As I mentioned in my birthday post, our lives have been quite chaotic over the past couple weeks. Our apartment has been on the market for around 5 months now, and this is our 2nd realtor, so in actuality our apartment has been for sale for around a year. We have a great place, great location, but like so many others the economy is screwing us royally. Racking our brains trying to decide what we can do to sell this place, my husband decided to refurnish part of the living & dining room. I was completely on board, until it actually started happening. Reality sunk in and the stress of overhauling our place is starting to take its toll. If things went according to plan it might not have been so bad but how often do things go as planned. I'm a planner, I'm not very flexible, and life likes to mock me. Over the course of the weekend we broke down most of the furniture we planned to get rid of. And on Monday a "kringloop" (sort of a Goodwill) came and picked up all of our old 2nd hand furniture. It sounded logical. Reality was, everything that had been stored in and on these cupboards, coffee tables, desks, etc., was now boxed (o.k. 50₵ IKEA bags & recyclable AH crates, I'm also frugal) and scattered around our living room. As needed these bags & crates shifted from one place to another but for the most part the areas receiving new furniture were left open. The clutter was annoying but it was only going to be a couple days. We were eating all meals at our 2yr olds plastic kids table and she was sleeping in a pop up camping bed.
Tuesday came, the IKEA delivery was schedule for 2-4PM, so as called for, we waited. My little toddler patiently waited in the confines of a corner of the living room, entertained only by the tv and iPad (most of her toys weren't accessible). At 4:05PM, IKEA calls, they're running behind. O.k., we wait longer, both growing a bit impatient but still dealing with it. After multiple calls to customer service (who couldn't help me because it was after office hours) the delivery man called at 8PM saying they just weren't going to make it but promised to show up 1st thing in the morning. After a few deep breaths, I accepted it, put my daughter to bed and went and relaxed in the liveable corner of the living room. I made sure to wake up bright and early, take care of any last minute details, feed the family breakfast, and wait for the delivery (and assembly) of the new furniture. 8AM comes, IKEA transport dept. calls, apparently the driver isn't allowed to make appointments, and the scheduled customer refuses to switch their appointment to the afternoon. Great, wow, wonderful, I was starting to freak out. I had been patient, I had been tolerable, I had been pleasant, and I was going to break down. I wasn't the only one, my toddler was also getting tired of playing in a corner. New delivery time, between 11AM & 1PM. After collecting myself, we showered and managed to leave the apartment for a while. There we were again, waiting... 11 roll0, by, 12 rolls by, I was growing more irritated with each passing hour. With 15 minutes to spare they cruise up with the delivery truck. At first I was relieved, then I realized the speed at which things were getting assembled, and it was going to be a long day. One of the men had only worked there for 3 days, you can imagine the situation. Nap time rolls around, at first she relaxed on the couch, but her mood swung, she grew tired & grew fussy. Since the new bookcases in our room were completed, I dragged the pop up bed in there, blasted her relaxing music and hoped for the best. Despite the drilling and banging, she fell asleep... one less worry, I thought. Now I was just bored and still confined to the corner. When she awoke her mood didn't improve; I understood, I had enough myself. 4hrs later, they finally finished assembling everything and left. Did I get to unwind, no! Turns out I was right and the sheets from the large American crib don't fit the new toddler bed. Out into the rain we go and off to Hema. By the time we arrived home it was time to make dinner (we did finally get to eat at a dining room table). Do you think I felt like unpacking things, no! I'm the type of person who can buy something and leave it in the bag on the table for days. I have nothing inside that drives me to immediately open something or fix something; I like to take my time, adjust to the idea, do it at my own pace (some call this lazy, I call it not wanting to create unneeded stress). But the clutter was staring to stress me out, damn... I was forced to unpack part of it. Not only for my sanity but for my toddlers, she needed access to her toys and to see something familiar in the house. We downsized our furniture to make the apartment feel more open, but this leaves me with a lot less storage space. There are 6 large bags of things that I have no idea what to do with (my husbands solution is to throw it all away, ahh). Hopefully over the next couple days I can unpack the rest, and in the weekend it's back to IKEA for decorations and storage baskets & boxes. For those of you wondering if I filed a complaint with IKEA, of course I did as soon as the offices opened; complaining is my forte!
No comments:
Post a Comment