Sauder Clifford Place Lateral File, Grand Walnut finish

The first paragraphs are relative to the cost of solid wood vs. manufactured or particle board furniture: So, I recently paid close to $2600 for a SOLID wood, live edge desk and $1500 for a large 5 shelf SOLID wood & metal book shelf for our work/craft room. It was a sale, so regular price was even higher. Seems to be what 'solid' wood will set you back. Unfortunately, this is what solid wood costs. We live in Alaska, so we do not have many buying choices up here. Shopping online is a wonderful addition for us, but tedious because - even if you find something you love, chances are they won't even ship to Alaska. Some ship free within the contiguous US, but refuse to ship to Alaska, even if we pay up. But. I NEEDED a file cabinet. And I needed it now. I searched local first. Nothing suitable. I did see a few solid wood via special order. Mind you - special orders are not returnable even though the store did not have an example for you to examine prior to purchase. Ugh! And the cost for SOLID WOOD file cabinets in a style similar to this Sauder item was $1400 - $1700. Then, wait perhaps a year. Well, let me tell you - I'd already spent too much money already. So, I spent two days online. I was no longer fooling myself into requiring solid wood. I love Amazon, but I always check other resources before purchasing. I found this same Sauder file cabinet offered by a few overstock type & other department stores. Priced as little as $150 or as much as $300 more than the Amazon price. Shipping would have added an additional $200 (for us). So when I saw this on Amazon priced well below competitors, with an additional $33 shipping, (even though it was a PRIME item(?)) I breathed a sigh of relief. But I was a little nervous about how it would look in the same room with our other pieces. I already knew I would not return it because of the size & weight. I didn't want any surprises I could control, so I read every review - twice - before buying. * Many said this was hard to put together: - My husband put this together in about 3 hours. It is not difficult, but as others have stated, it IS important to read the instructions first & take your time going forward. There is a bit of simple layout and labeling prep steps required before you actually start assembling. Hubby is in construction, so this type of thing is quite easy for him, but I'm certain I could have assembled this as well. He used a cordless drill/screwdriver to gently start the major screws, then gave each one 3 gentle turns to tighten by hand. Worked like a charm (no stripping the holes as some had noted happened to them). * A few said this piece cost way too much for particle board especially because it was "not even solid wood": - I don't think those folks have looked at solid wood built furniture recently. I've already mentioned what I found the cost to be for a simple, solid wood file cabinet styled like this one. And, I do think that cost is astronomical - but that seems to be the way of things now. (We had even looked into buying thick live edge planks to build our own desk and shelves, but that would have cost even more. And we never even got as far as pricing out metal framing. Not to mention the back breaking process to build.) I've always been accused of being 'picky'. And, even I find this cabinet to be attractive and have more of a higher end look than I'd expected. The 'print' of the grain looks like wood (from a bit or distance of course)with a soft finish - not like some of those garish shiny finishes that I've seen in other particle board furniture. I have no complaints of how it looks with our desk & shelving. It fits right in. As with most other reviewers, I am very pleased at how nice this looks. * Some said it was "too heavy" & were afraid it would tip forward & hurt someone - "especially if they pulled out both drawers at one time" (??). - Yes, the cabinet IS very heavy. However, personally, I don't see this cabinet tipping - especially after it's loaded with files. I don't know why someone would pull both drawers out together. But you could always use a strap to secure it from tipping if that's a concern, rather than taking it apart, repacking & returning (if you otherwise liked it that is)? So, if you must move this (or other furniture) around, look into plastic 'gliders' made for this purpose. Placing them under the feet enables furniture to slide with TOTAL ease (if you have hardwood or laminate floors I'd recommend placing a cloth under the glider to guard against scratching your floor. Works like a charm on carpet though.). Find them at large hardware stores. * Some said this arrived damaged and they gave reduced stars because of that: - This arrived UPS to Alaska. Don't know where it started from but it was quite a trip. I heard a rather loud 'thud' on our porch & sure enough, the UPS delivery man had just 'dropped'(?!) it off onto our wooden porch. On the box was clearly written "HEAVY: 2 TEAM LIFT" There WERE two delivery men, but only one carried the box all the way up an icy/snowy driveway (strong guy!) from the truck, which was parked at the end. The other delivery man was on his phone with his back turned. As others have noted, this box weighs 100lbs. I cringe to think how the delivery man might have been injured had he had slipped on the ice carrying a 100lb box. So - he did kind of 'toss' it onto the small, overhang porch step. He was half way to the truck when I opened the door & there was this big box. He turned, offering to bring it in but I was already sliding it over the door threshold (can you spell hernia?) I had a devil of a time getting it inside because of the weight. I totally expected something to be chipped or cracked, but fortunately, everything was in tack. So, I would venture to say that if someone receives a damaged piece of furniture - especially if the box is broken up or compromised, it is a result of poor handling during shipment & not the fault of the seller. Although it can happen, very seldom are items packaged in such a way as to poorly support the product. Why would a manufacturer do that? And, why would a reviewer lower a seller's reputation by knocking off stars which are intended to review the quality/value of an item for something that occurred through the fault of shippers? If you get poor customer service when contacting them, that's a different issue. But I see this kind of reaction of lowering the review for the value or effectiveness of an item by reviewers all the time. Some even say customer service "fixed the problem" - "but I took off a star because of this". For us: This arrived in just a few days after ordering. There were no broken or damaged pieces and everything went into place easily, albeit, it was a bit time consuming. It is solid. It looks good (great, actually). This was a great purchase for me!

