I went to IKEA while in Bordeaux. It's a good thing I was limited to what I could carry on the bus, or my credit card would have taken a bigger hit.
I went because I could. Bordeaux has an IKEA – how could I not go? I also went to finally fulfill my kitchen-table mission. And I went to get curtains given how not-insulated my apartment is.
I was tempted by but passed up light fixtures. I've lived three months with bare bulbs. I can live longer that way.
I considered a bed frame, but that would have involved delivery. Besides, I have legs for my bed; I just need to drill the holes in the mattress support and I'll have a proper bed. I don't need to spend the money on a new frame.
IKEA is one of the only stores I know of that is busy no matter what day, no matter what time of year. It's a whole experience, like an amusement park without the rides. A trip to IKEA, especially when you don't live near one is an outing in itself. You arrive, head upstairs, mill through the furniture, admiring how they manage to pack so much stuff into the tiny little fake apartments. If the restaurant line is not too long, you go eat your Swedish meatballs (or one-dollar breakfast if you're a morning shopper), then you head downstairs, grab a cart and fill it with stuff you've found in the marketplace.
If you're like me, you then fight the crowds putting back most of the things you've put in the cart. Or you just dump them in a pile on top of a stack of carpets.
I wonder what it is about IKEA that's so appealing. The furniture isn't that great quality and the marketplace stuff can be bought at other places for the same price or cheaper. I think the attraction is the sheer volume of stuff. Plus IKEA knows how to market itself, making even the least practical items seem somehow not just usable, but necessary.
Whenever I go to IKEA, I'm very strict with myself. Maybes and mights aren't allowed. I will pull something off a shelf or out of a bin, feel it, determine exactly how I'd use it and how it'd make my life so much easier, then reluctantly put it back.
If one can love something too much, then for me, the IKEA marketplace is just such a thing. And that's why it's so dangerous.
Someday Lessons:
- Don't give in to marketing – know when you really need something and when you don't.
- It's easy to over-shop at stores you love.
Lunch Today:
Two IKEA hot dogs - so different from Canadian hot dogs, almost breakfast-sausage-like.