IKEA...my kind of store...

For a while now, I have been needing to update the furniture that I purchased almost a decade ago. With the exception of two shelves, all of my furniture doesn't match. Over the years, I have tried to make it look the best possible, collecting another shelf here or an end table there, to serve another function, but really it all has never matched.

Three weekends ago, my family and I had a yard sale. I decided, while preparing for the sale, that it was time to move in a more possitive direction when it came to the furniture I have in my bedroom by replacing some pieces for others that a) served the function I needed them to serve better and b) matched the pieces I was keeping more closely.

All in all, I sold an Armoir, a shoe organizer that was being used as a TV stand, two end tables, two lamps and various other items. I also sold items that I was no longer using but had been storing for years with no purpose behind it, such as my dog kennel.

I cleaned house. I went to town on all of the boxes that I had been storing over the last four years and just de-junked as much as I possibly could. And I feel I was fairly successful and it felt really good to just get rid of stuff.

Last week, after much deliberation during the weeks prior to the yard sale, I went to Ikea with my mother to purchase the furniture that I had decided on. I settled on two dressers, complete with glass tops to prevent scratching, a sturdy TV stand to place a top them, and a set of four little mirrors. On Saturday, I put the first of the two dressers together.

In my family, I am the person that assembles the furniture that requires assembly. I am not really sure why or how this came about, but I am the one that normally will put together what ever needs to be assembled, so I was fairly confident in my capabilities when I began to put my dresser together.

I must admit, I was a bit confussed when the dresser came in not one, but two different boxes. I opened the boxes, emptied the contents, examined the parts and then grabbed the instructions. At first, I was taken aback at what stared back at me, but then I laughed. There were no words, just pictures. I LOVED it! How ingenius! Pictures, the univeral language. Somewhere, someone is getting points in charades for this.

Without much deliberation, my ipod set to shuffle on They Might Be Giants, and my ratchet screwdriver set, I set to work and was able to put my first dresser together in about four hours or so. It took longer than I would have liked, and having the knowledge of how it is done now, I think I can crank out the second dresser in much less time. The quality was really good and I was more pleased overall with it once it was put in place. I think they are going to work out nicely.

All in all...I would say that I am now officially an Ikea fan.