I recently moved into a new room which has no shelves to speak of, so I need somewhere to store some stuff and make it look less Spartan. Given that my finances are tight at the moment, I was definitely looking for something that has a lowish price, and that's actually portable enough to carry home myself (and avoid delivery or cab charges). After browsing through the Argos catalogue, this seemed perfect for me needs, and at 14 pounds, a bargain to boot.

It comes flat-packed in a long narrow cardboard box. I wouldn't say it was precisely easy to carry, less because of the weight (not bad at about 9kg) but more because of the akward shape, but I managed well enough.

Once unpacked, it was fairly easy to figure out which part is what, helped by the thankfully detailed instructions. You do need a medium cross-tipped screw-driver to assemble it (which I didn't have, so I had to wait for a friend to bring one over) as well as a hammer for the little nails that attach the back to the size. It was fairly easy to assemble once you have the tools, and I personally found it easier to attach the bottom panel, one side panel and top panel before attaching the other side panel, though I'm sure other people might find a different order works better. In any case, it's important for the case to be straight before you attach the back. The shelves you just slide in once you fix the metal supports (there are holes for that purpose on the side, so you just pop them in). The instructions reccomended fixing it to a wall but I didn't do that, as it's small and short enough not to be much of a hazard even in the unlikely event it does fall.

Once assembled, it looked really good in the room space and while small (85x65 cm), you can fit a fair amount of stuff on it, as it has three shelves and the top can be used as a shelf too (I mostly keep decorative candles there). I managed to fit most of my books (but only because those are the books I amassed in two months in the UK) and have some extra space so I finally have an excuse to go shopping. You can easily adjust the height of the shelves, which is really useful.

My verdict: great value for money, and I like the look. I would ideally like something bigger, but for people who already have other bookshelves/have really limited space, this is a great solution.