Where to buy a cheap shelf unit

Home shelves are useful for all sorts of purposes, from storing books to keeping tools and gardening equipment. However, some shelf units can be expensive. This article looks at the different places where you can buy cheap shelving solutions.

Shelf units on the High Street

Cheap shelving units are not that difficult to find. They are avaialble in many ordinary high street stores, from furniture shops like MFI to DIY outlets like Homebase. They come in various materials - wire shelving for the kitchen and workshop, wooden shelves for the living room, metal shelves for the garage, etc etc. You may need to put some together from kits, but this is usually fairly simple in the case of shelving - unlike some other flat pack furniture

Cheap shelf units online and from catalogues

Mail order catalogues There are a number of mail order catalogues which sell inexpensive shelf units, these include Empire, Littlewoods, and some of the office supply catalogues such as Viking, which sell office shelving which may well be equally suitable for the home. Shelf units on line You can also buy shelving units from a number of Internet retailers, some of these sell through eBay and Amazon, and there are also specialist furniture suppliers. This allows you to compare prices easily and can be a very effective way to obtain cheap shelving.

Second-hand shelving units

It is worth looking at garage sales, car boot sales, in charity and other second-hand shops for shelf units. They often turn up in these places, and it is a way of obtaining shelf units at a very low price. You can also buy second-hand shelf units from the aforementioned eBay and Amazon, and although you may have to pay postage, you will still probably get them very inexpensively. Finally, you can sometimes buy shelving from shops which are going out-of-business.

Making your own shelf units

If you can't find what you want, making your own shelf units is very easy to do, and not at all expensive. You can make either wall-mounted or free standing shelves, buying the wood and any brackets or other fittings needed at any DIY store. This is a cheap and easy way of obtaining exactly what you want, in the preferred size and material, for very little outlay.