Day 1: Target and the Closet

Today is day 1 of my personal challenge/goal to not spend any money for 1 month on anything that is a non-necessity.

My son, Stone, already has a trip to Target planned for today – I think my husband may have to take him.

Target is my kryptonite.

Speaking of my son, I wanted to share the project I worked on this week.

My son has a small room and a lot of stuff. He needed some storage that could be concealed.

I decided a closet build out would be the best way to accomplish this.

My goal was to build out his closet using materials I had on hand and spend little to no money.

Here is what I started with:

Closet BEFORE

I came up with this plan:

So professional looking, huh?

I started by clearing everything out:

Then I got to work!

This shelf was stored in my garage. 

 I built it for Stone's nursery 11 years ago but since we were no longer using it the wood was perfect to recycle!

I used the large pieces as the side supports and then cut the existing clothes bar to fit into the supports.

He also had this bookcase in his room.

My dad built it more than 40 years ago in his high school woodworking class.

It had gotten more than its share of usefulness as a bookcase and needed new life as shelves so I dismantled it:

For the shelf supports I cut small pieces of wood that used to be part of our backyard fence:

I cut the shelves down to the width I needed and using a level I installed them at varying heights:

I managed to use almost every piece from the old bookcase :

The entire project was completed using only materials I already had on hand. 

Even the box of screws I used were leftover from other projects. 

My total cost was $0.00 and about 3 hours of work! 
(And I did everything by myself!)

Here is the finished result:

Closet AFTER

Eventually I would like to add another long shelf above the existing topshelf and some small shelves to the left of the clothes hanging area.  I also want to caulk and paint it all so it looks nicer.

But this is what I was able to accomplish with what I already had.

We still need to sort through all of the toys and books in his closet but for now at least I don't have to look at it because I can close the closet doors:

So, now I'm thinking...

If I can build out a closet and not spend a penny, surely I can make it through an entire month without buying any non-necessities, right?

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney