I had been putting it off for weeks but last week after a particularly painful, barefooted run in with an especially pointy piece of lego, I decided enough was enough, something had to be done. I stared in exasperation at the kid’s bedrooms. The floors were a minefield of stuffed toys, dolls, orphaned sylvanian family figurines, colouring books, odd shoes and jigsaw puzzle pieces. It seemed it no longer mattered how often I cajoled the kids into tidying their toys away, the next day the mess would reappear almost magically overnight. I couldn't even bear to think about the state the playroom was in. It was then and there I decided that the whole family would be taking a long overdue trip to IKEA that very weekend to invest in some much needed storage furniture.
 
We piled the kids into the car and headed to the Dublin IKEA store early on Sunday morning. The first thing that struck us as we arrived at the huge blue IKEA store is the parking facilities. They really are so convenient, we quickly found a parking space right in front of the entrance, asked the girls for the umpteenth time to promise to be good, took a deep breath and headed for the entrance.
 
I must admit that we entered the store feeling slightly apprehensive as in our experience kids and furniture shopping don’t quite mix. We couldn’t have been more wrong, as at the end of our trip our two little shopping helpers didn’t really want to leave. IKEA is a parents dream; there is even a rather cute little free play area where you can drop the kids off while you shop.
 
The store has a Wizard of Oz quality to it, with the store being laid out in such a way that shoppers follow a yellow brick road of sort’s beginning with children’s bedrooms onto kitchens to living rooms and so on. Along the way, the girls were quite delighted to discover there was an abundance of soft toys, train sets, easels, puppets and toy kitchens for them to play with.
 
So, on to the reason we ventured to IKEA; their storage furniture for kids. IKEA are renowned for their effective storage designs that can transform a cluttered home into organised domestic bliss. Firstly, there is an array of options to choose from, storage comes in different colours, different sizes and different styles. The furniture is reasonably priced and better yet it’s great quality and feels really sturdy too. After much deliberation, for the girl's playroom we settled on getting the Trofast, white wall storage unit, reasonably priced at €30.00. Also for the playroom we picked up six cute white storage boxes that slot neatly into the shelves, each of which were €2.00. We also picked out an expedit,shelving unit for the playroom at a cost of €25.00 and to go with this purchase, we picked up four very girly pink buckets which were only €2.00 each. 
 
For the girl's bedrooms, we picked up two of the ingenious Trofast storage combinations, in you guessed it, pink and white! These shelving units are priced at €81.00 and are ideal for neatly storing toys, shoes or even clothes and are a total Godsend. We also had to do something about the ridiculous amount of stray shoes found wandering around in both the girl's rooms so we purchased two nifty Pysslingar under the bed storage boxes for only €8.00 each. 
 
With our purchases selected and our storage problems completely sorted, we wandered happily through the store and fell in love with a very comfy fabric sofa that we have decided to come back for another day. As the kids were so well behaved, we decided to treat them to a scrumptious lunch in the very reasonably priced IKEA restaurant before we headed home. (Read our review here)
 
All in all, it was one of the most surprisingly enjoyable family days out that we have spent in a long time. The store is exceptionally child friendly, the furniture doesn’t cost the earth, it’s sturdy and practically functional, easily assembled and it looks great too. The best part of our trip to IKEA is that now even days later as I sneak a peek into the kid’s rooms, they're still tidy! There are no crayons or Barbie dolls or treacherous pieces of lego littered on the floor waiting to be stood on and squished. The kids love their new shelves so much; I think they are actually enjoying tidying their toys away which means this was a definitely successful trip to IKEA which certainly won’t be our last. 

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