Aldi's wire dorm shelves
 

As well as every other store, Aldi has some wire put-together shelves on sale now. These are the same shelves I bought at Shopko six years ago when we built our new house to use in my son's closet. They are held together with a circular joiner that is supposed to keep the shelves together in whatever shape you need. I found that the circles were not strong enough to hold them together, however, I used small zip ties (cable ties) or whatever you call them to secure the shelves and they have held together wonderfully. I found some more at a yard sale a few years ago and I'm using them in my sewing room closet. The weight of the fabric was too much for even the zip ties, but I used the circles to screw the whole business to the studs at the back of the wall and they are plenty sturdy now. I think they are a good buy with the extra security, otherwise they won't hold up with weight on them. Just passing along some experience.

Oh what a great idea. I have some shelves like that and they keep falling apart. I will definitely use the zip ties (I even have some) to secure them. Thanks for the great tip.

Thanks for sharing!

I've had a set of those that have traveled with me through three apartments. I've learned that you cannot put too much in the blocks. If you put them two layers high and on top of a solid base (like a book case ) it is OK...but I would not put anything heavier than fabric in them. A great idea for cheap shelving, but the execution was all wrong.

I bought those at Costco and you are so right about them not holding up to the extra weight. My dh added several heavy duty zip ties all across the depth of the 'boxes', not just at the corners. Then he snipped off the excess to neaten them up. Now I load them up to my heart's content!