Uni Hacks: How to IKEA

I love IKEA. When I went to France for my year abroad, IKEA was one of the only familiar places that made me feel at home. I bought everything, I mean everything from IKEA during my year abroad. I went two days in a row and spent over £400 buying things for my studio, from bedding to frying pans. And now that I’ve moved back home, IKEA has been here for me once again. When I moved back I decided to redecorate my room because I’m no longer the 18-year-old that once lived here. I’m now a 22-year-old woman who has new tastes. I needed IKEA once again.

My top three IKEA tips are:

• Search the products online on the IKEA website first. This will not only enable you to make a shopping list before going but most importantly you can read the product instructions online. This is important because some products need extra tools that you may not know about until after buying the product. But if you download the instruction sheet online beforehand, you can read it and buy everything you need whilst you’re in IKEA.
• Go with a friend. IKEA is a big place, and if you’re like me, you’ll end up buying more than you thought. And having a friend there is a good idea as they can help you carry your things and they can stop you from buying too many unnecessary items.
• Take notes whilst browsing the showroom. It’s so easy to walk through the showroom absentminded because you already have your list with you and therefore think you don’t need anything from the showroom. But the showroom is important as the items have tags with locations for the products. So, although you have your list of items, chances are you have no idea where they are and therefore you need to find your items in the showroom and take notes of where it is. And, if you’re like me, you’ll change your mind and find a better (and cheaper) item that you didn’t see on the website in the showroom.

I hope these tips help, Happy IKEAing.