The instructions were hidden between some of the leaflets so we didnt find them until we were at level 3. There was a link in the order to assembly directions which did help. It would be better for the instructions to be more obvious in the package. This took about 30-40minutes to assemble. Each quarter shelf is able to hold ~20 National Geographic issues which is a pretty good amount in my book and makes it worth the cost. That top shelf has six (6) years stored now.