Today I made the terrible mistake of going to Ikea solo. Part of me felt like a woman on a mission as I battled crowds, (not so gracefully) lugged 55 pound boxes onto my push cart and withstood lines 100 deep to check out but the other part of me felt lonelier than I have in a long time…especially as I wheeled my cart out to the loading area and stared at my cart and then my car wondering how in the world I was going to get the giant boxes into the car. I was kind of angry that I couldn’t do it by myself but was so grateful for the help of an Ikea employee who spent 20 minutes arranging and rearranging boxes in my car to make it work.
What provoked this Ikea trip?
My family generously gave me a new television for Christmas and I had nothing to put it on. Poor Sullie had to make the four hour trip home with the TV taking up most of the backseat last night. She was not a happy camper. My dad and I had to rig the box with other boxes and my yoga mat to keep it from toppling over onto her. We made it back to Charlotte but I needed to get my new TV out of the car and into the house. Enter Ikea…because really…if I hadn’t gone today the TV would have sat unopened for weeks while I waited to have the time to go get a TV stand. That’s just how I operate. My new West Elm bed is still sitting disassembled in the master because I have yet to buy a new mattress. But I digress…
Ikea was a madhouse. I was not exaggerating when I said that the lines to check out were hundreds of people long. I stuck to a strategy and went into the shopping trip with a narrow focus. Rugs, coffee table and TV stand. I was still so overwhelmed but forced myself to stay on track and be decisive. I wanted to call someone so badly to debate whether to go with dark wood or white but went with my gut and decided to try white for a change.
Almost three hours later I was finally on my way home. And breathing a huge sigh of relief to be out of Ikea.
Sullie immediately staked claim over the new runner I got for the entryway. The girl loves rugs.
And I bundled up to try to run off some of my anxiety. I missed all of my favorite yoga classes due to my shopping trip so a dark, cold run was my only choice. This was my first run in gloves of the season. It was freezing! I ran 3 miles and never really warmed up. My fingers were ice cold when I finally finished up. I hopped in an extra hot shower and thanked god that it was time to relax.
I’ll be sure to post pictures when I get everything set up. The moral of this story is to take backup when you go to Ikea! 😉
Ikea…love it or hate it?
