The sun has been coming out earlier, now around 6:30am instead of 7am. Spring reminds me that it is possible to make a clean start, for new good, fresh buds, and a healthy lifestyle.
In order to live comfortably on a sailboat the key is to make use of as much space as humanly possible. For most of us, refraining from buying something is more difficult than budgeting. Getting rid of things is harder than keeping. When I sold my condo, I reduced my belongings to fit in a storage room of 5ft x 5ft x 8ft. I haven’t been to my storage room for two years since the COVID lockdown. Do I really need to keep my sentiments in the storage room? Right now, yes…
Cooking on a boat takes more effort. To find one ingredient, I sometimes have to move 10 items in and out. In order to make my life easier, I have been finishing some cooking spices/condiments and not replacing them. John previously didn’t understand why I kept so many cooking condiments. For him, cooking is good enough with three condiments: butter, salt, and black pepper. Why did I have five different bottles of hot sauce? I was curious about hot sauce from different countries. Been there and done that. I decided to keep only the best and versatile one: Korean Gochujang Paste.
What about vinegar for cooking? I had rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and apple cider vinegar. It is down to one: Apple Cider Vinegar. (*We keep white vinegar for cleaning boat parts etc.) For cooking oils, I downsized from many such as Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Regular Olive Oil, Vegetable Oil, Avocado Oil, and Sesame Seed Oil to two: Regular Olive Oil and Sesame Oil. (*I have to have Sesame Oil.) For sauces, I keep Soy Sauce and Fish Sauce. No more Oyster Sauce, Hoisin Sauce, and Teriyaki Sauce.
Simplifying my kitchen is an ongoing practice. It took all of my adult life to assemble a mass of condiments and spices, sauces, all of the things I thought I needed to cook. Downsizing lets me enjoy sailing more. I will not starve and my food still tastes good.
