AIBU to think IKEA should be shut down

[Catmum26]

every single time we walk into that shop we argue so bad i think a divorce is on the cards. Then when we get home and have to build the crappy furniture with their sub standard instructions we have yet another row. currently sulking whilst my husband is swearing and crashing about. please tell me it’s not just us!

I vote yes YABVU..I love Ikea, have been going over 20 years, and would love to go more, but I have less money
I don’t go with husband, it’s best He doesn’t see what I might spend 😀

Ikea is my spiritual home.
YABVU

It helps I'm single so only have myself to argue with 😂

DH and I always argue in 2 places: Heathrow Baggage Reclamation and IKEA. Now we have 3DC we never go together, one of us goes on a weekday evening with a list. Works much better.

And (if you're interested) we moved house to avoid Heathrow, we now have a small local airport 20 mins away with flights to Schipol. I love Schipol airport, they have an art gallery and amazing comfy seating. Bliss.

I love it on my own. It’s worth all the hassle of trying to get the stuff in the car alone in order to have time to think properly. I always go with a shortlist of items though made from online or the catalogue. I am going in the next couple of weeks - to choose one of four shortlisted wardrobes and a usb charging bar and one of those inside the wardrobe door organisers for my tights.

My husband HATES it. But me and the girls love it.

So we go in school holidays and leave daddy at home! Win/win.

If there’s something we need that requires him to visit then him and I go in an evening once the girls are in bed so its not too stressful.

I take my toddler there on rainy days. They love sitting in different rooms and doing colouring/playing house. Lunch followed by the market hall for candles. Happy days.

Oh, we never had an argument. Not sure why as we would usually argue the stripes out of a zebra but Ikea seems to be good. We love sitting down to the meatballs with the delicious red sauce too. And those crisps. And in general, it's a great day out when the weather is shitty.

I love Ikea

We used to go there as part of family holidays down South when I was a kid - our nearest one was 250 miles away and yet inexplicably they knew the location of our teeny Scottish village and could easily deliver to it. Perhaps we were in a strange early 90s enclave of scandi flat-pack adopters. I have oak Billy bookshelves and some Expedit (now Kallax) that were in my bedroom as a child in the 90s and are still in great nick.

Nowadays my local Ikea is 10 minutes away and I am there all the time! OH and I love going and never argue there. We usually go directly to the marketplace though, or use the shortcuts to check out the stuff we are interested in buying. No one stops you if you don't follow the arrows!

It's also incredibly easy to build - A friend of mine works with people with learning disabilities in long-stay residential accommodation and does Ikea projects with them - as the instructions are so straightforward to understand and don't need reading skills the residents are generally able to build everything to a good standard with minimal external input, and then do upcycling/ their own designs on things like chests of drawers. It sounds like it gives a good sense of achievement and is a pretty meaningful activity.

A trip round Ikea just wouldn’t be the same without a big fight between DH and I, for any or combination of following reasons:
I wish to buy something he needs to connect to a wall.
I have forgotten to bring the scrap of paper with all the room measurements on it and DH thinks guessing sizes is a bad idea.
We have wrong size/type/number of trolleys for items to be collected.
A lack of communication/coordination results in one of us sqashing the others fingers or toes on collection of the flat packs.

DH refuses to even look at lighting/rugs/soft furnishings because he has had enough by then and I miss out on the best bits.
He refuses to help in the procurement of the very complicated meatball/potato/peas/sauce ratios for each of our family of four, and by time we finally sit down ( having forgotten again how to get the drinks) the food is stone cold.
Other than that it’s great! Enjoy!

I much prefer going alone with the DC than taking DH. And given they are 1 and 4 and I usually think twice before taking them anywhere without backup that is saying something. I still remember DH’s abject horror the first time I took him (pre-kids) and he found out we had to collect the stuff ourselves in the warehouse . However, I have developed a method- I go on a weekday evening while DH is on a late shift, arrive 4ish, go round the showrooms (with a list), let them play and run around madly, and then get the big stuff from the collection area, pay and take it to the car. Then we go back in and get food in the cafe, change children into pjs (cursory attempts at face washes and teeth brushing optional), then finally whizz round the market hall with full and tired children who are no longer liable to smash everything in sight. They then fall asleep in the car on the way home, and with a following wind I can get them both inside and into bed without waking, then order pizza and build things all evening until DH gets home at 1.30am and is horrified by what I have bought incredibly impressed with my productivity.

YANBU. Exact same thing happened between DP and I earlier. We couldn’t even remember what we were arguing about by the time we got home! It happens every time we go...

@AveAtqueVale
Sounds like you have it nailed! (Or should that be Alan-keyed?!)

I go on my own or with teen DD - she likes it there.
DH refuses to go after once going on a Bank Holiday a few years back.
I just take the big car and go without him; easier now we have one in the same city.

I make all flat pack here.

YABU. IKEA instructions are the dog's danglies.

I have experienced the instore rage, though. Usually brought on by people pushing their massive trollies the wrong fucking way through the marketplace.

I love IKEA and the kids think it's a fun day out too!

Ave

I am astonished by your Ikea capabilities. I fear I am never to catch up with your skills.

They should not be shut down, but but they should be held to account for making the IKEA row a Bank Holiday tradition. And torturing the flat pack challenged.

Currently hate ikea. I am thinking of boycotting it. They have pulled out of the Preston site after starting all the groundwork and cutting down a lot of woodland. Some bullshit about delays and costs. V dodgy. It has just been abandoned mod project. It’s a shameful eyesore. The least they could do is replant the trees.
Not an ethical company.

I love Ikea, but I don’t drive and CBA with the fiddly journey by public transport, so I only get to go when it’s enough of a furniture emergency that even DH is forced to admit that it’s necessary, which is about once every ten years on my birthday. I think I’m due another trip in 5 years time when DD leaves home. Just as well because I always go absolutely mad with the miscellaneous bargains.

Ikea lover here too. But mines local so I can pop in any time and don’t have the pressure to buy right away.

You also get IKEA skills. I once bought a bed frame, mattress and bedding and did entrance to car in 45 minutes - including having to go to the pick up place.

As many PPs have said the trick is to plan, take appropriate transport and most of all GO ALONE.

It should be shut down because I always spend too much!

My husband and I would always argue over Ikea. We’ve started picking what we want online before we go and sticking fairly rigidly to that. And then I build the furniture ALONE because I can’t handle the fighting 😂 I don’t even let him hold stuff. I call my sis to help me if I’m really desperate. These tactics saved our relationship 😂 (I spend way too much time at Ikea )

I don’t know. We spend most of our time laughing at stuff in ikea so it’s hard to leave tense.

Also we have the same taste which helps.

And I build the flat pack because DH refuses to follow instructions because he thinks he knows better. Also I’m quicker.

I remember when the Glasgow Ikea opened in 2001. I used to sit in the cafe while my toddlers played in the creche, and watch the bus loads of Irish people arrive. It was a 2 hour ferry crossing and at least another hour on the bus in Scotland, but they seemed to be desperate to visit and make a day of it. The buses would leave at the end of the day almost groaning as they were so heavy!

I love Ikea. Don't have the domestics though cause hubby never expects me to help, although I do have to bite my tongue watching him put things together