The problem is any of the stuff like shelving or say a load bearing surface like a desk. Those flat surfaces are almost always MDF or whatever cheap engineered wood products IKEA uses. The furniture looks nice initially, especially for the price, but the horizontal surfaces always sag after 2-3 years even under low weight. I have a dresser, a desk, and shelving that all developed this problem and some of the shelves barely have anything on them.
I've had my Billy bookshelf for 20 years, always stocked full with books and never did any of the shelves sag. Same for my ikea desk that's used every day.
IKEA did it by branding. I mean, I love their designs, but I wouldn't buy anything larger than a nightstand from them.
How did they do it??
Oh that's simple. Ikea founder sold his soul to the devil. He didn't included the assembly manual though and thus Ikea still functions.
Is this true tho? We don't have any IKEA furniture in my house, so the 2-lifetime claim is definitely true.
Bought my Ikea kitchen when moving into this house 17 years ago. Got a new one this year because of water damage due to a leaking pipe. Most of the stuff was still in good condition though.
It isn't. I have a bunch of ikea furniture because I'm not really settled in where I live, so it's nice and easy and lightweight to take apart and move every 3 years. For one, it absolutely isn't that expensive, and it's pretty good quality. My oldest pieces are two kallax units that were already second hand when I bought them 6 years ago, and they're still in the exact same condition as when I bought them, even through 3 moves. The only thing I'm disappointed about are a couple of wooden folding chairs because the horizontal slats tend to get loose and fall out, but you can just pop them back in in 5 seconds. It's obviously not as good as high quality non-ikea furniture, but if you (have to) move often and don't have much money, it's just a good and practical choice.