Closet Revitalization on a Budget

A few posts back, I mentioned that Benny and I scored part of a closet system at Lowe's on the clearance table. Well, after that, Benny went to another Lowe's location to see what pieces they had, only to find that all of their pieces had been shipped to the Boone store already. What he managed to score was even better... after a little haggling, he was able to get the whole display unit from that store for $50! (We found out later that this was almost $600 worth of stuff... geez, I love a deal!)

So, the day he brought home the store display (in a friend's truck, since the Jetta definitely wouldn't hold it), this is what I came home to. That's right... a bedroom and living room full of pieces parts of closet system. Mind you, this was a weeknight and I had class that night, so I was beat! And our bed was covered in closet stuff... so, I made Benny a deal. I'd live, for up to two weeks with stuff scattered all over, if he'd get it all put up. He said it would take the weekend. Here was our closet before (after we zealously took down the wire coated stuff that previously hung in the space--to be repurposed in the laundry closet as a second shelf and in the one-day refinished basement as additional storage).

Well, after a little more than a week, I'm eating my words... (it didn't happen in a weekend or two weeks, so I guess we're both compromising) and we have a newly revamped closet for about $50! Benny had to pick up a few hardware pieces along the way, but we were able to put almost all of the purchase of the closet system onto our Lowe's gift card, which meant that the purchase was a nice extra (that we'd been drooling over for about a year), without eating into our thrifty budget. (We discovered quickly that there were more pieces than would fit into our closet, so we moved them downstairs to be used in the basement when we finish that space out in the future... hopefully near future.)

So, let me go on record saying that I'm so stinkin' proud of my husband! He did a fantastic job piecing this all together (since it was the display and was already disassembled when he bought it, there were no instructions for how to put the units back together) and it totally increases our storage space. The shelves go most of the way up the 9-foot walls, which makes use of more of the vertical space we weren't using before, and the shelves across the top will allow us to store out of season clothes in easy-to-see (and reach) baskets and bins. With the space the wrap-around corner shelf provides, we now have some storage for linens, which we were sorely lacking before. Now, there's room for all of his t-shirts, which were crowding the dresser, and we've even got space to hang my wedding dress behind the door with a hook mounted on the wall. This all means that we might be able to get rid of the dresser he doesn't like and replace it with a recovered Goodwill chair, which he's been wanting as a space to sit and tie shoes and generally make the bedroom more of a retreat by adding a reading light.

How're your budget DIY projects coming? How are you repurposing things around the house? Got a great deal to share? Please share... I'd love to hear from you!

Sharin' the green love and savings!