Of course, you realize... this means war.

[jarandhel]

Yesterday evening I shopped at Ikea for the first time. It is now abundantly clear to me that Ikea is, in fact, a declaration of war upon the rest of the world by the Dutch and the Swiss.

Seriously, though, stores which sell merchandise the size of beds absolutely should not be self-service. I didn't know Ikea was self-service before I went, so I went to Ikea by myself rather than recruiting friends. I was strong enough to lift, for brief periods of time, the box containing the bed frame. I was not strong enough to be able to lift it one handed so that my other hand was free to steady the cart it needed to be carefully balanced on. And when I tried to add the queen sized mattress on top of that, the whole thing tried to fall over. Thankfully some fellow customers volunteered their help. And, after the joys of self-checkout, another customer in the parking lot assisted me with getting it in my car, and pointed out where exactly they keep the twine for tying things on so I could use it to tie the luggage compartment door closed. Thus ended my Ikea experience.

Things went much more smoothly when I got home. Wrestled the mattress inside. Then attacked the box with the bed frame with a pocket knife. Tore it apart and took most of the pieces inside individually. A few are still in the trunk, but I should bring them in this evening and work on assembling my new bed. So no more sleeping on air mattresses for me. :) I did sleep on my new mattress last night, even though the bed wasn't assembled yet, and it's already REALLY comfortable. I'm glad I decided to do this. And having an under-bed area again, rather than a mattress sitting on the floor, should help me organize my apartment better. I'm in a rather cramped efficiency and space is at a bit of a premium. I was originally thinking of getting a super-efficient desk/dresser/closet/bunkbed combo thingy, but I decided that just wasn't practical. Just the frame would have been over a thousand dollars and assembly looked like it would be a real bitch.

This evening, I'm stopping at Bed Bath and Beyond or someplace similar and looking into a nice new bedspread and sheets and such for it. Trying to make my apartment a bit more uniquely "mine". Also going to see about rearranging my existing furniture. I think if I make a few changes I can make the apartment area much more efficient and put things in areas that are a bit more logically related to one another. Should look really good once I find the right spot for everything.

Comments

[wasurejimo.livejournal.com]

Hey, congratulations! (Next time you go, try the salmon. *g*) And good luck with the building up of the thing. It's usually possible, just follow the instructions exactly and you ought to be fine. Sometimes it gets impractical, then getting help is a good idea.
Send us a picture when it's done, I bet I recognise it. *g* (We've got the single white one with the metal grid. What can I say, it was cheap.)

[stardansr.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on surviving IKEA.

(hug)

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not worried about building it. That's the easy part. I've put together an Ikea bed and dresser before (I just was not part of the group who went to pick out and buy them), and the fasteners they use are very similar to the ones that Merrilat used for their cabinet accessories when I was temping in their factory out in the Harrisonburg area a few years ago. And I got the Ramberg. :)

And yes, I will try the salmon next time... I didn't know they had a restaurant before going, and I didn't feel like eating there by myself, but perhaps next time if I take people with me. There are still nice accessories and things to pick out. (No more bed sized purchases for a while though.)

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

*grins* Thanks. :) *HUGS*

[wasurejimo.livejournal.com]

Nice one. *g* And have fun there. One could say if Sweden is indeed waging war on the world, they've already taken over Germany and invaded people's lives to the point of recreational activities. ("Let's go to IKEA and buy some accessories." "Let's go to IKEA for lunch." "Let's go to IKEA, I'm bored.")

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Dude, we need to get you to a civilized country. There are WAY better things to do with free time than hang out in an Ikea.

[wasurejimo.livejournal.com]

*grin* It's a cultural thing. Like drunken brawls with the neighboring tribe and burying cadavers in the swamp. But I'd like to try out this 'civilized country' thing anyway. ;)

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Can't wait to see you in the spring. :)

[wasurejimo.livejournal.com]

Aw. *smile* Neither can I.

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the bed!

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

I can't help but think that Ikea is the Swedish version of Wal-Mart. Or Wal-Mart is the American version of Ikea.

Do you have a 20% off coupon for BB&B? We *might* have a spare. They send 'em in the mail pretty often.

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

Ikea is Swedish, not Dutch (then again, half the posters told you that anyways) :D

I think I must live in one of the very few parts of the United States not yet touched by Ikea--save for bits of Texas and Illinois near Chicago, they literally do not cover the flyover states at all (seriously, I think Chicago and your local Ikea are the closest ones TO KY). Hence we still must do the furniture outlet/matress outlet/getting old 4-poster bed at auction or peddler's mart/finding the nearest Thomasville gallery route :3

But yeah, having the space under yer bed to stash stuff will help. A lot :3

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

OK, so IKEA in Deutschland = Malling in America (at least in the flyover states) :D

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Ikea was founded in Älmhult, Småland, Sweden, but it's headquarters (and the foundation which owns it on behalf of the Kamprad family) is in the Netherlands. Specifically in Leiden, South Holland. I did my homework before writing the original post. :)

[wasurejimo.livejournal.com]

Exactly. *g*

[wasurejimo.livejournal.com]

*grin* Interesting. Especially since (at least here) they're doing their best in spreading Swedish Pride. Nearly every commercial or printwork features phrases like "With us, in Sweden, ..." ; add to that the Swedish food and names of the pieces of furniture...
(Of course all those "Original Swedish Design" articles are "Made in China" ;) )

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, so are "german engineered" gundam pilots. ;-)

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Yes I did. :) And I don't know if Wal-Mart and Ikea are equal, really... at the very least, Ikea has better food.

[hasufin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wouldn't say they're equal. It just makes me wonder if someone from AMerica came to Sweden, saw an Ikea, and said "This would be great! Except the prices need to be lower, and we shouldn't worry about furniture so much."
Or a Swede saw Wal-Mart and said "This would be great! Except we should focus more on quality. Oh, and furniture. Lots of furniture."

[wasurejimo.livejournal.com]

*grin.* Not quite. Just an old prototype, which then got a couple of centuries of improvement. The real thing is from space. ;)

[stealthsunrise.livejournal.com]

"Forget lead paint, the new model is at least as deadly to honest law-abiding citizens."