January, 2026:

I don’t usually have much nice to say about big companies, but a guy at Ikea Richmond went out of his way to help this dumbass last night, so I’m giving him (and indirectly Ikea) a shout-out today.

Unfortunately I’ve already deleted the message I sent to Ikea through their feedback form, so I’m going to have to wing it.

I did three normal, straightforward returns, because I’d bought four items with the same function, and I ended up returning three of them unopened. I bought (and returned) the Brogrund shower caddy (didn’t want to mess with drilling into tile), and the Krokfjorden and Blecksjon hanging shower caddies (because they get in the way of my shower head). I kept the cheapest of the lot, the $9.99 Tisken shower caddy; I’m dubious about the suckers they use to stick it on the wall, but millions can’t be wrong, right? (Wait, did you see who won the last US election?!) I haven’t installed it yet, but if the suckers don’t work properly, you can expect another blog post!

Enhet, Ikea laundry hamper

Anyway, I also brought in a half-assembled Enhet laundry hamper. I had managed to misinterpret the instructions, and I tried to put a leg into the wrong hole, and it wouldn’t come out. I sheepishly handed it over to Roman — oh, did I mention the guy’s name is Roman? — and asked him if he had a magic “undo machine” in the back. I said I wasn’t hopeful, but he took it to a colleague in the back who apparently did have a magic undo machine, and he returned a few minutes later with the successfully removed leg! My technique, which was to try and use a pair of pliers to hold onto the leg while I tried to pull it out, wasn’t sufficient. So that saved me the $79 of buying a new one.

Since I was expecting to have to return it, I’d brought all the pieces, so I said I would assemble it there in case I ran into more problems. Believe it or not, I did! While looking for a washer, I lost it. I don’t mean I lost my shit, as one does when one is assembling Ikea furniture, but it bounced into a black hole. So I, again sheepishly, went back to Roman and asked him if he had a washer. Away he goes into Never Never Land in “the back”, and again, a few minutes later, he comes out with two washers. I offered to pay for them, but he refused payment. (I know that Ikea doesn’t charge for miscellaneous spare parts, but I only saw that policy on their website later.) So I managed to finish assembling the Enhet, returned one of the washers, and got Roman’s name.

I wrote to Ikea that Roman was an asset to their company, among other good things. At the end of the day I knew he was just doing his job, but so many people can’t even do that much, and he did it well and without making me feel like I was the dumbass that I was.

Updated, 2026-01-11: Added image of the Enhet laundry hamper, from the Ikea website.