A First-Timer’s Guide to IKEA Shopping

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We sent the kids off to Grandma and Grandpa’s this past weekend for some fun, and we took off on our own little adventure – to IKEA! This was our first time shopping at IKEA, and it definitely won’t be our last. My head is still spinning from all of the inspiration. It was so fun, though!

We had no idea what to expect of this experience. IKEA has always been a bit of a mystery to me because there isn’t one close-by where we live. We drove to the Merriam, KS location which is about a two and half hour drive for us.

I had heard bits and pieces about how cool it is and the great deals you can find from family and friends that have gone. But, we were in for a very pleasant (and overwhelming) surprise upon entering the parking lot.

I purposely won’t go into too much detail here because I’d hate to take away from the thrill and intrigue of your first-hand, first-time experience! To be honest, I thought I was going through an airport initially. It was an odd feeling. Ha! But once I was fully immersed in IKEA, things changed quite drastically!

Here are 8 tips for a successful first trip to IKEA

1 – Do a Pre-Game Trip to Ikea

We got into town a few hours before IKEA closed for the night (a Saturday). We grabbed a bite to eat, and I had the sneaking suspicion that we might want to go to IKEA for a pre-game trip just to get our bearings so that our full day there was more productive and less overwhelming.

I don’t mean to toot my own horn here, but if you can swing going in for a quick (not really) walkthrough before you actually go shopping, I’d highly recommend it. It was a very smart decision. Consider this your inspiration trip. Then go back for the real deal to actually purchase things.

We spent about two hours walking through on Saturday night. It was just right timing-wise because it was leading into closing time so there wasn’t really a crowd and we could just wander our way through.

2 – Fuel up before you go

On Sunday morning, we made sure to eat a good breakfast before heading to IKEA. We tried The Big Biscuit just a few minutes away, and it was delicious! The restaurant and food options were shut down while we were at IKEA (due to COVID), but we didn’t even need to eat until we were out of there, so it worked out well.

3 – Understand How IKEA Works

We were both just fascinated by IKEA’s shopping experience – it is very different from anything I’ve encountered before. We ended up talking with IKEANs (aka employees) during our pre-game trip and that really helped us to understand the layout and the different areas of the store. There are three main areas of IKEA that you work your way through.

They had these maps throughout the store for easy navigating!

The Showroom

When you first walk into IKEA, you’re guided up to the Showroom floor by escalator. You can deviate from the path, but this is part of how the shopping experience is set up. The showroom is just that – tons and tons of little vignette’s showcasing any and all IKEA products.

Small Space Living
Guided pathways lead you through the store

The point of the Showroom is to gather inspiration and plan and design your spaces. You’ll see fully staged and furnished bedrooms, dorms, kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms, offices, etc. It’s so cool. IKEA is known for its modern and minimalistic style, but they use so many different colors and textures that you’re sure to find something that really draws you in.

The Marketplace

Once you’ve made your way through the entire showroom, you should still be fairly empty-handed (it’s crazy). You see, you don’t actually start shopping and gathering products until you reach the Marketplace. Every single item you saw in the Showroom had a tag on it that shared the name, price, and where you can find that item to purchase in either the Marketplace or the Warehouse.

Options are endless at IKEA.
This vignette spoke to my soul.

Once you’ve reached the Marketplace, you’ll be guided through all the different categorical sections where you can find the items you liked and put them in your cart to purchase.

The Warehouse

Alas, you’ve made it to the warehouse. Now, this may be your last stop before checkout, but it is certainly not the easiest. Any larger items that you purchased will be picked up in the warehouse. And when I say “picked up” I mean, you will be finding and picking each item off the warehouse shelves yourself.

The reason we made the trip to IKEA was to get our closet systems from there. We spent a great deal of time designing the layout of our closets up in the Showroom area. They print off the supply list based on what we designed, and then we literally took that list with us to the Warehouse to pick up each piece of our closet system. It was tedious and laborious since there were quite a few larger items.

4 – Plan Large Projects Ahead of Time

As I mentioned before, the main reason we went to IKEA was to get our closet systems. They have really great planning software on their website to design your spaces if you know what you want. I’d encourage you to do your research and try to get the design nailed down prior to going to IKEA.

This will save you a bunch of time. I was able to quickly design Myles closet, but we probably spent a solid hour or two looking at their closet systems that were set up and then designing our master closet areas.

Now that I know exactly what these products are, I’ll be able to do this in the future. Once you design something on their planners, you get a code for that design and can easily pull it up at one of their kiosks in-store to finalize or get more help.

5 – dress for comfort

For your first trip to IKEA, I would highly recommend you wear comfortable clothes and shoes. This is a marathon shopping experience, and being comfortable will make it that much more enjoyable for you!

I wore jeans, a tank, and tennis shoes. Eric wore shorts, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes. You can bring a light layer if you typically get cold, but honestly, I was moving so much that I did not get cold at all. I was very comfortable.

6 – Give Yourself Plenty of Time

We had a two hour pre-game trip under our belts going into our full day Sunday trip. Because of this I think we were much more efficient on Sunday. We got their about ten til 10am (when they open), and there was a bit of a line up already.

Once they opened the doors, I was in the store rather quickly. Eric actually dropped me off and went and got a haircut (haha) quick. When he came back he said they were doing fifteen in, fifteen out already. It get’s busy fast.

We were there on Sunday from 10am – 3pm. In total, we spent seven hours in IKEA. I probably could’ve wandered around more, but we were both over it by the time we got to the warehouse. Ha!

I love a good kitchen!

7 – Best Day to Go to IKEA

We went on a Saturday evening and mid-day Sunday. It wasn’t too bad because of the time of the day. I would definitely recommend avoiding weekends and mid-day timeframes. I hope to go during the week in the future.

If you have to go on the weekends, I’d try to mimic what we did because we didn’t have much trouble and we didn’t have to wait for lines. I’m sure it’s quite different when everything in the store is open and running at 100%, too, so keep that in mind.

A dorm vignette. So fun!

8 – Changes due to COVID at IKEA

While our first time to IKEA was really cool, I do think the experience was a bit suppressed due to the numerous COVID-19 changes that they’re currently implementing (which is totally understandable).

Here are the few changes we noticed:

• They required and enforced mask-wearing while in-store
• They were limiting the number of guests that were inside
• Smaland (the kids play area) was shut down
• The restaurant and food areas were shut down
• They had regular reminders on the intercom for social distancing and staying safe and healthy
• We’re not sure if this is specifically COVID related, but there were quite a few items that we needed/wanted that were out of stock

If you think Target carts are good, you have to take an IKEA cart for a spin! They are legit!

As I mentioned earlier, my head is still spinning from inspiration overload, but it was so much fun! It was almost like walking through a mini home tour, and I love those, so it made my right-brain functions very happy!

I am also so excited to have our closet systems installed! We’re using the Boaxel and PAX Wardrobe systems. I’ll be sure to share the final spaces as we work through them, but one of my goals during this house renovation is to not have dressers in our rooms, and ideally, nothing on our floors. These closet systems will really help me to achieve these goals and I cannot wait to have these spaces back in full working order!

Have you ever been to IKEA? What are your favorite things to get from there? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading this post today!

To the Chaos!

-MG

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