Today’s subject is the ‘tactical dresser’. It is a place to store your ammo, holsters, (maybe) handguns, magazines and other gear.

Of course, I am being a little tongue and cheek. This dresser is something that we bought and used. It was in the apartment and in the way with all of the renovations currently. I am on the fence about whether to refinish it and resell it or donate it. However, with the purchase of a new refrigerator I had to reconfigure a bit of plumbing. Because of that, I had to move a bunch of stuff to access the piping in the basement and consequently, I stuck it in the dresser to get it out of the way,

Everyone needs a place to organize their junk and accoutrement that goes along with their hobbies and interests. For myself, I find a lot of joy in everything having a functional home. I have probably spent as much time building benches and storage furniture than I have actually pursuing the hobby that they were for. The bench that has appeared in multiple ‘Tacticool’ Thursdays posts was designed and constructed as a fly tying bench. It actually has been used as a reloading bench, but not yet to tie a fly.

I have constructed custom pantry, camping and propane storage shelves. I have made pegboard racks, ammunition shelves and potting benches. Maybe they will make it into future posts. I guess that it is the frugality in me, but I am always thinking about how ‘junk’ can be repurposed to into something that be used to further my organization and make life better. Because as much as I think it is good to clean out old stuff, I worry about donating unwanted stuff is still junk in the end.

The dresser pictured is something that we purchased second hand. It is a quality piece of furniture that was built in the 1980s and is made of ‘real’ materials like American Oak. It is dated, no doubt about it but it is well made and well built.

The dresser we used for twenty years was something that was garbage when I started. Contact paper wrapped the entire piece. There were cigarette burns and scars on the top. When I refinished it, it revealed a mahogany veneer. It turned out to be beautiful and I hated to replace it when we did. But there is a saying, “you cant polish a turd”.

Let’s bring this all around. Look at your cast offs, look at you needs. Make sure you are not making your problem someone else’s. Make sure when you are donating something that you are asking yourself, “would you buy this?” Can you integrate this into something that would benefit you? Make your life better by organizing and utilizing material that would otherwise end up in the landfill.