Ikea - Swedish for "outta my way!"

Ikea is Swedish for "WAY too many people shopping here, getting in the way of your cart".

I can't say that I'm a huge fan of their furniture - kind of too minimalist futuristic space alien for me - but I've fallen in love with all the accessories, and specifically the Ikea Kids section. All the boxes and bins and cool stuff for kids rooms - why, I feel like I'm in decorator Heaven!
Yes, it's that time - time to redorate kids rooms, or in our case, actually get around to doing something other than plain builders white.

We've been in this house for 2.5 years, and have yet to do anything to the 3 bathrooms or the kids bedrooms.
I see pictures of friends who have decorated their nurseries and think oh what lucky babies they are, to have painted rooms and plenty of eyecatching brain enhancing mobiles and cutesy shelves and matching bedding etc etc etc. Then I put Joey to bed in his plain brown crib, and white walls and mismatched bedding that has been handed down from big brothers and feel sad that I didn't do more to herald his arrival. Nevermind, he's 2 now, and doesn't seem any worse for wear for not having that immaculate room just 'so' and the other boys are old enough now to express what they want in their rooms, so I basically have a blank template to start from, and no pastel baby paint or 'diaper pins and blocks' motifs to cover up.

A blank template - Aside from the Bright Nemo comforters that the older boys have. They love Nemo - but are starting to outgrow the wanting everything Nemo Phase. Now it's Buzz Lightyear and The Incredibles.
So we are doing a Buzz Lightyear room for Matthew, and a Dash Incredible room for Duncan and Joey - well he's stuck with plain white until he expresses an interest in something other than bananas, and throwing shoes into the toilets.

Knowing that their current obsession de jour will last only until the next Pixar mass marketing movie tie-in blitz - we are being extremely clever in our decorating so that it can be modified into something more mature - without having to completely overhaul the rooms. Generic bedspreads over character ones.

Which brings us to why I was at Ikea today, fighting the crowds of people who have no IKEAETIQUETTE at all.
So here are 'the rules' when shopping at IKEA - Please - for everyone concerned, obey them;

1. IKEA has a play area that you can register small kids for - it is safe and enclosed and they will have fun. DO NOT bring 3 or 4 small kids to IKEA showrooms. They do not enjoy looking at someone else's living room, or kitchen and not being able to touch anything. They make sure that you KNOW they do not enjoy it, by making it less enjoyable for anyone within a 30 ft radius of them. I left my kids at home with Daddy. This is good Ikeaetiquette.

2. Families of 14 going for a stroll taking up entire aisles in Ikea because it is airconditioned is just not cool. Go stroll in the mall.

That's it - Two simple rules.

It was incredibly busy today, and according to the girl at the checkout, she said it was "not bad". I knew exactly what I wanted - having written it all down after browsing their website, and it STILL took me an hour to locate what I wanted, and pick up my stuff from the IKEA maze. I of course did not have my IKEA map with me, and ended up hopelessly lost at one point, surrounded by all kinds of glassware with funky names like Splürgen, and Pelînken and Youbreakenityoubuyit.

Luckily EXIT in Swedish is the easily understood "Place your VISA card HERE" and I cleverly managed to maneuver my giant cart to the self serve area, picked up what I wanted and got through the checkout without losing too much of my sanity.

WILT: Always make note of the section you park your car in when you go to IKEA. You look foolish enough going up and down the rows of cars searching aimlessly for your own, frantically hitting your remote lock button hoping to hear your car "beep" at you.

WILT 2: Ikea sells Meatballs. It's not just about the furniture.....