In the early 90s I bought a second hand IKEA twin bed. It has survived a transatlantic move and is still around.
> Greentext
buying furniture
literally all of my furniture is either something I got for free except for my mattress and computer chair (posture check btw).
The meatballs man. It's all in the meatballs.
Ikea is actually a kötbullar store with a furniture side hustle.
The problem is any of the stuff like shelving or say a load bearing surface like a desk. Those flat surfaces are almost always MDF or whatever cheap engineered wood products IKEA uses. The furniture looks nice initially, especially for the price, but the horizontal surfaces always sag after 2-3 years even under low weight. I have a dresser, a desk, and shelving that all developed this problem and some of the shelves barely have anything on them.
Weird, I've had some IKEA dressers and bookshelves for a decade that have been completely fine.
Same here, most of my flat is ikea stuff and they've been going strong for 10 years. I don't buy the cheapest options at ikea but still, a kallax will easily last you that much if you don't jump on it. Only thing I don't recommend is mattress.
If you put it together properly it tends to last a while. Unlike Jysk furniture which will collapse due to the stress of assembling it.
I've had my Billy bookshelf for 20 years, always stocked full with books and never did any of the shelves sag. Same for my ikea desk that's used every day.
I like to ask anyone when they say they went to IKEA "did you have to build your own exit to leave?", it makes me chuckle
I've only been to an IKEA once, and I've never bought their furniture, but my best guess is the meatballs.
On a semi-related note, if you haven't read the book Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix, you really should.