobs we both had at the time.

Mine because it’s hot in Texas and I sweat like a pig (too many clothes to keep from rotting) and hers because the wrinkles never went away.

I know it’s not all that helpful to hear, but it also depends on what you do for a living and the type of location you do it in.