A DECLUTTERING phase entered our lives a few years ago thanks to author Marie Kondo, but even she had to take a break from minimalism after giving birth to her third child. With better storage solutions, perhaps we can embrace the stuff that we already have and get to keep them.
During an event in Ikea on July 5, the Swedish furniture giant presented items like bedside tables, shelves, and even pegboards so that people can maximize the storage space in their homes. “The reason why we choose to focus on storage across the home is because we have 80 years of history and experience with storage,” said Leotina Bucur, Country Selling Manager for Ikea Philippines. “We know for sure it’s the biggest need for life at home.”
According to a” “Life at Home Report by Ikea in 2022, only 33% of Filipinos find that they’re in control of the way they tidy up their home. The same report says that “our perceptions of mess are tied to household tensions almost 50% of the time among familial and shared spaces.”
That said, Ikea presents solutions such as the Trofast toy storage series, with tubs within wood shelves to conceal toys while making them accessible to children. There’s also the Skubb series, a set of boxes and hanging organizers for the closet.
“We tend to use only the floor space,” noted Ms. Bucur. “Look for every space: it can be wall space, it can be floor space, it could be the corners of your room. It could even be the door; we have hangers that you can attach to your door,” she said. For example, one can use the Skadis pegboard to hang things in the bathroom, hallway, or the kitchen. The Rönnskär series, meanwhile, presents a curvy corner shelf which one can set up on the corner of a wall. “Where we are very confident is, that for the entrance of your home, in every room where you go, we have a solution for you,” she said.
Of course, we had to ask about how well these things might hold our other things. She pointed to a shelf and said, “I can tell you, this piece of furniture, it’s tested 100,000 times. When we develop the product, it goes through really intense tests. It can be different from product to product.
“For children’s products, it’s the most intensive test. We also give it to people to try before we start selling [the product].”
For the month of July, the Ikea Family membership program is offering promos such as P170 off on Mober deliveries until the end of the month, as well as a raffle for seven million Ikea family points for seven winners, through a minimum spend of P7,000 from July 6 to 31. — Joseph L. Garcia
