Us 1 – Ikea 0

Our daughter Molly recently started her post-college career with a job in New York City.  So, Martha and I packed up the family minivan and helped move her to the Big Apple.  Day one of the operation involved moving her personal belongings along with a thorough cleaning of her apartment.

The next step was finding a couch, and one or two other pieces of furniture.  While fortunately Molly got her sense of humor and brains from her mom, she did get some of the planning gene from me.  That night over take-out dinner she methodically thought through furniture store options in the tri-state area; distance to various options; going to less expensive options first, etc.  The next morning, fully armed with caffeine (the only way to walk into an Ikea) we started to navigate the maze that is an Ikea store.  If you have not shopped at an Ikea store please contact me, another experienced shopper of the retailer, or schedule counseling before walking through their sliding glass doors.  To the uninitiated, Ikea stores are a giant maze, there are no aisles.  You have to navigate through all sections (i.e., baby furniture, kitchen, etc.) regardless of whether you need that particular furniture.  Three hours, and having sat on a lot of couches later, we emerged with our boxes of furniture.  Yes, boxes.  Some assembly is required.  While the kids always give me grief for being particularly anal about loading the car for trips, this may have been the pinnacle of my car-loading career.  My only regret is not taking a picture for this newsletter.

Back at her apartment we creatively navigated the oversized boxes to Molly’s second floor walkup (we’re forever grateful she didn’t pick an apartment on the fifth floor).  Everything leading up to now was child’s play compared to the stack of Ikea assembly instructions we now faced.  For those of you who know of what I speak, I can see you knowingly nodding your heads.  I am amazed to say that by some miracle we only made a couple minor mistakes with some shelves and a dresser, all of which were easily reversible.  There were no parts left over and everything opened and closed properly.

So, while I may need a few weeks to recover before visiting another Ikea, we can check off a ‘win’ for this round.

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