How One College Student Subleased A Walk In Closet

Several years ago, I met a fellow university student at a local Gamestop in San Diego who had at the time, at least to me, one of the most interesting living arrangements I had ever come across. At the time, our university’s tuition rose by roughly 30 percent and filling up at the pump would cost a cruel $4.50 per gallon. In essence, it wasn’t exactly the easiest time to be a college student.

My friend (I’ll refer to him as Thad) had a solution to this torrent of rising living costs. Thad decided to sublease someone’s closet. Yes, you heard me: sublease a closet. At first, I was a bit skeptical of the whole idea – who wouldn’t be? When someone tells you that they’re going to live in a closet space for the next year or so, most initial reactions are going to be that of shock, dismay, or curiosity.

However, Thad’s idea wasn’t as idiotic as I thought it would be, and it turned out he actually had a pretty nice set-up going on for himself.

The photo above isn’t the actual room Thad resided in, but it’s a pretty close representation. Thad stayed in a walk-in closet roughly the size of the one in the picture with a basic mattress taking up the entire floor.

On both sides of him were basic white melamine shelves, which he used as a “nightstand” of sorts. Useful! What was convenient about his closet was that he had a power outlet near his shelves. This allowed him to plug in a 6-outlet surge protector to use as a “charging station” for his electronics. As for his clothes, he had them folded up neatly and stacked on top of the other shelf (it IS a closet, after all). Finally, the only lighting he had was a single light bulb that hung above his head.

On a grand scale, he had the necessities. The best part (to him) was that he was only paying $150 a month for rent. Since he personally only needed to come home to sleep and shower, this worked out well. However, because of the size of his mattress, the closet door couldn’t be closed, and the resident of the room that the closet was a part of, who was a female by the way, didn’t exactly have her own storage space. All in all, Thad’s technical roommate had cheaper rent and Thad had a cheap place to sleep at night. I suppose it was a win-win situation for everyone.

Do you know anyone personally who lives in a small living space (perhaps even another “closet” case)? Let us know in the comments below! And, for more closet-related stories, visit our blog!