I purchased two of these units, and just finished assembling the first of them. To begin with, shipping was much faster than expected--despite an estimated delivery date of tomorrow (January 25), the package arrived two days ago, just ahead of the winter storm that you're all sick of hearing about. Packaging was...confusing. Both boxes were wedged diagonally into a much larger shipping box which could probably have held a medium-sized refrigerator, with nothing more than some brown paper tossed in to prevent shifting. However, the inner boxes did hold up pretty well, and at least on the one I've put together everything came through undamaged. Assembly was fairly easy, although the diagrams provided leave quite a bit to be desired. If you are completely lost in assembling anything more complex than a sandwich, you'll want to find someone else to do it for you...but if you can puzzle out some of the less-than-precise instructions, you'll be fine. The assembly instructions indicate that glue (not included) must be used to hold some of the wooden dowels in place, but I opted to skip that step and see no loss in sturdiness as a result. You will need to have a philips head screwdriver and a small hammer available. As far as construction goes, I did find one dowel hole which had been drilled far too deep, but this was "fixed" by stuffing a piece of plastic into the hole. Again, the instructions are not the most detailed I've ever seen, so you'll want to be careful in ensuring that all of the finished sides are facing the same direction before screwing anything in (particularly if you do use glue). However, once you have everything lined up properly the screws go in easily and the finished product looks as nice as can be expected in the price range, and it is quite sturdy. Additional wall-mounting brackets are provided for those who plan to stack units. The cubby holes on the second level are pretty small, which will limit their usefulness. Large enough for a few books or compact discs, but you're not going to get much more in there. With the backing nailed in place it's also unlikely you'll be able to use them for shoes, unless you wear a particularly small size. The spaces on the bottom are much wider, however, and the backing strip does not cover these. The firmness of the build allows for larger items to be stored on top as well; I currently have a laundry hamper sitting on the top shelf, with no bowing apparent. Overall, worth the $35-40 price point, but not something you can use in place of a dresser or bookshelf and certainly not an item to be passed down for generations. I'll update as necessary over time. Update 3/21/17: More than a year later, nothing has changed. Unit one is still supporting a heavy laundry hamper and showing no signs of wear, while my old CPU has found a place atop the second unit which is also holding up beautifully. At this point I can comfortably say that only things holding this item back from a 5-star review are the poor assembly instructions included and the small storage areas inside the units. Other than those two items, a very well-engineered product which is quite fairly priced.
