How To Survive Your IKEA Delivery Day

Your IKEA cabinet delivery and installation made easy

Let’s imagine for a moment, you completed your purchase at IKEA and the delivery day comes. Are you prepared for your IKEA installation? Or, do you have no idea what you’ll face?

Credit: Jacobs Stock Photography

Luckily, our design team has decided to share some useful tips for your IKEA kitchen delivery day.

For instance, we know how important proper space planning is, especially in preparation of receiving your IKEA cabinetry; how to create the all-important checklist to make sure your delivery is correct, and how to best sort your IKEA materials.

We also know that IKEA customers – especially first-time DIYers — spend a good amount of time pre-searching examples of kitchen designs on design Web sites like HOUZZ or Pinterest, and don’t get the opportunity to look into these other details.

This is an important design distinction. Getting your IKEA delivery in full is critical so that your DIY installation can start on time, or that your contractor or installer has everything they need. Either way this reduces installation mistakes, which saves you time and money too (ahem!).

So, IKEA customers looking for tips for their IKEA kitchen installation will really appreciate the following information to make your IKEA delivery day seamless and stress-free.

Let’s take a look!

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A Designated Place for Your IKEA Cabinets

On delivery day, make sure you have a designated place to store your IKEA cabinets. This could be in a nearby room that is close to your kitchen (or other room project).

This holds true whether you will be installing them now or in a couple of weeks. As our designers know, and some of our DIY customers can attest, there will be a lot of boxes for you to keep track of — and we mean a lot. Having enough room in your home to place them is crucial.

We highly recommend that you have ample space where you can move around and organize everything (we’ll get to that in a moment).

Keep in mind you might be using a hot plate at times or washing your dishes in the bathroom during the remodel process. (Point: It can get messy and confusing if you don’t organize properly and you don’t want to extend this time more than need be.)

Check your List Twice

We can’t stress this enough — don’t use IKEA’s receipt to check your delivery!

Why do we say this? Well, because it’s organized in the order of each cabinet and its corresponding parts, so if you ordered 20 doors, they will be scattered throughout the list and very easy to lose track of.

Don’t get me wrong, this list is useful though when sorting and assembling your cabinets.

So, in order to get prepared for delivery, we suggest that you take a little extra time and create your own inventory check sheet. The delivery men won’t waste any time unloading your boxes and it will be easier to track what’s being delivered and your inventory. That’s a win-win!

Sort Everything Out

Sorting is not for everyone, however sorting everything out will make installation run smooth for you. We highly recommend it.

That said, we suggest two sorting methods:

• Our preferred method is to sort by cabinet. Simply pile all the boxes for a single cabinet together (Eg: the frame, doors, hinges) — this is where the IKEA receipt will come in handy as this is how the parts are listed.
• Or, sort by item, where you sort same items together. For example, place all IKEA SEKTION frames here, MAXIMERA drawers over there, and all of the cabinet fronts (doors and drawers) somewhere else, etc. Either method will help you.

This is also a good time to remind our readers why a designer is better than IKEA’s Home Planner. For instance, we supply our signature Extra Items List which includes the items necessary for your installation that aren’t included in Home Planner.

Pro tip: While you sort everything out, try writing the name of the item on its package. It will be easier to find a 36” base cabinet rather than a 80265398 item number.

Installation Approach

Once you get this far, you’re ready for installation!

At this point (and honestly before) you should determine if you want to DIY or hire an installer. If you’re looking to DIY, then you need to make sure you have the proper tools.

However, if you’re not that handy but are looking to contribute a bit more to the project, you can assemble the cabinets yourself (which will help save some bucks) and hire an installer for the rest.

Conveniently, you can use our Install Connect to find capable IKEA installers near your area.

With this information you are now ready to face the day your IKEA kitchen is delivered. Remember this is only one aspect of the IKEA experience that our design team will demystify for you. Ultimately, with our help you get started with your IKEA design project, avoid costly installation mistakes, and have the IKEA kitchen of your dreams!