Do you have a frustrating IKEA story?

IKEA- you love it you hate it.

In the picture below I’m standing outside one of the first giant IKEA stores ever to open. We had it in Sweden W-A-Y before it ever opened up over here.  W-A-Y before it was cool.  It was considered bad quality years ago, and most people were a little embarrassed to shop there.

Boy, has that changed!

Somehow there’s just always something you need to pick up at IKEA. Unfortunately as soon as I enter that maze,  I feel really disoriented. I forget what I came for, feel an excessive need to buy all kinds of things I don’t need, then exhausted, I give up finding what I came there for, and head for the meatballs.

IT HAPPENS E-V-E-R-Y T-I-M-E I GO! For years!!

This Easter, I was a bit better, but I certainly didn’t get what I came for.  And yes, the meatballs were great, and the lingon berry drink too.

Last summer I needed a bathroom cabinet for my bathroom in Sweden.

I love how the brochures are there to help you along with instruction manuals…

This is what I bought…

After procrastinating F-O-R-E-V-E-R with a box standing in a corner, I finally FORCED myself to attack the task of assembling it.

I spread the pieces out on the floor…..

Then I look in the brochure.

OH I get it. I should not do it alone?  Get a smiling happy friend with a pen behind the ear to help you!

I asked my mom to help me, but she adamantly refused. She shakes her head, and feels helpless just looking at it.

She said she would be better off reading her book, and let me do it.

I put the pieces on a carpet, like the happy IKEA men instruct.

And I go about it!

Yeah! I was really doing it.

Following instructions.

And it worked!

That is if you don’t need the door to open and close. You’re okay with it just stuck in one place.

I try to fix it…

…and I try…

..and I try again.

GRRRRRRRR!  DAMMIT!! What now????

I’m really annoyed!

Oh, yeah…look at the brochure.

The very happy little IKEA man suggests I call the store.

Have you ever noticed how happy he looks?

Just the way you feel when things don’t work and you have to call the store!!

I feel angry!

Have you ever tried calling? And talk to people who have no idea how to help you, or not interested in helping you?

I decide to not try that aggravation, after remembering my friend HERVE’S STORY–which I videotaped for one of my first blog posts.

HOW TO BUY A KITCHEN AT IKEA

It includes and entire day at IKEA, waiting in two lines for hours, a nervous breakdown and a fight. Thank God this is only a bath cabinet.

So I try again….and realize I had mixed up some screws. A simple mistake.

I CONQUER IT ON MY OWN!

YEP! I feel really proud. I kind of feel happy like the little smiling IKEA men.

Now I just need to hang it.

Yeah..”just”…

It’s impossible!!

I had to get a professional carpenter come in to hang the darn thing as it was so heavy, and the back very complicated to attach to the wall. Even a pro had trouble!!  Probably cost me the price of the cabinet because it took so long!

But anyway, it hangs there.

It’s okay. It does the job.

Is it me?  Or is this difficult to you too?

P.S.  And by the way….I love IKEA. But if you plan to buy something big I highly recommend you watch this video I taped of my friend, in case you missed it on top HOW TO SURVIVE BUYING A KITCHEN AT IKEA