Baby Stays and Bins

Our new baby stay is installed!

Yesterday was a big day around here.  Our boat was officially converted into a "slutter" with the installation of our new furling baby stay (read this post to find out why) and we unpacked ALL of our boxes.  Yep, all thirty-four of those puppies.  We are very, very excited about these two things.

Scott and I are pretty organized when it comes to stowing our boat.  The number one goal being to maximize space while maintaining order.  I'm not sure if it's the "right" or the "best" way, but what we do is go absolutely nuts with bins.  I've spent hundreds of dollars on bins and/or storage solutions in the past four years and, in our opinion, it's money well spent.  Not only do bins keep items organized (for example; we have a "battery bin", a "charger bin", an "electronics bin", a "lightbulb bin" etc.) but it keeps things clean, rust free and safe from any water intrusion or spills as well.  More than once we discovered minor leaks because salt water pooled on the bins rather than being absorbed into the cabinets which not only made the leaks easier to diagnose, but spared damaging our stuff.  Another time we had a minor "oil spill" in our lazarette and instead of oil covering everything and ultimately draining into our bilge, the spill was contained in a single bin.  Suffice it to say, we dig our bins.  We also dig the incredible amount of storage space on this new boat.  All our belongings have been stowed and we have plenty of unused spaces in which to 'grow'.

The way we typically figure out our bin configuration is by trial and error.  I get a slew of various sized bins from The Container Store and then we play real-life Tetris with those bins to find the best and most efficient configuration.  Bins we like, we get more of.  Bins that don't work, we return.  From there, we load our belongings into them - usually with some sort of theme as I mentioned above - and label them with our label maker.  The most useful or "every day" items go in the easier to reach places, the less used items go in the more tricky places.  We love this system and find it has been the best way to stow our boat with the least amount of chaos.  Chaos on a boat is not a good thing.

Isla also enjoyed her time aboard her new home.  This child is all about being on her feet these days.  Crawling is merely a means to get to some place where she can prop herself up to stand and, preferably,  bounce.  Walking we fear is just around the corner.  While a walking baby on a boat definitely falls into the "chaos" category, we'll refrain from the urge to stick her in a bin.  And unfortunately, our new baby stay has nothing to do with a baby staying anywhere on this boat.  Ho hum.

We're curious, what are the ways in which you stow your boat? Do you use bins as well or do you have another method? Have any tips or tricks that work for you?