Cooking, Cleaning, Clothes - Not So Romantic Realities of Living Aboard Your Boat

It would be nice to think that living aboard a boatat a full boil to cook them. Bring them to a boil and
somehow robbed you of domestic chores in favourset aside. Check them in 20 minutes and then bring
of more exotic ones like finding ways to keep ottersback to the boil if necessary. This saves oodles in
from having midnight seafood fests on your deck orfuel costs. One pot recipes save time, fuel, and more
finding the most comfortable spot for extendedfresh water for clean up so look for those the next
novel reading. Regardless of the glamourous notionstime you're surfing the 'net.
about living on a boat, you still have to cook, clean,It definitely takes less time to clean the inside of a
and do laundry.boat than it does to clean the inside of your house.
Fuel and fresh water are always issues for finiteWood floors can be swept, floor mats shaken
floating real estate, as are storage and refrigerationoutside, and a portable car vacuum plugged into the
so large shopping trips are a thing of the past. Havingaccessory socket from the battery does wonders
first cooked for all my friends and then raised afor upholstery and hard to reach nooks and crannies.
family, this was a culture shock for me. Leaving theI love the smell of Murphy's Oil Soap on wood so it
grocery store with only 2 bags and having spent onlygets used often. Baking soda is my best friend for
$25 left me uncomfortable at first, and then I beganscrubbing the tough stuff and all cleaning materials
to trust that the store was always there when Ithat I use are environmentally friendly.
needed it and I would not die without four flavoursLaundry becomes a much lesser chore since you
of herbal tea on hand at all times.learned to part with a lot of your wardrobe before
To conserve water for food preparation, I rip upyou moved on to your boat and became an expert
lettuce or peel and cut up vegetables before rinsing -at choosing, mixing and matching six different outfits
no point in washing what will be thrown away. I useout of four pieces of clothing for work in an office.
a bowl to catch the water from rinsing under theI'm not even relegated to the Laundromat since I
sieve and use it to dampen the dishcloth to give thediscovered my little Wonderwash portable washing
counters and cupboards a wipe when I am done.machine. It uses no power, a small amount of water,
I start preparing dinner earlier too because you doand fits on my countertop - I never did such cheap
not need to keep things like potatoes, rice, or pastalaundry when I lived on land!