Have been spending a lot of time worshipping at the shrine of middle-class “lifestyle solutions” that is IKEA. Uuuuuuggghhhhhh
The worst thing is, when you look around the store and feel chuffed that you already have that table! (therefore do not have to buy it now) and those stools! Oh and there’s our chest of drawers… I see they do them in red now.
The worst thing is when you look around your house and 50-80% of your furniture is IKEA. Or looks like it is.
The worst thing is when you’re trotting back there merrily planning to buy another PAX wardrobe ‘because the last one really fit most of our stuff’ but you had to leave it behind because it was too big to move and it would have fallen apart anyway. Besides, now you need a slightly different PAX to suit/fit your new bedroom.
The worst thing is visiting your new neighbours and seeing that their homes are all decked out in IKEA too.
The worst thing is realising that even the kitchen in the new apartment is probably an IKEA one.
The worst thing is wondering who, how or what is the evil genius that’s gained such a stranglehold on our interior spaces. What does it mean that we’re increasingly living (and working and eating) in places that look roughly THE SAME because it’s just so cheap(ish) and seems to cater to all those storage and organisation needs you didn’t even know you had? And those meatballs, yum!
The worst thing is it’s not even worth buying “real” furniture for stacks more money because modern life = moving around and it’s so much trickier to take it with you and who knows if it will even fit your new home / lifestyle?
The worst thing is IKEA. I’m going back again this weekend.
clairevetica 
I did love this. As a counter point, why is individuality the marker of success in our culture? I hear in Sweden people enjoy their conformity, and that’s why Ikea so successful there. I think we need to ponder the questions you raise, but then again, when we can’t afford to pay for a hand crafted home top to bottom, or do it ourselves, I’d prefer to pay a company like Ikea who at least have a “never ending list” of environmental and social improvements they want to make.
Or maybe not so much loving the conformity but accepting the boundaries within which you can be creative and running with that… And yet, and yet… 😉