I took a friend and her friend who was visiting to Ikea last Saturday. I'd always wanted to see the newer Ikea in Palo Alto so we trekked down the peninsula instead of to Emeryville. I was really good last Saturday and only walked out with $20 worth of stuff. But the Ikea bug bit me big time and this Saturday I went to store again in Palo Alto just to check it out and ended up buying all kinds of stuff.

I bought this shelf thing for my hallway didn't like it where I thought it was going to go, and ended up putting it my bedroom where it has made an incredible difference to the room. That got me into a huge decorating kick on Sunday which led me to rearrange my closet and my drawers and get rid of a dresser. I've had that dresser for over 10 years so it's gotten alot of use. It didn't cost me much money, but it's lasted so I definitely got my money's worth. Now it is sadly falling apart and I've been wanting to get rid of it for awhile, and I finally took my chance. My closet actually looks a lot better I think and for whatever reason it feels like I have more room.

Now I want to throw out the desk that I have in my bedroom since I never use it. I think I've had that desk for a few years as well. It's not falling apart of anything, but I bought another desk when I was working at home and I don't need two desks.

I've decided to make my bedroom more of a bedroom and move all my paperwork stuff to where my work desk is. The only paperwork stuff I want to keep in my bedroom is my wriitng stuff because I write in bed alot and my financial papers. Everything else will go towards my designated office space. And Ikea is going to help me achieve this goal because I think, I"m not sure yet, I'm going to buy one of their larger shelvie things. It will be tall and have lots of room for files in baskets and book and all my other paperwork stuff.

But I'm not done yet. I need another cd tower thing to hold dvds and videos as I don't quite have a proper place for them, and because I took a bunch of kung fu videos from my dead uncle's collection. My aunt was going to throw them out so I took a bunch I'd never seen before.

And then I decided that the space in my hallway which I was trying to fill with the book case that's now in my bedroom, needs to have something there after all and I'm thinking it needs a bench with a cushion and a place for shoes. I heard some guy say in the Ikea store that the bench would be a great thing for his hallway so he could have somewhere to sit when he took off his shoes. And I'm like, you know, that's not a bad idea. I'm running out of shoe space anyway, so the shoes that use everyday could go in the shoe shelves, there are 8 of them, and I could have a place to sit or set things down in the hallway.

I was thinking of an armoire because I need more hanging space, but I don't know. My friend whom I took to Ikea last week now thinks she could use an armoire, and I told her I was thinking of buying one as well.

So I think from now until the end of the year, I will be on a huge Ikea spending binge trying to bring some order into my apartment.