A Visit To Ikea: a house log

First off, this post was not paid for or perked by Ikea. We simply hoped to share a recent pilgrimage. And we like them (especially with this cool announcement). Anyway, some people say you can tell a lot about a person by looking in their purse, their closet, perhaps even their iPod. But what may give you a good peek into our lives is a look into our car trunk… after a trip to Ikea.

This was the scene after a recent trip. It was our first since my parents moved out of the same area as the Ikea (which is about 90 minutes away) meaning no more swift stops after a family visit. Clearly, we have already become hoarders. Not knowing when our next visit will be we found ourselves grabbing more than usual “simply in case” since we were up there visiting friends. Here is the breakdown for ya:

1. Two Retur recycling bins turned shoe cabinets for our laundry room, as you’ve already seen (they were one – er, two of the main reasons for our visit).

2. The boxes that would become our Effektiv file cabinet for the office, as you’ve also already peeped here.

3. Cute napkins for big ol’ family gatherings at our house (when we run out of cloth ones). Specifically these, in green.

4. A door mat. Why? Long story short: rainy night + full-bladdered chihuahua who hates to get wet = need for a new mat. We did let the rain rinse it out and planned to continue using it. Problem is Burger had the same plan (guess it was still “marked”). The new one is so far unscathed by this silly dog (who much prefers to sunbathe with his tongue out).

5. Two woven planters. Because we are suckers for natural textures. And in need of more indoor plants ’round here.

6. This blanket. We were so excited about this purchase. We’d been hunting for a spare blanket to keep in the living room, since our current brown one does not jive with Karl as much as we’d like. This one looked ideal. Problem is, it does not feel ideal. Despite a couple of washings, it is still a bit scratchy. And because of those couple of washings, it is a bit unreturnable. Shucks. At least it still looks good! Perhaps someday we will use it to recover an ottoman or something. But warning: this is not a blanket that you want to get cozy with for quite long (Sherry plans to layer it with the softer one underneath it during the winter months for extra warmth without the scratchy texture touching her skin).

7. A light kit. Since we used our other “spare” for our clothespin light, we hoped to have another on hand. Someday we will get around to hanging the paper lantern that we picked up a while back in the playroom. We were simply paranoid that Ikea will stop making them when it at last comes time to tackle that room (and at $3.99 they are cheaper than any others we have encountered).

8. Various white frames. Do we even need to elaborate on that after this and this? We simply figure they are consistently good to have around, and we still have a lot of bare walls and about five million cute baby and dog pictures. Yikes, we are those people.

9. A white duvet cover that we thought could work in our bedroom. Long story short, we are still on the fence. So it is still sitting in the packaging until we are sure (since Ikea does not take back opened bedding). At $50 for a king sized duvet and two shams it was a fairly good deal (we simply wanna be sure there is nothing else out there that we enjoy more) so we will keep you posted.

10. Toys! Since we have admitted in point #8 that we are swiftly turning into “those people”, we could not resist getting Clara this soft set of farm animals (she loves farm animals) and a soft set of tools (we desperately want her to enjoy tools). The good news? She LOVES them both (esp. the goat and the ruler). Bad news? It is not teaching us a lesson about buying her too many toys…

We also scored a couple of other items while there that did not make it home in the trunk. For example, thanks to being on the catalog mailing list I got a random email about joining this new “Ikea Family rewards program” the morning before our trip. So I picked up my free card later that afternoon right in the store from this handy little futuristic kiosk:

I do not totally understand exactly what it gets me, except for a free coffee or tea at each visit. Sold. Except that it would have been a more time-efficient idea had we not had to linger in the restaurant area for twenty minutes while Sherry waited for it to be cool sufficient to sip (my wife is such a diva). At least it picked up us plenty of time to take pictures like this one of Clara “drinking her tea”:

And on this particular visit thanks to picking up that free Ikea Family card we also got a free ice cream cone. Guess saving that buck truly makes up for all the money we spent on everything else, right? Clara demonstrated her appreciation by smearing it all over her face. And it was adorable.

Do you folks have any recent shopping trips that are particularly indicative of your personality or a particular moment in time? Perhaps a recent grocery store run for a party you are throwing? Or a spending spree at Bed Bath & Beyond or Office Max? Do you have more Ikea, Home Depot, Lowe’s or Target receipts than you can even count these days? We used to feel like we lived at Target, but lately it has been Lowe’s and the ReStore.

Psst- We (at last) picked this week’s random giveaway winner. Click here to see if it is you.