DIY Closet, When You Don't Have A Closet

My husband is a Firefighter, and also works for a local ambulance service, and as a result, has a lot of uniform clothing and accessories. T-shirts, short-and-long-sleeve collared shirts, pants, job shirts, jackets, coats, belts, boots, caps, gloves, toboggans...and whatever else I'm forgetting at the moment.

There's no room for his uniform things in our small bedroom closet, so this stuff ends up all over the house - hanging in the laundryroom, on the back of the bathroom door, in our bedroom doorway, on our bedroom closet door.

About a week or so ago, I had washed some of his uniforms and hung them from our bedroom door trim and, I don't have any idea what made me think of it at that moment, but I thought, I need one of those TV armoire cabinets, with the doors at the top, and a couple of drawers below. Instead of a tv, I could put a closet rod in it and be hang all his stuff together and close it off. In the drawer I could put his t-shirts, belts, socks, boggans, etc.

That very same night, someone posted on Freecycle they were giving away a tv cabinet, with doors up top and drawers underneath. I emailed them quickly, but I never heard back so I guess someone else was quicker than me. :(

I checked Craigslist for any freebies, and there were a couple, although not exactly what I was looking for - they had cabinet/shelf space at the bottom instead of drawers - and were a pretty good drive away from here. I wouldn't've minded the extra drive for a free cabinet if it had been what I'd wanted, but I just wasn't sure I wanted to spend all that gas on something I didn't really want.

There were some for sale, of course, and I almost decided to just buy one, but talked myself out of it.
Wanting something NOW, I think, has been a lot of my problem.
I decided to wait, post a request to Freecycle in hopes someone else thinking about getting rid of their tv cabinet would give it to me.

I gave it a few days, but no one responded to my request, and at some point it occurred to me that we had this large cabinet out on our carport that J's cousin had given him a few months ago.

It doesn't have doors, but I figured I could hang a curtain across the front. Even if not, despite how it looks, it's just so nice to be able to have a place to be able to put all his things so they aren't hanging all over the house.

That top shelf looks very tilted, but it's flat.

It came with three shelves, but no bracket clips, so we had to buy a pack of those, they were $2.98 + tax for a pack of 12.

I had planned to get J to make a closet rod hanging bracket thing out of scrap wood, with a "U" shape on one side and a "O" shape on the other. He happened to have a set of closet rod brackets in his shop that he'd gotten from doing a basement clean-out job a couple years ago.

I thought I had a closet rod or dowel around here, but couldn't find it, but I found a homemade hiking stick upstairs that worked.

So altogether, the closet cost a little over $3.00.

It's ginormous in my livingroom and not the best looking, but it's cheap and serves my purpose, so I'm not complaining. Eventually we'll get our upstairs room(s) done with added closet space and can get rid of or do something else with this cabinet.

If you need (or even want) something, try to find it for free first. Ask friends and family, join Freecycle and any local Freebies Facebook groups, check Craigslist. Have patience. Think outside the box. Maybe you already have, or can obtain something that you can use the way you need/want.