Me and The Teenager joined thousands of other mums and Uni-bound kids at Ikea yesterday.
Each pair had a trolley, a long list and a dismal vibe of wanting to be anywhere but here.
But we were, so we rolled our sleeves up.
We’d discussed our tactics in the car – bathroom stuff, bedroom stuff and kitchen stuff. Easy.
Except Ikea doesn’t work like that. Bathmats, towels and flannels downstairs, loo brush upstairs. Despite this, we executed a fairly neat trolley dash, grabbing most of the list with one sweep of the Market Place. But then we went round and round and round and round looking for the hard-to-find items, which were probably cunningly concealed so we would buy more candles and mini vases.
Despite our best efforts, we came away with no baking trays. Roasting tins? Abundant. Roasting ceramic dishes? Loads. We began to flag and that’s when the niggles started.
‘That’s not a potato masher.’
‘It is. Kind of a modern take on one.’
‘It’s … squiggly.’
‘If it mashes your potatoes, it’s a masher. Trust me on this one.’
‘What duvet cover do you want?’
‘D’mind.’
‘Can you get off your phone for like, one second?’
‘S’importan’.
I chose both sets in grey. Same for his towels, bath mat and flannels.
‘Oven glove?’ said The Teenager.
‘Really? Even I don’t have one?’
‘It’s on the list. Need one.’
‘Grey?’
‘Fine. Which pillows? Put your head on this. Then this one. Firm? Or soft?’
‘You serious? Can we get a hotdog now?’
We eventually joined the huge queues of similarly distressed people, shuffling forward inch by inch. Once we reached the check-out, I packed, obviously. Three massive blue Ikea bags later, we joined another queue for hotdogs before realising that yep, it was long, but every single person was ordering for twenty (slight exaggeration). We left.
And joined another queue at McDonalds, round the corner. As you do. One happy teenager later, filled with his protein and chemical quotient for the day, we drove home.
‘It’s been nice spending the day with you, sweets’, I said.
‘You too, muvver. Gimme a lift to my friend’s later?’
‘Gah.’
‘It’s great being an adult, mum’, he said.
I suppose digs (room in a house where you got bed, breakfast and high tea) don’t exist any longer. I seem to remember it was a shared room as well
I know! It’s all new-build blocks. Kids these days, eh??
x
Baking trays Lakeland. Last time I was there I picked up a couple then turned a corner and they had fab ones half the price. Actually better than ones I’ve had in past from IKEA.
Thank you! No doubt he’ll lose them in the first week 🙁
x
Looove it lol ?… I have it to look forward to still? Top of Katie’s list …. FAIRY LIGHTS… seriously????
Never mind the boring stuff! What would I know ?Xo
Fairy lights?? Teenager did say the ‘girls’ list is a lot longer than the boys, lol.
x
The best advice I was given for a boy was ‘get everything in grey’. (and someone else is bound to have a baking tray he can cadge). We did the trolley dash in ASDA, only to find they’d set up a whole aisle of ‘student stuff which we missed on way in!. Noticed ‘homesense’ had done the same when I went back for Garden stuff which has now gone away in favour of a lot of cushions – perhaps they go with the Fairy lights?
I got as much as possible in grey 🙂 I’ve told him to take all his stuff and if there’s something he desperately needs, I can always get it sent to him on Amazon or something.
I actually think fairy lights would look great in his new bedroom!
x