IKEA has become a household name. If you have ever gone to a store on a weekend right when it is opening you will see how popular it is. But even with all of its amazing attributes the store can be very overwhelming. After several trips to Ikea and many rooms full of their stuff I have put together some tips for shopping at IKEA.
Know now what you need. The first time you go there it is best to go in knowing exactly what you need. If you are just going to look and see what IKEA is all about you will probably quit half way through the display floor. If you go in with an idea of what you are looking for you can scrutinize every sample room and try to find something that works for you. Or you might even find something that will work for another room. Now that I have been there quite a few times I can just go and wander around, but the first time I went I was so overwhelmed that I forgot half of what I saw. I was honestly enamored by all of the people there on a Wednesday morning.
Do your research. If I am shopping for something specific I will usually do my research. I will look to see what they have that might work in the space to accomplish my goal. Sometimes it changes once I get there depending on what the product looks like or if I find one that would work better. By doing your research ahead of time you will be more likely to find what you need and enjoy your trip.
Ahh yes, my closet. I love our Ikea storage system!
Know when saving money is ideal and when buying higher quality is a must. IKEA is known for their low prices but in certain places of the home buying the cheapest isn’t always best. For example, when we were looking at cabinets for our kitchen, we looked at IKEA as an option. We had to consider sizes and how we could maximize the space but also the quality. We will be using this kitchen for 20 years and we hope to have kids which means the cabinets will be a pretty high traffic area for our house. That meant we went custom built and actually had an extremely affordable price for high quality of the cabinets. The moral of my story is: Sometimes buying extremely cheap is not he best route. In the end when you replaced it with an new version you could have saved money by spending more from the start rather than buying something twice.
Modern pieces can mix well with almost any style. My person style is Rustic Modern. But I have found the modern style that IKEA specializes in can pair well with almost any other style. Keep that in mind because they have extremely inexpensive decor for any room in your house. I have bought tons of throw pillows, soap dispensers, picture frames and decorative containers from there for 80% less than what you would pay in any other store. Just because it is cheap does not mean you should discount it. If you have an open mind the prices make buying IKEA for your home easy!
Their kids section is amazing. The IKEA kids section is one of my favorites. We have a niece and nephew that come over quite often. That means lots of eating meals here. For $6 I bought a kids set of plastic silverware, plates and bowls. They are dishwasher safe, BPA free and they stack together to store easy. We have had them for over a year and they are still in perfect condition. If you have a need for it, don’t skip the kids section, there are some very handy things and for the price, you can’t go wrong.
Bring your measurements. This is a very important step. Make sure you know exactly how much space you have to work with. Different products will work in different sized spaces. You also might think of another way to utilize a product that wasn’t thought of. For our storage wall in the office, we actually stacked two sets of cabinets instead of buying the taller ones. They were a more efficient use of space and for a few hundred dollars it was a great use of space.
Don’t got alone. Do yourself a favor and bring a friend or your spouse. First, they can help you make decisions. There are a lot of choices in this store. They also might help you think of a better solution than you had in mind. Finally, one of the reasons why IKEA is so affordable is because they do not have tons of employees around to help. It is more of a self serve store. Which is not good if you have a big project with lots of boxes. So bring a friend or two to help you load and unload. You will thank me for this later.
Bring your own recyclable shopping bags. They don’t provide bags. You have to bring you own. Do not forget them like I always do. If you do forget them they are only $1 at the checkout and are actually really awesome bags. They’re huge and great for recycling.
Now that you are ready, go and conquer IKEA with confidence. If you have already conquered, what are some other tips I missed?
