Should you happen to find yourself lost in the giant blue and yellow cube that calls itself Ikea, you had better make damn sure that you really want everything in your jumbo sized cart.

The bf and I headed out to Schaumburg last night to buy some new dressers and finally free ourselves from piles of precariously folded clothes cluttering up our closet shelves. My sister had bought a duvet cover at Ikea about a month earlier, only to bring it home and find out that the color scheme just did not work. I offered to let the duvet cover hitch a ride out with us to save her the trip.

I will stress again – You never want to return anything at Ikea. Ever.

I decided to keep the bag in the car and figured I would just run in while Matt was loading our purchases in the car and be in and out of returns in a second. After shopping for about 45 minutes, I dashed back inside, duvet cover in hand. As I rounded the corner to the returns section, my heart skipped. Not like “What an excellent pair of shoes” skipped a beat, but like “I just ate an entire jar of nutmeg and then saw the ghost of George Washington” skipped a beat.

You are immediately greeted by one of those giant deli number dispensers and a sign that says “Please take a number and have a seat”. Returning a duvet cover should not require a waiting room. Keep in mind, this was all happening at 8:30 on a Tuesday night. Ikea was pretty barren at this point. I would have liked to “take a seat”, if there had been one available. The returns room was so packed with peoplethat it put an emergency room waiting room to shame. There were at least 35 people waiting, anxiously, with boxes and bags in tow, strewn across the room.

I quickly turned on my heel and ran back to the car in shock, stopping only to call my sister and tell her “Yeah, you’re on your own with this one”.