Pew Pew Laser Blog

Return / Ikea.

Just like I promised you, it's been a while since the last post. In summary, we're in the new townhouse, it's lovely, though it's not quite together yet. We have boxes all over, and many trips to Ikea and Beds, Bath and Beyond ahead of us.

For those of you in Portland, your Ikea will be opening soon, and I'm excited for you. Ikea's website thinks that people will be camping out for opening day. I'm not quite that excited. But as you'll surely want to go and get some stacking kitchen containers, here are my tips for going to Ikea:

• Never go on a Saturday. My boss, the Dutchman, says that Saturday is lesbian day at Ikea. If he could only figure out why this is, he feels he would unlock one of the secrets to the universe. In any case, everyone goes to Ikea on Saturday. It's like going to Disneyland on the 4th of July. Save yourself the hassle and go on a weekday night. Most nights, Ikea is open until 10pm.
• Wear comfy shoes - Ikea is huge. The first half of the store is showroom for their products in actual-sized rooms. Then comes the cafe - where you can get some meatballs to fuel up for the rest of the walk. The second half of the store has the stuff you can buy - plastic storage, plates, bowls, knives, pots, pans, rugs, hooks, lamps, boxes boxes boxes, artwork and candles. Then you walk through the warehouse of furniture - just haul the item you want off a shelf. Lastly before the the phalanx of registers, is the As-Is area (cheap and occasionally mysterious returned items).
• Bring the kids. Ikea has a kiddy-land (Smålland) that'll watch them for an hour or so. What kid doesn't love a good ball room?
• Carefully inspect your items as you put them in the cart. Look for scratches, broken corners, and dings or dents on the boxes. This is particularly important on the large furniture items - you don't want to get them home only to have to bring them back when the innards are damaged. The hubby and I ended up with two broken items - one we caught near checkout, and one we'll have to take back. Perhaps Ikea Seattle has been letting the Germans drive the forklift?

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