I sit here today, $300 poorer for getting rid of a 3 year old queen size bed frame. And I am excluding the cost of the new frame.

I had a fine bed frame. It was raised, there was space to put some storage boxes, but I bought it with my x and after having it for about 10 years, I thought I would try something different. Lesson : it is not the fun choice but it is better to leave well enough alone

I was also dealing with a very sick cat who would hide himself under the bed and I was struggling to find a way to prevent him from hiding under there. I should have worked harder on figuring out a simple solution.

But now: Enter the bed frame with drawers! This seemed like it would solve everything, under the bed storage, no more cat hiding under the bed, no more reminders of the x.

It was an ikea malm frame in walnut finish. You could buy it without drawers. I would not really have an opportunity to use the two at the head because I have nightstands but I still thought some seasonal items could go there for very infrequent access.

So, even going in knowing that two drawers would be blocked by the nightstands, I still thought this was worth it. Lesson with such a large piece of furniture it better work 100% or it will be more trouble than it is worth.

The malm bed frame is truly a marvel in that it is both terrible and excellent design. The free standing drawers on wheels seem great, the match with the bed very nicely. They are decent in size. Or so it seems. They are both large and barely fit anything, somehow.

Disappointingly, I did not measure well enough and I could only open them 1/3 of the way without having to move furniture. Lesson always measure, even when you think you have eyed it well enough, measure.

there is a wide gap between the bed frame and slats/mattress so things were often falling in, and with the assistance of my cats a treasure trove of oddities would find their way underneath. I did try to lay a flat sheet as a barrier between the slats and the drawers, but it did not stay put. I never expected to spend so much time thinking how to use a piece of furniture.

This also meant that an incredible amount of dust would gather in the drawers. So it was poor storage. All the things had to be washed before use, until I gave up and reorganized my space. Just leaving the drawers empty, but still gathering all the dust.

Having drawers meant cleaning under the bed was happening in less frequency that it already did, and the twice a year deep cleanings a horror every single time. Previously I could move the storage boxes and do a crude swipe with a swifter. There was no way to mitigate this that I could think of.

Back to the design, the ikea boxes had each drawer labeled at 50lbs a piece. So 200lbs of drawers. That was a surprise. The sides also were a total of 50lbs, and the foot another 50. There’d was in two pieces for about 50 lbs each. So, 400lbs of bed frame according to the boxes the pieces shipped in.

This is, a lot of bed frame. Like, really lot. My old frame was definitely under 100lbs since I was able to take it in two pieces by myself to the curb. This looks like a minimalist design, but it doesnt feel or “act” minimalist. This is hard to explain. I apologize.

The assembly was pretty classic ikea challenge, albeit with some new and unusual locking mechanisms. The headboard was wobbly right off the bat. I watched YouTube videos and googled and could not find a solution. But it was sturdy, just a bit annoying.

Worse was a few months later when the bed got creaky and squeaky, and due to the weird mechanisms I could not seem to do much to understand where to tighten and lost the specialty wrenches. It got so bad that when I moved at night the bed could wake me.

Also, the slats are weird and I think they damaged the integrity of my previous and current mattress. Rather than being flat, the slats are bow shaped. Giving some extra elasticity. At first it feels nice, but I really wonder if it plays well with a spring mattress or if it actually doesn’t play nicely with the springs and has been wearing down my mattresses faster. Ikea does not offer regular slats.

So, even when I bought it, I thought, “eh, it’s fine if I only get a few years out of it, for this price even if it is only 5-10 years, it’s ok.” Lesson - when buying something as large and heavy as this bed frame, if you and do not imagine yourself wanting it for life, do not buy it. It is too big to give away and if you live in an apartment, it is even too big for bulk pickup.

Since this frame was not for me - maybe I am just too picky, maybe this could work for someone else? I looked into donations, there are websites that you can give a piece of furniture and they sell it they will give you a cut of the profits. I looked at one and they sold a lot of ikea, so I thought it would be promising. Nope. They do not take the malm bed. They referred me to another company that removes junk. And junk is what it was. Like a pair of shoes that are “fine” but really, you can’t actually wear them or get good use of them, they are actually junk. And they reach next level junk when you have to pay for someone to take it.

But it is done as of today, it is out of my life. Hopefully my new frame will arrive in a few weeks. Hopefully I chose better this time.