Today I have some IKEA hacks that’ll save you a lot of money on your next trip to the warehouse. The last time my wife went to IKEA she came home with a lot of work for me. Just the mention of that four letter word brings up memories of a weekend spent with allen wrenches, plenty of cold beer, and melamine. But I have to say the bookcases I put together that weekend still look brand spanking new and have really held up well.

I certainly became an IKEA believer that weekend, especially after taking advantage of the IKEA Family program which was a real life-saver when towing kids. Oh, and did I mention that price-wise their stuff is a real bargain? So with that said, today I wanted to document six IKEA hacks that’ll get you the most bang for your buck.

6 Genius IKEA Hacks:

1. Sign up for the IKEA Family Program

My first IKEA hack has to do with their Family Program.

If you do much shopping at IKEA at all, it’s definitely worth the couple minutes it takes to sign up for their Family Program.

After all, it doesn’t cost a bloody cent and will score you 5% off in-store purchases, a delivery discount, 90-day price protection, and 30 extra minutes in the kids play zone known as Småland.

IKEA will even get you a free cup of coffee from their restaurant.

Don’t ask me to pronounce that…crazy Swedes.

See Also: IKEA Return Policy: All Your Questions Answered on One Page

2. Use Lowe’s Free Kitchen Design Service

This hack comes courtesy of a friend of mine who loves to shop the IKEA warehouse and really knows how to shop the smart way.

“When we did our kitchen several years ago, we took advantage of the Lowe’s free kitchen design service.

They helped us design our kitchen cabinets and then we used that design to help us in designing our own kitchen at IKEA for 1/3 the price!”

Smart hack? No. Genius hack? Absolutely.

3. Moving Soon? Get a Free $25 IKEA Coupon

If you are moving in the near future be sure to sign up for the IKEA moving program and get a free $25 coupon good for a future purchase of $250 or more.

This is the only IKEA coupon I could find anywhere so definitely use it if you can.

Note: You’ll have to enter some info like your current address and the address you are moving to in order to get the $25 coupon.

4. Shop the “As-Is” Department First (Hopefully on a Monday)

An often over looked gem in any IKEA store is the “As-Is” section which is often tucked away near the cash registers.

Always walk through it first in-case they have what you are looking for.

This is where they stick their returns, discontinued items, and damaged stuff

A smart tip is to shop the As-Is section on a Monday to take advantage of freshly added inventory.

By the time the end of the week rolls around, the section is typically picked over.

Any dude or dudette, with at least one handy bone somewhere in their body can easily fix the damaged items they’ll discover.

The best part of the IKEA “As-Is” section is most of the stuff is already put together saving you the horrific frustration of playing grown-up Legos with the worst assembly instructions written since man started walking on two legs.

5. Home Delivery Rocks

This IKEA hack has to do with getting ALL your stuff home for as cheap as possible.

A while back IKEA picked up on the fact that their parking lot was full of U-Haul trucks, got smart, and started offering a home delivery service.

Quite surprisingly it isn’t very expensive and they’ll even pick it all out for you and deliver it.

Starts at $69 and goes up according to how far you live from the store and how much stuff you’re buying.

The cool thing is if you already know what you’re buying you can phone in your order and have it delivered straight to your home.

And in case you were wondering, they won’t assemble anything for you. Bummer, huh?

So if you’re considering renting a truck or U-Haul van, definitely price out their home delivery service first, I think it can save you some money.

6. Go Prepared…Very Prepared

My friend summed this up best, “Go prepared!!!! If I’m going shopping for something in particular, I have to do it with a plan, otherwise it is too overwhelming.

When going through the upper level, you need paper and pen to write things down for when you go downstairs to actually buy your items.”

If you don’t show up prepared you’re not only going to get lost, but you’re going to waste a lot of time wandering around and back tracking.

Ask the Reader: Besides taking advantage of the IKEA Family program, what IKEA hacks do you have for saving money and time when shopping? As always, I look forward to your comments.

By Kyle James

Photo credit to OiMax.