Ikea - No More Plastic Shopping Bags

As of yesterday, 5th June 2009, Ikea will no longer be giving out plastic shopping bags to shoppers. They are doing their bit to reduce the amount of plastic bags which are harmful to our environment. Animal and sea creatures are hurt by them. And it just contributes to more waste.

If shoppers still want a plastic bag, they can have the usual Ikea bags for 10 sen and 20 sen per bag, depending on the size.

Sales from the plastic bags will be donated to the Malaysian Nature Society for the Climate Change Programme which includes planting of mangrove trees at Kuala Selangor Nature Park.

I love that they used actual Ikea products as part of the campaign!

This is great! Ikea bags are durable and biogedradable and with this move, they are taking an even strong stance in protecting our environment. It's geat to see big companies, well loved companies, doing this to encourage individuals to do the same. Small changes in our habits and lifestyles bring about huge positive changes in the world we live in.

And the big blue Ikea carrier bag which usually retails at EM3.90, is now available at RM1.90.

I currently have shopping bags in the car for when I go grocery shopping. I'll now remember to bring a bigger bag for when I'm shopping in kea.

Another reason why Ikea is a brand I love.

Space Saving Plastic Bag Triangles

Fruitcake has been coming over a few times a week to help me unpack and organize the house. And she has this really neat trick to organize plastic bags. Ikea has a plastic bag holder which most of us have right? But most of us just stuff the plastic bags inside. Fruitcake flattens and folds the bags into triangles which saves up about half the space used in the holder. Here's how:

Flatten the plastic bag like so.

Fold it into half horizontally.

Then fold horizontally again.

At one corner of the long rectangle, turn up one corner to form a triangle.

Continue folding the triangle over and over till you come to the end of the plastic bag.

When you have one fold left, tuck the remaining plastic int the triangle.

And there you have it.

It works with all sizes of bags!

Happy plastic bag folding and may this small folding action save you same space in your home.

Ikea Member's Sale

After many years of walking up and down Ikea following the path indicated by the bright yellow arrows on the floor and leaving Ikea with some bright yellow batteries, 4 vanilla scented candles, a picture frame of 3 grey pebbles and half a dozen of curry puffs even though I didn’t meant to, I’ll finally be shopping there and making a purchase totaling more than RM1,000 on a single receipt.

Yes I know I’m excited about spending money. It is strange. I understand that. But I also have this immense love for Ikea which I don’t understand. I could walk about for a few hours and be totally entertained going from the living rooms all the way to the check out counters. I feel like a kid in a humongous play area. There’s nothing you can’t touch, open, sit in, roll around on or bounce about on. Except that they now seal off the ladder on the double decker kids beds. I used to climb up there for a nap when I’m tired after walking about. These days I just sleep on any bed which looks the most comfortable and ignore the stares.

And I love their branding and marketing strategy. Ingvar Kamprad is a genius, whether he started out trying to achieve that or not.

Ikea’s member’s sale started today at 7am and would last till 10am before it was open to the public. Sin Cyn and I didn’t want to be too kiasu and be one of those people who are waiting outside the store before it even opens. So we arrived at 7.30am and were pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t too crowded.

We knew exactly what we wanted but the bright yellow tags with the 3 “!!!” indicated special sale items constantly pulled us away from our original path.

In the end I picked up 3 beige stone coloured tea light holders which I’ve wanted for ages. I also put into the shopping cart 2 rectangular sand blasted glass reading lamps which comes in a pair, one big and one small, which I’ve also wanted since the last time I saw it but Paul said not to buy yet. They were only RM59! TWO lamps made of really heavy glass that’s mouth blown (is that what the process is called?). How worth it is that? The 2 duvet covers which I’ve been eyeing for 1 year were also on sale. The exact 2 which I wanted in the exact colours. How could I not get it?

Those were the smaller and easier to carry items. They are now waiting for me in the car waiting for me to transport them to their new home.

