DIYbanter - View Single Post - Ikea Effect: The Science of Cheap, Crappy Furniture

J. Clarke[_4_]

In article ,
says...

DerbyDad03 writes:
On Friday, January 13, 2017 at 8:43:23 AM UTC-5, Scott Lurndal wrote:
DerbyDad03 writes:

My daughter bought one of those flat-pack WallyWorld book cases for her dorm
room. I assembled it and stood it against wall when she first moved in.

2 years later she got an off-campus apartment. Now, I'm pretty good at
packing my trailer to keep the contents safe. God knows I've done it
enough times. We loaded everything in, strapped it all down and off we
went.

I drove 3 miles to her apartment, opened the trailer, took out the
pieces of the busted up book case and put them by the dumpster. It sure
doesn't take stress much to blow those fasteners right out of the
fiber board. A few bumps and it was toast.

I would have disassembled it for transport, myself.

Feel free, but not me.

I had a particleboard (vinyl woodgrain) bookshelf unit that
I got in 1979. It survived four moves by simply disassembling
it and reassembling it. It's not rocket science.

Easier transport, no disassembly effort (think about the cardboard back
with the 400 tiny nails holding it on), time saved, etc. If you've ever
moved a college student out of dorm room at the end of a semester, you know
that the last thing you want to do is waste time taking apart a cheap bookcase, packing it all up, carrying the pieces out and in, etc. No
thanks! Not for $28.

Mine was purchased for my college apartment. And I was perfectly happy
to disassemble it and pack it when moving myself out.

I have one downstairs that my mother (a great
aficionado of cheap) bought me. It still holds
up books but it had a lot of plastic trim that
fell off very early and no hinge on it still
functions. I have a few others that are of a
similar nature but a step upmarket that are
holding up fine. One of these days they all get
replaced with built-ins. Of course I've been
saying that for decades and so far nobody has
provided me the necessary round tuit.