The IKEA Bookshelf.....a Meataphor for My Life

So here is a little something to make you laugh, and pretty much sums up my life right now in a nutshell. A few weeks back we made a family trip to IKEA to get some organizational things. Mainly I wanted to find a bookshelf for inside the closet in our playroom. The closet has built-in shelves on one side, but I was to have some more so I can keep anything with small and/or lots of pieces generally out of the way. I measured the space I had, twice, and brought the measurements with me to the store. We found a cheap wooden shelving system that looked like it would work, I checked the shelf measurements, and wrote down where to go to pick up all the necessary parts. We check out, load everything into the car, and go home. The next night we go to put it together and discover that we are missing something. A 4 dollar metal cross-brace for the back of the bookshelf, without which the whole thing collapses. It must have fallen out of the cart somewhere between check-out and the loading area. So I was pissed off that we couldn't get the closet organized because that motivation doesn't come along very often for me.

So the following week I have a sitter for the afternoon and I decide to go back to IKEA to get this brace-thing, and run all my other errands in the Plymouth Meeting big-box store haven. Reminder: through all of this I am about 7 months pregnant, and start getting uncomfortable and having Braxton-Hicks contractions after walking for a while. I get to IKEA, find my way to the cross-braces, get what I need, and check-out. The shortest and cheapest trip I have ever had to that store. I finish running my errands and go home. That night Alex and I again try to put this bookshelf together. We get ready to screw in the brace, and .......it is the wrong size. Yes, I managed to buy the wrong one, and so, yet again, I am foiled in my attempt to organize. This time, I had a long day and was exhausted, and I start to cry. Alex is laughing. I refuse to go back to IKEA again, and he says he will take care of it.

So on Presidents' Day I send him off to get this freakin' piece of metal that has managed to frustrate me to no end. He arrives home with it, and assures me that it is the correct size. So last night we finally get around to putting this thing together......AGAIN. We get the shelves all set up, and the cross-brace installed and, miraculously, we have a completed bookshelf!! Yeah!!! I can FINALLY get this thing in the closet and get the rest of the toys and games put away. I clear out the floor and we go to move it into place, and IT WON'T FIT!!!!!!!! Yes, you read that correctly, it would not fit. Now mind you, I did measure everything in the closet and the shelf width to make sure it would fit. However, when the whole thing is assembled, it is 2 inches wider than the shelf length. Alex is laughing, and I am fuming, cursing IKEA and all things Swedish. I felt like I should've been on a hidden camera show. So now we have a new set of shelves in out garage, and my playroom closet is still in need of some new storage solution.

What have I learned from this? Not sure yet, except that I am definitely not meant to organize that closet. And I think IKEA might be the most evil store in the world.