Safco Literature Organizer, 12 Compartments, Office and Classroom Mailbox with Adjustable Shelves, Wood Paper and Mail Sorter, Gray

Great product- sturdy and easy to put together! Just be smarter then I am, I looked at the pic and thought the shelves were brightly colored. I was so excited because it would look great in my classroom. NOPE they are a very functional brown! Still a great product just no pizazz!

After seeing all the negative reviews I was afraid to purchase this shelf, and got another metal organizer instead. Having more stuff to organize, I eventually got this one too (the grey model), because I liked the fact that it had a flat top--to put more stuff of course! When I opened the package I was apprehensive, but none of my parts were broken, damaged, or missing, and everything was held tightly in place with Styrofoam. I put the thing together in under an hour while my husband got ready for work (and I'm a pretty slow worker on this sort of thing). The parts aren't labeled, but honestly it doesn't matter because there aren't very many parts and the pictures show where they go. No tools besides a tack hammer are necessary, and mine DID NOT crack or bubble during assembly (see below for construction tips). TIPS for those who are having trouble: Don't wet the dowels to activate the glue--they fit snug enough that this isn't necessary to hold the thing together, and allows you to take it apart if you screw up, if you need to pack up the thing to move to a new house...etc. For the top: Stick the dowels into the ends of the 3 boards that are sticking up (instead of pushing them into the top first--this might lead to the cracking others experienced). Another easy trick I did (just for the top, but I could have done it elsewhere) was to tap the dowels in before placing the top on. Tap them in until you hear that they touch the bottom of the drilled out space, or until they stick up less than the width of the top piece. The top pushes on nicely from there and..Ta Da...No bubbles! Make sure to look at the pieces to make sure you have all the finished edges facing the front....I got everything right except the bottom piece...Since I didn't use glue it was a simple fix, but I could have avoided that step if I'd paid more attention... Now, that being said, know what you are getting. This is a particle board organizer. It's plenty sturdy for that and works for the intended purpose of holding papers and some miscellaneous junk on top (a plant for instance) just fine, but it is not high quality material. Nothing compares to real wood, but--and take this from someone who owns a sawmill--real wood is expensive. Even for something as simple as this you have to measure, cut, plain and sand the boards, and then finish them. The product will turn out beautiful and much higher quality, but it will take a little time and more money, even if you do the work yourself. So if you are looking for a piece of furniture that will look fancy and be passed down for generations, spend more money and hire a carpenter or buy a more expensive model. If you want something cheap and quick that looks and works decent, then this is it. P.S. I got this in the grey, which is fine but kind of plain, so I let the kids stencil, paint, and bejewel the sides--it's for their papers anyway! Update: 5 years later and still going strong--daily use and no damage yet. It's actually a pretty sturdy little unit. I'm thinking of buying another to hold more paper options. I'm so glad I went with this instead of one of the cardboard models!

I needed a sorting bin for my various printer papers. I didn't want a cheap cardboard device -- paper is heavy and I don't know how those don't bend over time. Anyway, this is much better build - MDF sides and center support w/ stiff chipboard compartment dividers. Each little chipboard tray has a clip on plastic support on the front to add strength. I have built a lot of MDF furniture over the years, and generally have no problems. However, this one was a pain. The glued dowels are a great idea, but I'd never used them before. If you buy this, know that each dowel must be put in place quickly after you dip them in water to activate the glue (it dries quickly). Second, the dowels are easy to accidentally put in too deeply, which causes the MDF boards to crack slightly. Worst of all, the instructions are not very detailed, so you will inevitably put it together wrong at least once -- which wouldn't be a problem except for the glue, which makes putting it back together correctly very hard. Yet - still 4 stars for being a nice sturdy piece when you are done.

First off, the instructions are not very clear on how the water activated glue dowels work. As someone who has never used them before, I googled how to do it, whether it was dipping or soaking. After seeing several articles saying don’t soak, I chose to dip them. My fingers are now blue. 🙄 Then there was the installation of said dowels. When they’re wet and have glue that you know nothing about, you aren’t sure how it’s going to work. It was messy. Thankfully I had paper towels nearby to wipe away any blue glue water from the shelves. But the fun part begins when you try to get the dowels in the shelves and match them up. Yah, it didn’t go well. I used a book to hammer on so I didn’t damage the shelves. Guess what? It damaged the shelves. Two of the dowels went through the top because of the glue setting up and not going in properly. Then the holes aren’t aligned so one of the dowels is angled. So the entire thing is not set properly and it’s now damaged on top. Also, the shelves are very thin particle board material. They definitely won’t hold much weight. Luckily I can use it for papers only and have a backup plan for my binders. Overall, this has poor materials, poor construction, poor instructions. Do not waste your money on it!!! Oh, and someone in the department of putting stuff together must’ve set their drink down because they left me a nice little ring on the instructions. Seriously people, what happened to quality control?!?

