IKEA

Many of you have commented on my post about the 4x4 pallet that we shipped from the US to France. I'm looking forward to see it again, hopefully in late August. It will be like Christmas in summer to rediscover what I packed onto that pallet many weeks ago!

Honestly, I feel a little guilty writing that we were able to fit everything in such a small area. The reason our pallet was so tiny was that we didn't ship furniture. Most of our furniture was "vintage", and not in a good way! They were items we bought on the cheap when we first got married 20 years ago, and not much was worth shipping overseas. So, needless to say, we needed new furnishings when we arrived in Lyon. People from our church got us off to a great start, blessing us with donations: we have two mattresses on the floor (feels like camping!), a dining table, and we also have an offer of a couch on the way. It's working fine for now, but isn't the best long term situation.

To complete our furniture needs, yesterday we took a trip to IKEA. If you've never braved IKEA, you haven't really lived. It's a humongous furniture showcase and warehouse. You scurry around like rats through a maze who are hoping to find the cheese - or in this case the futon - at the end of the tunnel. IKEA items are functional, modern, and very reasonably priced. I've browsed at this store before in Charlotte, but I've never actually bought anything. It's a whole different ballgame when you know you have a single afternoon in this huge store, and you must find everything on your list or you'll have to carve out another day to do it all over again.

Greg, Lori, and I bravely entered the store, shopping list in hand, eager to conquer. We were lured in by the creative showcase rooms, which demonstrated how you could fully furnish and equip a 48 square meter apartment for under 3000 Euros. We quickly found a solution to our bathroom storage problem (right now we're getting by with three cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other as "shelves.") I was feeling pretty good. Then we hit the dining room section. So many choices for chairs! I think we sat in every single one. We finally decided on a model, wrote down the information, and headed to the next section. Hours went by. Kitchen....bedroom....home office. With each section, we grew more and more weary, more and more deflated. In some sections we were required to meet with a sales representative who printed out a list of the parts required for our order. You see, at IKEA, nothing comes assembled. That's why it's so cheap -- you pick out what you want at the showcase, then you go to the warehouse to find your items which are packed flat in cardboard boxes, then you check out, then -- oh joy -- you get to go home and put it all together.

I'll spare you the gory details, but by the time we checked out, we had three carts full of flat cardboard boxes. Two strong delivery guys just brought it all upstairs, and now the fun begins. Greg and I will spend the weekend on the floor with our cartoon-picture instruction manuals and start to piece everything together.

I'm starting to wish I'd shipped a bigger pallet!