Chris and Kell, congratulations on your N38, from the photos on your website you have a lot to do!
Nauticats are built to be comfortable for
living aboard and on our N43 we have two hanging lockers in our aft
cabin owners stateroom that we use for his and her closets, for clothes and shoes, just like in a house. In the PNW it really helps to hang a
Damp Rid to keep the locker and clothes dry and fresh.
The hanging locker in the forward stateroom I use as a
rope locker for all my spare and special purpose lines. The closet rod is useful in any hanging locker and I'm not sure about your question or hesitancy about using the rod to hang stuff. The doors have a catch and everything stays in there nicely while under way.
Since, like us, you appear to be in PNW, you might be interested in my latest
project to insulate the aft cabin ceiling. This past winter was our first here in WA (we arrived from CA in June 2019) and the
condensation in our sleeping quarters was way too much. We live on the hook and as frugally as possible, so we don't run dehumidifers or keep our heat on all the time. We're here because we LIKE the weather and would rather be cold than hot. My Nauticat guru has a sister ship N43, is in
Alaska and has been invaluable in providing
advice for adapting to cold weather environments and guided my
insulation efforts. Since you're working on your boat up here you might add
insulation while everything is apart, especially in the ceiling between the
headliner and the
deck.
Another tip from my guru was to use
window film to shrink wrap the windows, hatches and
ports.
We were having
condensation drip from every window,
hatch and port and the window film eliminated that like magic. It has the added benefit of increasing the insulation of the windows as well. For 8 bucks it's affordable and easy to apply to prep for winter, and remove in spring.
We spent two years re-fitting our N43 before taking off to become full time PNW cruisers. I've been through every inch of our boat, have worked on every system and have learned a lot! Feel free to reach out with your questions as you did here.
We have a great
Nauticat forum for sharing information and support and I invite you to join us. There are quite a few of us in PNW, makes sense as Nauticats are built for these conditions.
My best to you!