In which I confess my love for Ikea

Yesterday an old friend from Boston who now lives in Salt Lake Ciy joined me on an expedition to that cheap but sturdy furniture haven we all love, Ikea. She needed a few little things, and I needed a few big things.

Notice that the cart I’m pushing is one of four. The two yellow-bag carts are ours, too–most of those were Mary’s–and the other big cart in front of the one I’m holding is also ours–most of those were mine. A desk, several bookshelves, a storage unit shelf, and a simple bed frame that matches the rest of my bedroom, all for a relatively low price that came well within my budget. You should have seen us on the trek home in my little CRV. Two large flat boxes strapped to the luggage rack, with the long bookshelf boxes coming up into the front between the front seats, leaving us barely enough room to maneuver. I told Mary that it was her responsibility that if we’re about to be sideswiped, she had to tell me. "You’ll probably hear an ‘Ah-ah-ah!’ of panic," she said. And we set off. And even made it home safely.

I painted one office wall last night, and this morning I’ve been assembling shelves, and now the reason that prompted this post: they’re so easy to assemble! I thought Target shelves were easy to assemble, but these are even better–and quicker!

And the best part? Manuscript shelves! This is an idea totally stolen from my friend Kirk who works for Covenant Communications, a local publisher. He has these little shelves that he’s got metiulously organized by author and book. Which means he doesn’t have to have them all spread out on his desk, but also doesn’t have to file them away to be forgotten in a lateral file! It’s ingenious!


(Notice the nice new blue wall behind the white bookshelf.)

And why do I love Ikea for this? Because you can buy extra shelves!

I love Ikea.

More pictures of my office to come as I get it set up and it stops looking like a r
oom chest-high in boxes.

Oh, and a bonus Mogget picture for you. This is what he’s been doing most of the time since I moved in (though he’s ventured out a little more this last week than he did the first week).