mattresses can come rolled up?!?

i'm not the only one in the community in the process of moving (-it has something to do with the time of the year - the season/year is coming to a close, building/renovation projects are further in process, and changes are being made already for next year/season). and since Ikea is the place to go to find decent, low-priced furniture that is generally compact enough to handle the crazy, steep Amsterdam staircases (or go through windows), several of us made an 'excursion' there last friday night.

the adventure began as we walked in and discovered that we could pretty much eat for free (a special for weekends in june). we'd have to pay for our food to begin with, but we'd get the entire amount back as a discount when we paid for our furniture and such. and since we together bought about 3 mattresses, 3 cupboards, 2 bookshelves, and a bunch of other things, we could have easily covered the cost of feeding 20 people well!

once we'd figured out what we'd needed (a bit of a process for me since i'm a bit too careful about spending money at times and am not always good at deciding), we had to pick it up from the large warehouse section of the store. finding my mattress was a bit of a problem. we found the other two first - both of them rolled up tightly - a bit odd but feasible since they were foam. i hadn't expected that you could also roll a spring mattress but apparently you can - or at least Ikea knows how to. and from personal experience, i've learned that unrolling them can be a bit dangerous since they are, so to say, 'spring-loaded'- i unrolled mine on my loft and had to move pretty quickly to get everything out of the way (and not fall off/out) while the mattrass sprung into shape!

on the bright side, the rolled up mattresses made loading the van a lot easier - they loaded easily into the backseat of the van with the smaller stuff, while the large number of boxes containing the shelving and cupboards was loaded into the area between the seats and the side door (i made sure i climbed in first - once the boxes of wood were in there was no way of moving from the middle seats!).

and upon arriving home at 9.30 that night and emptying the van (we conveniently parked on the street - paying minimal attention to the irritation of the tourist sitting behind us who drove in [illegally] to the city centre area - a pass is needed to park here at nights), that was more than enough 'moving' adventure for awhile. the next adventure is getting a couch from around the corner into my house - it's going to need to be hoisted up through the window on the front - and that's definitely beyond my skill level!