Ikea solutions for the storage-challenged home

This weekend, we decided to go to Ikea and see about getting a new bedroom set. We had our Malm bedroom set from Ikea since we got married (almost 6 years ago). It’s been through 5 moves which means it has been put together, taken apart and put back together 4 times too many for Ikea furniture.

We love our condo and have no regrets about buying our place. That being said, the one thing our place is lacking is storage. Previously, we used the guest bedroom closet for storage. And we still do, but most of the space has been taken up by kid stuff since the guest room became Nolan’s room. It’s amazing how someone so small has so much stuff…

Thanks to our tax refund, we were able to invest in some higher quality pieces from Ikea and solutions that provide far more storage than our Malm set ever did. We went with the Brimnes bed frame with storage, the Brimnes headboard with storage, and the Pax wardrobe system.

My husband is an Ikea furniture builder enthusiast. He truly enjoys building Ikea furniture. And he’s pretty quick too. However, I think the higher quality of the pieces we purchased was evidenced by how long it took him to assemble everything. He worked from 1:30pm to 10:30pm on the Pax wardrobe and the Brimnes headboard. By 10pm he looked at me and said, “I don’t think I’m going to get to the bed frame tonight. I’m tired and sore. I also stink and need a shower.” (He was right, he did stink). This was the first time a Ryan Riddle Ikea build spanned two days.

We are extremely satisfied with what we purchased and can’t believe how much more storage we have. Quite a bit of space has been opened up in our closet. We also decided to keep one of our Malm dressers (since it matched). Currently, it is completely empty. However, it is reassuring to know we have more storage when we need it – no point using “if” because the fact that we will have more stuff to store is inevitable.

Here’s a few photos of the new set up:

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