19th Jan, 2020. Finally, all furnitures have been arrived. We spent 5 days, assembled a double bed, a TV combination, a 3-doors wardrobe, a 6-drawers chest, a working desk and a sofa. The last two were the easiest one, just heavy. For the rest were harder and required more effort than I’ve expected. After 5 days, finally our hard work have been paid off.
Why We Assemble Ikea Furnitures by Ourselves？
When I was living in Tokyo by myself, I rarely had any furnitures – just a folding bed and a working desk which I asked my friend to help assembling. What Curry Boy? His company provided furnitures rental service. Simply put, we didn’t have any furnitures assembling experience before. And we were thinking, “Isn’t Ikea is famous for easy-assembling?” Honestly, how heavy was a piece of furniture, how many screws or how much effort are needed, we’d no idea. Take it slowly, step by step, one day you’ll be there! That’s our philosophy.
And in Reality, What’s the Problems?
Yes, it’s not difficult to assemble IKEA furnitures, only if you have the right tools, another pair of helping hands, and you don’t make mistakes in the process.
No Right Tools
We had only a IKEA box of handy tools, which we always used the screw driver and 1-2 particular screws. So here came the problem – the screw started depreciating when you used them for a thousands time. They couldn’t being tight probably, so it took longer time and more efforts. I seriously recommend, you need an electric screwdriver.
Some Furnitures are too BIG and HEAVY
Take a 2 feet long double bed and a 2 feet tall wardrobe as an example. Both of them were in 4 individuals packed boxes, with each box average weighted 25 kg. We moved them around in a not-so-big bedroom, being afraid that we’ll carelessly damage the wall or floor or whatever. I was very tired, but I couldn’t let go. I needed to try my best to help Curry Boy. So one of us held the position of a door, and the other one tightened the screws. As Curry Boy always says, “We are a TEAM!” And believe me, it’s not a one-man-band task. You’ll need a good helper.
Oops…Something Went Wrong
While Curry Boy was busying at assembling the double bed, I tried to assemble the TV combination. I ended up working on it from 10am to 7pm. Was it so difficult? Nope. It’s just, I made mistakes. Sometimes I messed up the left and right side of a drawer, then later I mistaken the left rail as a right one. They all looked so similar. So I had to unscrew all, and then redo them. A lot of screws, with a non-electric screwdriver, it was a bit frustrated actually.
You Can Also Use IKEA Assembly Paid Service TaskRabbit
Afterwards, I searched if you buy IKEA in Germany (the UK also the same), they’ll outsource to TaskRabbit, charge by each item and the assembly fee is approximately 25% of the product. For example, a bed frame with storage and slats would cost £100. It’s definitely not cheap. You’ll have to make some calculations – if you really need assembly service, all the cost together won’t be so much different than you buy a nicer quality one.
So, Will We Do It Again?
After first day assembly, my wrist (to screw), my arms (to pick furnitures) and my waist (to knee or squat down) were aching.
“Do you feel satisfied?” I asked Curry Boy.
“It’s okay.”
“Only okay?”
“We just followed the manual instructions. If we were to make from scratch, it’d be more fun.”
“Oh! So you like to create. And next time you’ll still assemble by yourself?”
“I don’t know……but this is really time-consuming!”
Finally, everything were done. For the remaining would be adjust the lighting, buy some plants to decorate. In mega lockdown, find some fun in a feasible way.：）
