Ask IKEA to Replace the Screws If You Accidentally Lose Them
Several years ago I moved to a new apartment. While my new location is just a few miles from my old one, the move has turned into an adventure in both the art of packaging and disassembling furniture so that it can actually fit in a vehicle to cover those few miles.
Although everything was carefully disassembled and the screws were placed in labeled zip-top bags, somewhere between one spot and the next we lost a few into the chasm (and found a few extra ones).
At that point, we made a few temporary replacement calls from the items we had on hand, but this week I learned that in such cases you can actually get spare parts directly from IKEA, which would greatly simplify the task.
IKEA has a “Spare Parts” section in the “Return / Exchange” section of the store, where you can pick up those spare parts that somehow ended up in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Losing parts is a common occurrence, Domino says , and the store ends up handing out everything from a screw or two to a whole bag.
In fact, Domino has a list of IKEA hacks on its site, courtesy of the IKEA staff. Another one I liked: the best time to shop is from 30 minutes to an hour after opening on a weekday. This way, you’ll miss the crowds of enthusiastic shoppers who got there right after the store opened, but shop before the real crowd arrives during the day. It goes without saying, but avoid weekends whenever possible. That’s when the lines are always worse.
Another great tip? All employees know how to assemble furniture, they learn as part of their training. This means that if you are really obsessed with reading these cryptic directions, you can simply ask someone on the sales floor to help you.
This story was originally published in 2018 and has been updated with new information on 02/21/2020.