I ditched my house for life on a canal boat - here are THREE common mistakes first timers make

A woman who ditched her London room for a 30ft narrowboat has revealed the three common mistakes people make when living on a canal boat for the first time.

Shannon Lane, 29, was paying £900 a month to house share in Clapton, but when she found out her landlord was raising the price to £1,000, she decided she was done with renting and took out a loan to buy a £24,000 narrowboat.

The freelance artist and video producer now spends £300 a month paying it off and cruises around London's canals with her pug, Gilbert, for company. 

Before she made the move, she said she 'suffered with bad anxiety and depression', but now she 'wakes up every day happy'.

However, there are some negatives, as Ms Lane revealed, by sharing the three common mistakes that first-time canal boat dwellers make when they choose to live on one. 

A woman who ditched her London room for a 30ft narrowboat has revealed the three common mistakes people make when living on a canal boat for the first time

Tying their ropes too tightly

There are plenty of things to learn as a first-time barge owner. 

Shannon found out the hard way when she tied her middle rope to the towpath and other ropes too tight. 

This meant that, alarmingly, she was tipped out of bed in the middle of the night.

She told MailOnline: 'I went outside and the water level had gone down (this happens due to locks) and my boat was listing to one side. 

'If this happens too much water can get into places you don’t want it to and it could sink. Luckily I noticed and loosened my ropes, and safely got back into bed.'

Waiting too long to empty their toilet

One unglamorous aspect of narrowboat living is having to deal with the toilet. 

Shannon says she has a cassette toilet on her boat and has to wheel the sliding cartridge to an Elsan point - a communal disposal area.

It's not a wise idea to leave it too long, as Shannon learned from experience: 'You can imagine the smell.'

Leaving food outside

Shannon insists it's important to properly discard your food waste and not leave anything outside the boat. 

She says: 'Food outside attracts animals, and we have a lot of scavenging animals by our boats, such as rats, foxes and birds.'

Shannon Lane, 29, was paying £900 a month to house share in Clapton, but when she found out her landlord was raising the price to £1,000, she decided she was done with renting and took out a loan to buy a £24,000 narrowboat

However, there are some negatives, as Ms Lane revealed, by sharing the three common mistakes that first-time canal boat dwellers make when they choose to live on one