Chumps for cheapness

Those who mock cheapness have never had to dig change from between the couch cushions to afford to pay to go to the laundromat or to buy groceries for the week. If you can afford to worry about "quality" and "things that last" when you purchase furniture and other items, you're probably making more money than the average American. I have a cheap plastic, self-assembled TV cart that someone assembled and gave me for Christmas going on 20 years ago and a lop-sided IKEA bookshelf that I self-assembled myself about 10 years ago. It works perfectly fine as a bedstand. They're ugly and cheap, but I've also used them for quite some time. The other items I own are largely salvaged from my parents' garage (they're fairly nice old items that THEY purchased at estate auctions for a fraction of what they're worth) or items salvaged from garage sales. But I can't afford to be a snob about "quality" items. I can't afford to. It annoys me to see people knock the providers of items that I can usually afford and without which I would have to do without furniture altogether.

For some time now I have imagined that the designers and executives at IKEA who are truly eco-conscious are fraught with disgust at themselves for perpetuating the mass consumption of cheap, eco-damaging goods. All of their recycled boxes and chairs made out of excess banana leaves doesn't change the fact IKEA as a mass market merchandiser of poly-acrylide disposable junk is bad for the environment in a sordid variety of ways, and the fact that more otherwise smart people don't understand that probably shouldn't be surprising.

Andrea - much of my place is furnished in cinderblocks and 2x8 planks

Don't knock pack flat furniture. It's made with waste wood, energy efficient to ship, and fairly durable. I have a twenty year pack flat book case I'm still using and ave away an entertainment center to a neighbor of the same vintage.

Actually, I bought a set of Ivar shelves from IKEA to put into my barracks rooms in Washington DC about 10 or 11 years ago (NCOs got larger, private rooms to themselves. Since then, they've moved with me to Phoenix (three different houses), where they held a sizeable portion of my library, and then to Denver, where they went into the kitchen and stored the larger pots and pans, dry goods and appliances.

They're currently in the garage, because I don't really have a need for them any more. But some friends need some extra storage in their kitchen, so I'll probably end up giving them away.

Nothing at all disposable about those...I've more than gotten my money's worth out of those shelves.

I have to agree with Andrea (@ 2:19 PM); when one does not have to worry about where to find the money to put gas in the car the next day, one is better off than a great many people in this world.

As someone who has been within breathing distance of being really, really dead broke (as in having to go to the food pantry to feed the kids next week), I can honestly say that while there is a difference between cheap and good, the real difference is between having cheap and having nothing at all.

Your servant,

Lord Karth

I just go there for the Swedish meatballs (I assume they have those in American IKEAs; I've only been in IKEA in Europe).

Sweet! I hate IKEA junk almost as much as I hate Walmart junk! My sophisticate bubble will not be popped so easily! BWAAAHHAAAHHAAAHAAA!

I tend to go to the high-end of low-range products. Before we were married, my wife went all out to buy a nice NAD stereo system, including accompanyingly expensive speakers, amps, pre-amps and attachments. Top of the line stuff, but after about 5-7 years, near worthless to us as it was a 2.0 system. My $200 Sony 5.1 Home Theater package is now going on five years, getting far more use than than the top-of-the-line unit ever did. If 7.1 sound systems become more standard, no problem. I can let go of the Sony with no heartbreak.

My point is that in a market where you constantly see game-changing improvements, it doesn't make much sense to invest a lot of money in an item that'll be obsolete in a few years. Now a bed or a dresser, maybe it's worth the heavy dollars--if you got'em--but that's not always the rule.

One thing that always annoys me is people who waste salesmen's time getting info and then they go buy it on line for $5.00 less. People, please, a salesmen's time is just as valuable to him as yours is to you, don't steal it.

"If I decided to save up for a handmade mahogany desk, I would still be working on the floor. "

not if you went to a local auction. two weeks ago i attend a local auction where I managed to win a 6 piece mahogany bedroom suite for $800 way way less than what you would pay in the store

I furnished my family room from IKEA 8-9 years ago when my children were small which means it has taken abuse. Couch, chairs, bookshelf, plastic storage boxes, swing, rocker-bridge, less than a thousand dollars. The frames - which are laminated wood and bent - of the couch, chairs, and rocker-bridge have held up very well. The washable couch upholstery cover busted its zippers early and gave way at the seams - so we tossed it and use sheets on the couch. The cloth covers on the chairs and rocker-bridge stain very easily - but they've had to contend with markers and toddlers' dirty hands. When the children are bigger I'll get new chair covers from IKEA (leather, or Scotch-gard the fabric) and make my own couch cover, and at that point have a good-looking, enduring, modernist suite.

