Sorry, this is a bit of a rant…
I had to assemble an IKEA flatpack cabinet today.
I always find this process painful because, to me, the instructions are always lacking (and a lot of other flatpack kits have followed IKEA’s trend of picture-only guides). How hard is it to put a name below each component on the parts page (so I know what this weird thing is when it appears on page 22!), or indicate what’s the top/front/back/etc.?
Today it would have been really helpful to know which edge was the top and front for the sides of this kit, rather than flipping back-and-forth through the manual to work it out. The irony is that they got so close to realising this was a factor, since the instructions did actually have two procedures (depending on whether your ceiling was high enough to stand the cabinet up after assembly or whether you needed to assemble it in-situ).
Is it just me and does everyone else just find it easy to follow the instructions, or do a lot of other people struggle with them too?
Yes, this is a pretty annoying task regardless of neurotype.
Yeah I don’t know about IKEA specifically (I don’t have much Ikea stuff) but I think flat pack furniture is either people who are intuitive and get it and those who struggle with it lol. Not necessarily dependent on neurotype however I think the frustration and dysregulation some of us can feel from it could be the thing more related to neurotype.
I can get “stuck” in a project and need to stop and take a break but my brain is hyperfixated I think even though I’m getting frustrated and that’s when I’ll end up approaching meltdown. That’s the neurotype part of the experience!