To Ikea or not, that is the question….

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To Ikea or not, that is the question….


Yesterday was D-Day at Ikea. After months of planning of what to get, I finally got down to shopping. It has been a struggle, since the simplest thing was to take the Ikea catalogue and simply buy stuff entirely from there.

But from the moment I decided to get the replica Eames lounge chair, the flood gates were doomed to open massively and my wallet would haemorrhage forth like the Red Sea coming down on the Pharoah.

However, there were still plenty of stuff that I could get from there, the Billy bookcases not being the least. The trick to avoid the dreaded sagging, is to get the 40cm version instead of the wider 80cm ones. And even though most of the major items came from elsewhere, I still managed to chalk up more than $2500 worth, and more visits there than I care to admit.

I am now a true Ikea friend... and if I go any more frequently, the aunty cashier will think I am trying to chat her up... maybe the next time I should choose the super cute cashier instead... but that one always hangs out with a Pontianak...
 
Now the whole concept of shopping there is based on DYI – do it yourself.

 So getting the items was like the amazing race, you run helter skelter from one shelf to the next to look for the items you need, throw it onto the trolley, then check the list to make sure you have it, and move onto the next "prize", hoping not to miss any.

It is also a little daunting, with the Tampines Ikea resembling the warehouse 13, where they wheeled the Ark into in Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the myriad of items displayed on seemlingly endless rows of furniture, which were all packed into brown cardboard cases. You need to be vigilant to check the colors or you might end up with a lime green table top instead of that white one…

By the end of the night at closing time, there were three trolleys, and I couldn't push one of them...

Asking for helping there can be a hit and miss affair though… I wanted to know details on wall mounting some items, so I asked the people in the Billy bookcase section, but the guy looked like he was in a permanent coma... and the delivery people were most inflexible and they specialize in saying no, no and no… although there were some helpful chaps who came along to help me push my trolleys…

Some snafu with the delivery charges and I changed my mind on one bookcase, so I can fit a projector, and had to go back there over lunch.

I decided to leave out certain items, so I can take my time, such as the sofa bed for round II.... that sort of gives me some joy for the next shopping adventure…

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