For clothes, your best bet is to hit the garage sales and estate sales, and buy used. A dresser or wardrobe is traditional, but keep an open mind … anything with compartments will do. I managed to snag a very nice wooden buffet, which, though intended for a dining room, happens to work great in my bedroom. At any rate, you should be able to find something that looks decent for under $80. Look for solid wood rather than cheap fake-wood laminate; if the wood surface is dinged-up or water-stained, you can always paint it. Handles/knobs can also easily be replaced with more attractive versions—you can buy simple ones at Home Depot and most hardware stores, or look for fancier ones at IKEA or other home furnishing stores.

Trunks are great for storing off-season clothes, extra blankets, towels, sheets, and more. If you don’t like the black/dark army green that they usually come in, don’t hesitate to paint them. Added bonus: they can be used as table space [coffee table, endtable, bedside table...]

If you can’t find all the bookshelving you need while searching the garage sales, you can quite easily make your own. Wall-mountable bookshelves and brackets can be purchased at any hardware store or Home Depot; for a sleeker, more modern look, try floating shelves [check out IKEA’s from their LACK line, $29.95-$39.95 and available in a wide array of colors and finishes], which slide directly into two thick posts that you mount in the wall. When wall-mounting, you’ll want to make sure you’re mounting into a stud, rather than dry wall, or else your shelf may not be able to support much weight. To locate the studs in a wall, rap gently along the wall till you hit an area where the sound changes from a hollow tap to a dull thud. Or, invest in a studfinder, which you can find at the hardware store.