What if your stowage is *too big*?

Does that ever happen? You have too large a space on a boat?

Yes, it does.

Here's how Mike and Rebecca on Katana addressed it:

As I mentioned and showed in the post about our Katadyn install, we had a very large open locker (under the salon seats) that we could use for the watermaker. But as I said, the location is large, and is prime storage space and we weren’t ready to give it all up. I was concerned about storing any heavy objects in this location though because I was almost certain that in rough seas they would slide around and damage the expensive desalinator. Enter the baffles.
We don’t yet have our books on board (they are still in boxes in our truck, waiting for the completion of our new book shelf) so I can’t check to see in which one I saw this idea but the general plan was to subdivide the large locker to prevent things from rolling around. I used plywood for the dividers, cut to shape and then “lightened” by drilling a bunch of holes in them (every ounce saved in plywood allows for more beer to be carried).

I note that Mike has his weight priorities exactly correct.

After working with the design a little more, Mike had this to say:

The baffle to the right in the pic is attached by 4 tiny L-brackets. The same ones shown here

The one with the hinge just has a stopper at the rear. Because there would be stuff on this side it won’t be able to open inward unless it is removed. I think I may change the hinge arrangement though, or perhaps make it slide into a slot. Looking at that now…

[...]

OK, it now is attached at the bottom by hinges (as opposed to the top) and will fold flat in the locker when opened. Much better arrangement. Apparently I shouldn’t make design ideas after sawing and drilling wood in the sun for 4 hours. ☺

I like the fold-down approach too. In order to get at the things constrained by the baffles, everything in the center area will have to be removed anyway, and now the baffles will fold flat, out of the way. And in a seaway, shifting items will be applying force to the baffles as closely as possible to the hinges, where the effective lever arm is minimized.

How have *you* optimized your storage?