Quality is very high for flat-pack furniture. It's very heavy and I see no reason it will not last years to come. Drawers are on heavy, double extension ball-bearing slides. Those saying it's difficult to assemble must call an electrician to change a light bulb. Sure there are a lot of parts, but the instructions are very clear, you just need to follow them. A cordless screwgun on low-torque is helpful as there are a lot of Phillips heads screws, but it wouldn't be the worst with a regular screwdriver. The mid-century appearance matches my office, which was my primary reason for purchasing this cabinet.

I purchased this lateral file for use in my parents' house, and it has been serving its intended purpose very well. It took a little longer to assemble than expected (despite having actually worked for that big Swedish company infamous for build-it-yourself furniture, as well as having put together several other Sauder brand desks & cabinets over the years) but the pieces tended to fit as needed and I encountered only the occasional minor "speed bump" while assembling the piece. As it was completed, I realized there was a lock missing so I emailed the manufacturer and got a quick email response -- and just a few days later had a new lock & key in my possession free of charge. Kudos to Sauder for their above-average response! The lateral file itself looks pretty good; it's in the foyer of my parents' home and does *not* look like some cheap DIY project. It's not fully loaded but is supporting a fairly decent amount of (slowly increasing) weight and remains stable & sturdy. My only real complaints -- and this is why it failed to reach 5 stars -- are as follows: 1. One has to be careful when locking the drawers; it's surprisingly easy to "lock" a drawer with the lock not actually engaging the locking tab on the furniture frame if the drawer is just a little out of place. (On the other hand, the locks have resisted some pretty solid tugging when engaged.) 2. Although the entire piece seems able to support a good amount of weight, it's easy to interfere with pulling out/pushing in the top drawer if you lean on the center of the top of the piece while doing so. 3. The plastic hanging guides in the drawers seem determined to always slip out of alignment, allowing hanging files to drop down to the bottom of the drawer if there aren't enough hanging file folders to help keep everything in place. Those problems aside, I've been favorably impressed with this lateral file, and would not hesitate to buy another if/when needed. It's not high-grade furniture, but it certainly seems to be head & shoulders above most of the usual cheap assemble-it-yourself products it competes with in the marketplace.

So, the assembled product looks great but what a journey to get there. I have to say the instructions are some of the best I’ve ever come across- really clear and easy to follow. But this is a lot of work for a piece of furniture. As much as I love this piece, I would have paid twice as much for it to come at least partially assembled. I put it together myself in 3 hours but a lot of it is tedious work- lots of screws, so many screws, and you don’t use a power screwdriver with this material because it’s particle board. My area didn’t have Amazon’s assembly service but if you do, tip your builder well because this is some work.

It is not difficult to put together, but it took longer than my husband expected. It is very sturdy piece of furniture and looks very nice. I like having the option of choosing a regular or lateral filing system in both drawers. I recommend.

We will be discarding this file cabinet very disappointed in unit afraid if it fell over it could seriously hurt someone. Due to glue and compressed particle board weight is 100 lbs prior to storing files. Comes with a safety strap...that is not a comforting add on.

This item was much more cheaply made than expected. One of the support pieces was broken. I was able to fix it with careful use of jewellers glue but not everyone would have this product or expertise. It took MANY hours to put together and the top piece still does not quite fit properly. I did negotiate a discount rather than returning it due to the potential hassle of the return. If stores had been open, it would have been better to look for a second hand item or go to IKEA. However they were not open and I needed something immediately that could go in my dining room. For the price, I was expecting something a little higher quality. I would say this is lower quality than what you would expect from IKEA and the price is higher. Also- this is not the fault of the seller but the deliver company threw it sideways into the snow on our front steps without making an effort to let us know it was there. Fortunately, we are home with nothing to do and saw it happen.

Stylish but the drawers are smaller than they look from the outside. Also its not real wood but melamine...