Zero Cost Makeover

I rearrange my furniture a lot. Like it might be an illness. You should never walk around my house at night without a light. Things are NOT where they used to be.

After many wasted hours looking on Pinterest  I decided I needed some bookshelves. I have avoided bookshelves for years because they just hold stuff I have to dust. I'm more of a 'closed storage' girl. But, I realized I needed height along my super tall wall and bookshelves were the only answer I hadn't tried. 

I checked out some retail sites for a baseline price. I love garage sales but furniture goes FAST. So, I thought Craigslist might be an option. I scanned the local listings for two days and found very little. Then on a whim I decided to look in the free section, figuring it would be total junk. Lo, and behold, someone just a few miles away from us had listed FREE bookshelves. I looked at the posting time....20 minutes ago! I threw Everett in the car and we got them! Here are my beautiful free shelves!

Problem: I had NO idea what to do with them! I had never worked with shelf arranging. I sat and looked at them empty for a few days. Then I couldn't take it and went through the house looking for bookshelf worthy items. Below is my pathetic attempt at shelf arranging. It's...fine....ok....a little bland.

Fortunately for me, I recently made a new friend and it turns out she LOVES to do stuff like rearrange furniture and organize stuff on shelves. I asked her to help me! And, you know what? She did! It looks WAY better now. You can see for yourself below. She actually pretty much rearranged my whole house. She likes to do it as much as I do. We were giddy. :D

I have some more tweaks to make. Like, you know, actually hang pictures. But, it was so fun and everything we did so far was zero cost (not zero work, I worked up a good sweat several times). She had some suggestions for purchases but those can all wait till the budget allows. I am enjoying my zero cost makeover!

What has been your best free/cheap find?