How much storage do you need?
Our quarter berth is our largest storage locker. 2 sails, and other equipment live there. We just came back from a three day cruise on our '77 h27. We each had a boat bag of clothes, reading material, and other personal stuff. Then we had a cooler of frozen and refrigerated food, and a boat bag of dry food. The cooler contents go into the icebox with some ice, then the cooler goes at the forward end of the quarter berth to hold the rest of the food.
There is a toolbox on the floor at the forward end of the main cabin under where the table folds down. There are little "foot cuddies" at the end of both bench seats in the main cabin. We store a couple of blankets, a canvas shade, and some pillows for the cockpit there. Shelves outboard of the benches, and vee-berth hold the small things we need - flags, binoculars, sunscreen, playing cards, etc.
A shelf outboard of the toilet holds towels, pfd's, harnesses, and tethers. Smaller shelves in the head hold sail repair, spare funnels, Odorlos, soap etc. A heater and a fan join trash bags under the head sink. Dishes, glasses and silverware are under the stove. a rack behind the stove holds coffee, spices, oil, and other cooking supplies.
Two drawers under the kitchen sink, and right beside the companionway hold winch handles other tools we need under way and emergency stuff. A locker ahead of the quarter berth holds spare line, a grounding wire for the rig, the tiller-pilot, a battery charger, alcohol for the stove, and cleaning supplies.
The lazarette in the cockpit holds added diesel fuel, canvas to cover our forward hatch in the rain, more PFD's, shock cords, a hose, and more cleaning supplies. A built in locker at the aft end of the cockpit with an overboard drain holds butane bottles for our grill.
We have done long cruises of 6 and 8 weeks on the Great Lakes in our boat. We top up food for a week in the same places named above, and usually bring more clothes that get stored on the outboard shelves in the vee-berth.
Cruising for a week with two couples or with my Dad and two brothers did stretch storage a bit. We limited each person to a single bag of personal stuff, and those were often stored on the main cabin floor at night.
I guess my point is that workable cruising boats are a choice, and the choice is not as limited by boat size as some people would like to say it is. Some of us may need a 50 footer. I've cruised a week with two couples on a lot of 34 to 37 foot charter boats. They all seemed to have plenty of room to me. We have cruised as a couple of 34-35 footers and think they have way to much room for us.
I think a Hunter 34 would be a great first coastal cruising boat. If you really need more space, you can always trade up.