Every cloth product has either busted at the seams, faded fast or held stains - upholstery, stuffed animals, swing, cushions, blankets. Bad quality. All the solid wood parts have survived nicely. Good quality. If they would only fix the fabric problem, they would have good furniture.

The wood product bookcase has flexed a wee bit on the outside. The plastic storage boxes with casters have held up surprisingly well. The metal lanterns and wine glasses endure, unsurprisingly.

Aaa, who gives a rip? Anytime you find yourself haranguing people about their morality it means they have really, really significant reasons to blow you off. When it comes to the basics - love your neighbor as yourself, don't take advantage of people weaker than you are, do justice, love mercy, keep your **** in your pants till you know what love means - it makes sense that we have to keep haranguing people. That's all pretty basic, and they'll always have significant reasons to misbehave.

But not shopping at IKEA? As long as we have cheap energy and instant communication, we're going to have a sense of fashion that won't let us deviate from the accepted, worldwide, baseline standard, which IKEA is, apparently.

Most of us just want to live and let live. Which means that we don't have, most of us, the creativity or desire to go rummaging through garage sales looking for cool pieces to stress and refurbish. I tried repairing an oak table that my next-door-neighbor didn't want that was sitting out on his porch. In the end it looked like chainsaw meets Ace Hardware-steampunk and smelled vaguely of cat pee. I put a tablecloth on that free pile of crap and ate off it for two years.

My New England ancestors didn't realize they had great style. They were just trying to make the best living they could with what they had, and that's what everybody does nowadays, too. Maybe IKEA is just as "damaging" to the environment (or whatever) as Walmart. Probably is. But until people stop demanding that we prove we're human beings who care about our neighbors and community by attempting to live up to a certain minimum standard of style and taste (which won't happen because we're human beings and not existentialist ubermensch), and until we stop having that standard of style and taste dictated to us by New York and LA through the magazines we read and the TV we all watch, then (when we get old enough and wealthy enough that we can no longer pretend to be college students for whom it is acceptable to have a bright yellow vinyl couch that we got for free) we're either going to have to shop at IKEA or give up significant amounts of our time developing creativity and a sense of style, the acquisition of which, in my case, would require the use of black magic, which is forbidden to me by the tenets of my religion.

Sometimes this blog reads like a total caricature. "I'm poorer than you and look how I saved. I'm so green!"

But I'll join...!

My roommate in college came back from the summer stocked with Ikea tables, chairs, desk, coat rack, shelves, bed. Let's just say, Ikea furniture does not withstand the rigors of college student in their early 20's more focused on drinking than studying a good portion of the time. Although, I type this from a 10 year old Ikea kitchen table now used as a desk that I won't let my wife give away. Just a couple minor repairs though, don't tighten those screws too much...

But until people stop demanding that we prove we're human beings who care about our neighbors and community by attempting to live up to a certain minimum standard of style and taste (which won't happen because we're human beings and not existentialist ubermensch)

Sez You!! I've been ignoring demands that I live up to a minimum standard of style and taste for more than twenty years now and have no intention of starting now.

polistra, you said:

"When you only care about minimizing the price, you aren't going to get quality performance even in the areas where government is basic and necessary, like roads and armies. (Think of Rumsfeld's "transformation" of the army.)"

Hear, hear, polistra. Exactly. Under Republican leadership of the two Houses of Congress and the Presidency, we got expensive government (the exploding deficit) and yet the important things, like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, were done "on the cheap" - someone was profiting from those wars but it sure wasn't the civilian population of either country or the American people or our brave military men and women.

I have to laugh in disbelief when the same people who dropped the ball so badly in Afghanistan criticize the Obama Administration for taking its time to determine the proper strategy going forward (which I believe should involve sending more troops, BTW). A few years ago, Hamid Karzai was begging for more help from the U.S.

If we had given it then, we might be in much better shape in Afghanistan today. Too bad Cheney and Rumsfeld put their military contractor pals ahead of everyone's interests. To try to bring this back to topic, instead of blaming the public for wanting to buy cheaply, perhaps we should look at who is profiting?

One word about IKEA. When IKEA first opened in Southern California many years ago (either late '80's or early '90's, I believe) it had a brilliant ad campaign which built a sense of suspense about the source. Imagine my disappointment when this brilliant marketing campaign turned out to be for a furniture store.

All that glitters is not gold.