If you shop at IKEA a lot, you’ll know that it is almost impossible to leave the store without spending over a certain amount of money. That figure varies depending on your Swedish hot dog and flat-pack addiction, but it’s a rare occasion when you get home having spent less than you usually do.
Which is why news that IKEA has plans to open smaller, more accessible high street stores is both good and bad.
Good because it means we get to satisfy that Swedish hot dog and flat-pack addiction a lot quicker and easier than we might have been able to before. And bad because we get to satisfy that Swedish hot dog and flat-pack addiction a lot quicker and easier than we might have been able to before.
If you’re anything like me, any common sense and logic is left in the car park once you’ve got hold of a yellow IKEA shopping bag (the FRAKTA – yes, it has a name); which, let’s face it, you’ve usually ditched in favour of a trolley well before you’ve even reached the kitchen zone – just for all the items that you don’t need but you’re going to buy anyway.
Here are 14 things you bought at IKEA that totally weren’t on your shopping list. (And 14 reasons why you have managed to spend over a certain amount yet again.)
1. Candles. Because no trip to IKEA is complete without buying candles.
2. Bathmats. One in each colour.
3. Multiple toilet brushes. At €1 a pop who can blame you?
4. Coat hangers. Even though you rarely use coat hangers since having children.
5. Cushions. Because you can never have too many.
6. Throws. To go with all the new cushions.
7. A soft toy. Multiply by the number of children you have / number of meltdowns your child has had while in the store.
8. Something flat pack that is in addition to the flat-pack item that WAS on the list.
9. Another cushion and throw. Because the textile zone is the zone that never ends.
10. Bedding to go with the bed that was on the list but you never bought because once you reached the self-serve furniture area you realised it wouldn’t fit in the car, thanks to all the pointless items you’ve decided to buy.
11. An unidentified object that once you get home you realise you have no idea what it is or what exactly it does.
12. The Billy Bookcase. The one that everyone else has already had for years.
13. A dining table. Because you have given up looking (and saving) for one that wasn’t from IKEA.
14. A hot dog. Because you goddamn deserve it.
