Who’s masochistic enough to try swimming upstream at Ikea on a Saturday? I bet you can guess.
While spackling and skim coating, I’ve been using the kitchen sink to wash up my palette knives and the thing-that-looks-like-a-loaf-tin. Paolo won’t let me put them in the dishwasher.
“But don’t you want them sparkling clean!?”
“Yes, but I don’t want to eat joint compound with my yoghurt.”
…He’s so picky. A week later, he reached for the pan scrubber.
“Oh, don’t use that for dishes anymore. It’s my new spackle-washer-upper”.
Granted this left a rubber-handled hole in our cleaning regime, so we were back to Ikea to buy the brush a food-safe friend. While there, it struck me that all their lovely bins of crap could have remarkable application at home, in our little pit of despair.
Scrubbing brush This guy cleans up spackle brushes, mud pans and paint trays like magic. Luckily they come in different colours – ‘black death’ for DIY supplies and ‘sunshine & happiness’ for tasty sustenance. Far preferable to washing up with one’s gentle little fingers.
Popsicle moulds Staring down a kitchen renovation and like smoothies? Freeze those little suckers. Instant dinner.
Ladle for paint? I haven’t tried this yet but I’ve got high hopes. Can you ladle paint? I intend to.
The cheapest instant light fixture Another less-than-delightful aspect of old apartments: no lights. To survive the interim before we attack the ceiling and inject electricity, we’ve hooked up the student special: a paper lantern with light bulb, strung on a ceiling hook. 45-watt ghetto.
Mobile files Kassett, you sly devil. What flat-packed secrets you’ve been keeping. Since buying our place, the paper stacks have been accumulating – all the random crap we’re not sure if we’ll want in the future (like our apartment’s inspection report?). Filing cabinets are deadly serious – and freaking heavy. The kind of thing that real grown-ups own. And they’re ugly. These little beauties are for the commitment-phobic keeper: we need these papers organized for now, but not forever. They’ve actually got filing cabinet innards. And we’ve sort of got this dust-creating habit? Yea, about that. Unlike other cheap/plastic/temporary filing boxes, these have a lid. $10 and problem solved.
In real life this looks less like a breast-feeding aid.
Desk-during-DIY On more of a blogging kick, this thing’s my new best friend. Unlike my desk (currently underneath 3 pieces of sectional couch) and our kitchen table (currently under siege), this laptop desk isn’t a static flat surface, so it can’t get buried. It’s got enough space for Mr. Macbook, plus room for a mouse to roam. Happy chappies, both.
While going rogue within Ikea’s hallowed halls, I also completely pillaged their paper measuring tape supply. A few dozen of these are now stashed all over the apartment, plus one in every bag I own. Coat pockets, too. So if I’d previously indicated that Ikea and I had broken up - read it here first:
We’re officially back on.
Hey, you want a s'more? Some more of what?
Wow, that’s a lotta people in IKEA! I’m usually stuck going on a Saturday too, unless I’m feeling ambitious and brave enough to go to Calgary during the week, solo. I think you should have taken 4 kids with you, 4 easily bored, want to try out every couch and chair kids….now that’s a whole lotta fun.
Ladle seems like it might be one of those genius ideas that no one has thought of before. I just dump it out of the can, wipe up the mess dripping down the side and call it good. Of course I never take the time to punch holes in the lip so the paint will just drip back in. I don’t know what’s more fun than trying to get that paint encrusted lid off a year later…
Unless it’s a trip to IKEA on a Saturday with four kids.
Ohhh, that’s the fun & adventure I was missing: multiple children!
Will report back on the ladle (which I guess I know in advance I can’t put in the dishwasher)….
I never, never, NEVER go to Ikea on Saturday. In fact, I time my trips to Ikea very carefully and have finally discovered the best time to be there. I won’t write it here – then everybody will go at the best time and it won’t be the best time anymore.
You should pick up one of those plastic paint can pourer-thingies. No paint dripping down the side of the can and no paint in that little crevice around the lip. And possibly cheaper than an Ikea ladle
Kelly
Hahaha! 10:30 p.m. on a Friday is pretty good – if you’re ok with being ‘the obsessive Ikea lady who needs to get some friends and/or just go home’.
My beef with the whole enterprise of paint cans is that they should come with paint-can-pourer-thingies. The institution knows their base product sucks and force us to accessorize at great expense & inconvenience (re. Ikea on a Saturday). The Beijing Ikea (2nd pic @ top) looks like fun, eh?
I’m over here pouting about my lack of Ikea. If I want one I have to drive six hours, which sucks. I live in a metropolitan area with a population of over one million; where is my Ikea? WHERE? My best friend and I keep threatening to rent a U-Haul and ditch the families for a weekend to go shopping there, but I’d need a bank loan first.
I usually buy the paint that comes in pourable containers now, but Home Depot sells the plastic spouts that you stick on the regular cans for 99 cents. I bought one but I think I lost it before I ever used it. Oops.
Jessica I have every suspicion you live in the 4th world, a sinister place occupied not by nation-states but vacant Ikea-less wastelands. Start an angry letter campaign! Stop paying taxes! Throw things at Sweden!
You & Kelly have made me newly aware of a tool that’s evidently missing from the painting arsenal – and for only $0.99! Thanks!
Home Depot sells two spouts–the 0.99 version, which is just a spout, and the extravagant 1.99 version, that goes all the way around the can. I highly recommend the 1.99 version. (It also cleans up really easily, even if, like me, you let paint dry on it.)
And I agree–what is it with older places and a lack of light fixtures? Or even newer rentals?
That sounds fantastic! Definitely going to grab one of those if my ladle idea ends up sucking. (Makes you wonder why they don’t just charge an extra $2 for the paint can and sell us a product that works?)
I definitely had to take a second look at that laptop desk…it would be perfect to nurse a baby!
A very flat baby.
[I'll give you a moment to recover from shock]
Pity, cos I could really use a few of those lights-on-cords thingies, they seem handy. And cheap.
No wonder you have so much time to farm – you’re not wasting half your life assembling table legs. The shock, though, might last a lifetime. Remind me what you’ve got over the Aussies?
Lets start with a decent rugby team. We don’t have snakes, few [1 or 2] poisonous spiders, ski slopes….. I’m trying……. we don’t have drought……
Ummmm….. I don’t know. The number of times I’ve thought about jumping the ditch…
Oh! We don’t have seriously annoying ascents!
A compelling case but the accents seal the deal.
Just found your blog and am loving it. In Ottawa we now have the biggest IKEA in Canada. While there I always wonder what would happen if there was a fire. You notice there are no straight lines. It’s a death trap. I always pack a snack and wear comfy shoes. I may never get out.
Hi Janet! Thank you, glad you said hello as well.
In a fire? Hmm. You could extinguish it with the fanning power of a million paper tape measures. Better question — would anyone remember to get the kids out of the ball pit?