Love Hate Relationship

Hello there- I'm back. Sorry I was busy cleaning all week. Pause. No, of course I wasn't, but I did enjoy reading all your comments and input on my cleaning woes. It seems as though a majority of you feel the same way as I do when it comes to cleaning. I still bet that my house is messier and more cluttered than yours. Not proud of it, but I'm pretty sure it's true! I always wondered if it is as stressful for others to prepare for visitors as it is for us. Perhaps stressful is not the right word - time consuming might be a better choice. I have a sneaking suspicion from reading the various comments that many of you do the mad cleaning dash that is common in our household right before we have someone over for dinner. There were definitely some helpful tips from the cleaners in the bunch, so go ahead and check back in the comments if you're looking for some help like me.

In other news....a topic that is quite pressing these days...

Ikea. I would say, with just a tiny bit of shame, that the majority of furniture in our house is from Ikea. What can I say - it's affordable! We've always had good experiences with our trips to Ikea and the products we buy from there. I guess I should have known those good feelings would come to an end at some point. Recently we bought a new dresser for Ella's room and spent a few lovely hours assembling the dresser and eight drawers. What a fun way to spend an afternoon. I actually didn't mind it too much at the time because I was excited for Ella to have a dresser that her clothes would actually fit into. Then we realized that we had been given incorrect pieces for one of the eight drawers. Not too big of a deal - inconvenient, but how hard would it be to return the pieces and get the correct ones.

This is when things started to get crazy and my love for Ikea began to dwindle away.

Matt was able to get back to Ikea a few days later and found out that the dresser is now being made differently and they would have to give us a different drawer (the front still looked the same) but it would still fit the dress correctly. Again, a bit annoying, not that big of a deal...IF IT ACTUALLY FIT! Yeah, I was yelling that. I'm sure you know where this is going...the drawer didn't fit - it was almost an inch lower using the rollers already installed on the dresser so it wouldn't shut.

That was a week and a half ago. Today Matt made what he hoped would be his final trip to Ikea regarding this dresser. After spending about an hour in the returns section this was the status; We can keep the dresser we have, minus one drawer. They gave us a totally new unit for free. And a $25 gift card after Matt tried to get them to give us free assembly (because I am not looking forward to a couple hours putting the same piece of furniture together again).

All very inconvenient and annoying but it should have worked out alright. Right? Wrong! When Matt got home and opened the two boxes he realized that there were two dresser tops in it. A sign that it had probably already been opened and rummaged around in. In Matt's eyes, this was the final straw. He put the boxes on our front porch and started making phone calls. He is pretty adamant about not making another trip to the store to correct another one of their mistakes. I am doubtful that they will agree to come and pick up the dresser boxes, especially since we've already paid for it (well not that one, but the one before it!).

Regardless of how it comes about, it looks like we're going to have two indentical dressers, minus one drawer. I hope that we are able to actually have one complete dresser - at this point I would be pretty happy with that. But don't worry the second, one drawer less, dresser will not go to waste. I have a new project/home improvement/diy brewing that the dresser should be perfect for. More to come on that - I may be asking for some input and creative ideas in the near future!

I am this close to boycotting Ikea. But I just don't think I can do it. They have 99 cents macaroni and cheese and peanut butter and jelly, they have $1 ice cream cones. And their swedish meatballs are delish. Plus - free child care!!! How can I give all that up? I guess I don't have to - I can just go there to eat and avoid all contact with assembly required items? Right?