the first steps

I moved into my condo a little more than two years ago. I bought the place, using most of my cash for the down payment and closing costs.

When I moved in, I didn't have much in the way of furnishings, so I took a trip to Ikea. And then another one, and another one. I was an addict. I'd rise early on a Sunday morning, knowing the place would be empty, make the 30-minute drive south, navigate through the shortcuts I had discovered in their rat maze, and stock up on the best Swedish-designed, Chinese-made home furnishings the box store had to offer.

Any time I needed any sort of furniture, whether it was a dresser for my tee shirts in my closet or a utility shelf to hold laundry supplies, I used it as an excuse for another trip to Ikea.


I told myself that since I wasn't buying "art" or what I considered "decorations," my problem wasn't really that bad. I was just buying the basics, and then I would use my own accessories to "make it my own"!

The thing is, I knew better. I read decorating blogs, I have great design books and magazines, and could spend an entire Saturday mesmerized by HGTV. Yet I couldn't stop myself. It was so easy. And so cheap. I rationalized that since I didn't have a truck and I'm a single woman, Ikea just made sense to me. Plus, I needed a couch, and quick! And a tv stand, and floating shelves. And I might as well pick up those picture frames while I'm here...

I had a sense of accomplishment too. Sometimes I had to lug the particle board pieces one-by-one from my car up to my condo, carefully putting together the puzzle that would be my entryway table, or room divider; I "created" this! Of course I didn't. I was just replicating something that was in hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of homes worldwide.

After a while the trips slowed down. My place is less than 500 sq, so there was only so many flat packed items I could shove in there. Life went on. I needed a break from "decorating," it was time consuming and bank-account draining. Even Ikea adds up after a while.

Then last weekend it hit me. I was parked on my extorp loveseat, trying to maneuver into comfortable position, (does extorp mean 2-year-lifespan in Swedish?) glued to the aforementioned HGTV. I watched as room after room was turned into lovely, lush, textured, unique, hip spaces. I looked across my room. In my view I saw my Ikea floor lamp, tulsta chair, and the palm I bought in their gardening department, planted in an Ikea pot, of course. I wanted to barf. Suddenly I saw my condo as an Ikea catalog, just like in "Fight Club." My skin itched, I felt like I was in someone else's apartment. This wasn't my style, this was a style created by someone else that I had bought into.

I was grateful that Ikea didn't have a clothing department, otherwise my wardrobe would have consisted of Ikea-issued khakis and polos.

The more I looked, the more I found. I purchased all of this, drug it into my place and even put it together, I don't know why it was just hitting me now. I think I was in a bit of denial. Like, I knew there was a problem, but I just didn't want to face it. I that's also why I took a long hiatus from watching HGTV...I knew it would act as a wake-up call.

This isn't a major travesty; there are way more horrific things going on in the world than my little suburban condo with too much furniture from a certain store. But it's something that I want to change. I believe that your home makes a difference in your happiness. It should reflect who you are and who you want to be, and quite frankly, I don't want to be a box store.

So I went around and cataloged what I have -- about 23 items from Ikea. They range from pot holders to a c.d. tower.  I want to pare this down significantly by the end of 2012, a little more than a year and a half. I'm hesitant to give a number, because I think the more I change out, the less the remaining stuff will bother me. I'm giving myself that long because I know it's not going to be that easy, monetarily or labor-wise.

One last note: this isn't a diatribe on Ikea, just an expose on my lazy design skills. Clearly, their products served a purpose in my life, but for me, it's time to move on.

Stay tuned as I attempt to deikea my life, piece by piece.