Cabinets

Wardrobe or built-in closet in a Costa Rican bedroom:

the difference is whether it leaves with you. A freestanding wardrobe in melamine-faced board, pine or moulded plastic goes on the truck at every move. A built-in closet is usually fitted to the wall by a melamine workshop, quoted per linear metre after someone comes to measure, and it stays with the house. Between the two sit open melamine closet units, sold flat-packed to stand inside a wall recess and often finished with a folding door or a curtain. Chests of drawers live beside the bed. Glass-fronted china cabinets and sideboards for the good plates go with the dining table, and a pantry cupboard does the same job in the kitchen. Steel filing cabinets mostly come out of offices, where they stood beside a desk.

Depth, doors and the recess in the wall:

decide whether a piece fits the room and the clothes. Many flat-pack wardrobes and open closet units are only about 40 cm deep, barely the width of an adult coat hanger, so shirts hang at an angle and rub on the doors. If most of what you own hangs, look for something nearer 50 cm. In a small bedroom, sliding doors save the swing space that hinged ones need in front of the bed. For an open unit meant for a recess, measure the width, height and depth of the hole at both ends, because walls are rarely square. Plastic cabinets shrug off a wet floor, which suits the corner by the outdoor laundry sink, though their shelves carry less than board.

Plastic cabinets, melamine wardrobes and what they cost used:

new, a two-door plastic cabinet runs about ₡75,000 to ₡85,000, and a melamine wardrobe or an open recess unit about ₡95,000 to ₡180,000. Against that, a used one is priced by its history more than its age. A wardrobe you can see standing, doors level and every drawer running, is worth far more than the same model in a pile of panels with a bag of mixed screws, because flat-pack board loses grip at the cam fittings each time it is taken apart. Built-in closets rarely come up used at all, since they stay with the house.

Hinges, base edges and back panels on a used wardrobe:

tell you more than the photos. A door hanging lower than its neighbour often only needs the adjustment screws on its concealed hinge turned, but if the hinge cup has pulled out of the board, it will not stay put without a repair. Look at the bottom edge where the mop reaches: particleboard that has drunk water swells and crumbles, and it does not go back. Check the back panel is fixed all round and pull every drawer to its stop. Under an old cedar china cabinet or sideboard, small heaps of fine pellets mean drywood termites are living in the wood. For a dismantled built-in, lay the panels against your own recess before you pay, and expect to cut them and edge the cut sides.

A wardrobe, chest of drawers or dismantled closet in an ad:

lead with height, width and depth in centimetres, then the material, the number of doors and drawers, and whether it is standing or already in pieces. Photograph it open as well as closed, with the bottom edge and the hinges in shot. For flat-pack, say whether you still have the instruction sheet and the original fittings; for a built-in coming out of a remodel, say whether you will take it down yourself. Expect to be asked whether it fits in a pickup and how many flights of stairs it comes down. Many wardrobes come up when a family moves into a house with closets already built in, so put your moving date in the ad: a buyer driving in from San Ramón or Curridabat will plan the trip around it.