I bought this to use in my classroom to organize papers and I'm very happy with it! It was easy to put together and does exactly what I need it too. If I wanted to, it would be easy to remove some of the shelves and the pegs holding them up to create more space. The frame is very sturdy, although I think the shelves themselves really aren't; they're made of thin particle board. I don't think they would hold something like hardcover books. But you could certainly remove some of the lower shelves and store books on the very bottom of the piece! Since I only need it to hold paper, I haven't had an issue with its sturdiness. As I said, the frame is solid, I don't feel worried that it will list or collapse. It's not very pretty, since it's designed to be functional, but I was able to decorate it with some patterned contact paper and I'm very happy with the result. It will make a nice piece for my classroom.

For the price I feel like the quality was not what I was expecting. First of all, it came damaged. Second, when I put it together the instructions are not very clear. When I was putting it together it was very flimsy and after it was all completed some of the glue screws damaged the bottom and top parts of the cubby.- OVerall I feel like I piad 15$ for this product when indeed I paid well over 45$. - Not impressed. I would absolutely pay 20$ more to get better quality.

Product is exactly what I expected. 1/2 laminated/pre-drilled particle board with wooden pegs, metal shelf pins and thin 1/16 cardboard back folded in the middle for shipping. You can have it together in 10-20 min if you don't make a new back. Otherwise it's more of an hour or so with that extra time. You won't have all the problems others mention (pegs breaking through, etc) if you follow the following tips... 1. Assemble this on a solid flat surface. This is the most important part. A sheet of 3/4 MDF on the floor is ideal. If you don't have that, use the cardboard on flat concrete. 2. Use a hammer to gently tap the wood pegs in to the top and bottom holes while they are laying flat on the solid surface. (Ignore the directions where you put the pegs into the vertical side ends first.) If you hammer the pegs in too far, you'll get the problem others have with bumps or breakage on the finished side. 3. Soaking the pegs in water is fine but if you want the pegs to be well secured, use a dab of wood glue in the holes too. 4. Use a piece of scrap wood like a 2x4 to spread out the force as you hammer the sides down onto the pegs. (This way you don't damage the fragile particle board edges and you get the wood down nice and tight. Note: If you feel any bumps on the finished flat top and bottom from the pegs, just use the flat side of the scrap wood with the hammer to push/flatten it down. (Do this before the glue dries.) 5. If you have the ability to cut a piece of 1/8 or 1/4 luann or pressboard (using the existing cardboard back as a size guide) you will have a stronger back and finished unit. Otherwise, just use the cardboard back provided. Either way, if you use a bit of wood glue to secure it before you nail it down, it will be stronger. And that's it. This unit is really no different than any other cheap pre-fab pre-drilled laminated furniture. If you take care in assembly and understand the purpose of my tips above, it will come out great and be as strong as this type of unit can be expected for what it is.

I ordered 2 sets of these. I own a Pilates Studio and thought 1 set would be perfect for mailboxes for all 10 of the teacher's (paychecks, notes & messages, etc) and 1 set would be perfect for each of their client files. Turns out file folders (with the standard tab) don't fit but I didn't mind at all!! Instead I only used 1/2 of the shelves and each teacher gets a bigger mailbox and I'll figure out something else for client files. The quality is great and they were very easy to put together. The instructions said to soak the blue dyed dowels in water first....the first one I put together was a mess b/c the blue dye got all over the place. I did not soak the dowels for the 2nd one and everything worked perfectly.

Absolutely horrible. Not worth the price at all and was a pain to put together. Very disappointed.

Moi c’était pour ranger des feuilles de scrapboking 12x12 et ce n’est pas les bonnes dimensions ! Mais je m’en sers pour les feuilles de bureau ou ranger différents papiers ! Merci je regarde pour me trouver un caisson de rangement plus grand ,

Built according to instructions, but the pins that hold it together broke through the particle board in numerous places. Very disappointing.

The quality of this product is not good at all. You can find for sure better quality at this price.