I’m bringing Paul back tonight to buy the bigger items. The Hopen bed is on sale but we’re buying the Malm bed instead. In clear lacquered birch veneer (the pic shows the bed in medium brown). This is a bed I’ve been eying for 5 years! It’s so gorgeous!

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like the Malm design even though they may not buy it for various reasons. We’re also going to buy the book shelf cum storage area, also from the Malm range, which sits at the back of the headboard. The sides can be pulled out and made into side tables.

A new bed and 2 new duvet sets. I’m a very happy bunny!

I also want another Billy bookcase since it now comes in bright red. Billy is one of Ikea’s best selling book cases! We’re also going to get a Ronnskar mirror and matching shelf for the bathroom. Now that Paul and I are moving in together and we finally have a place to ourselves, these purchases are totally justified!

The Hopen chest of drawers may not be justified but it’s on sale! And I want the Expedit even though it’s not on sale.

Can’t wait to go back tonight!

A New Lamp

One day, the reading lamp next to my bed side table started smoking. As in, smoke literally floated out of the top of the lamp. Paul yelled that I should switch it off and said that the lamp needs to be replaced.

But how can my poor lamp come to the end of its life span so quickly? I bought it from Ikea just 8 years ago. The Ikea TV commercial where the broken lamp got put in the rain came to mind. Don’t lamps last longer than that? Apparently not, especially those from Ikea. I still felt a bit sad. That lamp served me well and was there to shine a light every night while I read before bed. I know. I know. I get too attached to inanimate objects.

So Paul & I went to look for a new lamp in Ikea. There were some pretty good deals but those under RM100 were ugly or too flimsy. So we went to all the other home & electrical stores in Ikano and the Curve but none of them sold reading lamps!

The next day, we went to the SS2 square as there are lots of light shops there. I like Galaxy. They are small but they have very competitive process but they didn’t carry reading lamps. So I went to Maruzen next door. They had reading lamps but they were incredibly ugly. So I ended up buying a table lamp but it was bright enough to function as a reading lamp too.

Until you need one, you don’t realize that it’s not that easy to buy reading lamps.

The Beautiful Traffic-Free KL Roads During CNY

I love KL during long festive seasons. This was how beautiful the roads were on the first 3 days of the Chinese New Year.

And this is Ikea.

And this is Ikea at its norm.

I love KL during long festive seasons.

Bring the Meatballs Back!

Ikea is not only known for their furniture but their food too. Besides furniture and food, I often go to Ikea to :

- play with the animals (and try not to bring any back with me though Ashton, the Minnen Ratta, put the guilt trip on me so I had to bring him back home and I now love him to bits)

- walk around when I’m bored and end up buying something small which I don’t need but is cute so I can’t resist like the jigsaw puzzle shaped ice cube makers

- take a nap on the beds or sofa beds

- do a sales pitch and try and sell a sofa bed to the customers

- sit in the ‘living room’ with friends and pretend I’m hosting a tea party

Today, Michelle Who Stays on the Seashore, Sin Cyn and I went to Ikea for lunch. We already knew that the Ikea Café no longer served the Swedish meatballs, though we don’t know why. We heard some rumour about it being not halal. Anyway, the last time we were there, the meatballs were replaced by something else that I can only describe as flattened meatballs. They tasted about the same but it was slightly crispier, due to the shape.

We headed to the café today and there were no meatballs! Flattened or otherwise. Ikea is famous for their Swedish meatballs! How can they not have it on the menu?

I asked the server who told me that it’s simply no longer on the menu and he doesn’t know when it will be brought back. I asked the cashier and she said that there’re a problem with the supplier.

I then called Ikea Customer Service and they put me on hold so many times. They really should not call themselves Customer Service. I’ve just emailed them instead. I need an answer. They need to bring the meatballs back. I’d really like it if they would offer both the traditional meat balls and “meat flatties”. Maybe I’m asking for too much but just bring one version back.

And they need to take the sign out from the car park area.