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I think Ikea is great! It is engineered to last exactly as long as most people want for cheaply made furniture. I think you overestimate the market for second-hand, used furniture in old styles. I can't count the amount of well-made furniture that goes unsold in consignment stores and estate sales. Simply because it is well-made doesn't mean that people desire it.



In addition to being extremely contemporary, which contributes to not fitting into future trends, Ikea is made of cheap synthetic materials with the aid of lots of chemicals.

Classical furniture can last longer can fit in a variety of design languages and in the least the component materials can be recycled. For example well made mid century modern furniture can be in heavy demand. Moreover, antique furniture stores offer good furniture, if at times, at unaffordable prices.

That said, maybe Ikeas product is no more environmentally impactful than traditional furniture.


>In addition to being extremely contemporary, which contributes to not fitting into future trends

We hardly have any such trends anymore. It's the post-modern era, which unlike past design eras can potentially forever (since it's all about having immediate access to styles and information from every other era).

Most of what IKEA sells wouldn't look out of place in a 1930 modernist design shop for example, and still here it is 80+ years later.


They have stuff made out of wood, it isn't even all that expensive. Example, a small table:

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/14630009/

I guess that also isn't super stylized.


Yes, the hassle of storing and moving (or disposing) often exceeds its value. I had a good experience donating my old furniture to a charity that supplies impoverished or recently-homeless people.


What charity, out of curiosity?


In DC -- A Wider Circle.




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