I've got to go Ikea and it shouldn't be this hard.

[TheQueef]

I like the stuff ...but...
It's like planning an Arctic expedition I even factor in a snack for my old Dad so he doesn't flag half way through.
I only want some shelves and sandwich bags
I want to give them my money, why do they make it so hard?
It's more endurance than Iron Man.
You shouldn't need the ordinance survey map just to grab some drinking glasses.
AIBU, it's too hard isn't it?

Wish me luck, remember me if I fall.

The free coffee isn’t that great tbh, it’s just basic filtered coffee so you didn’t miss out on much!

This thread has made me also want to go to IKEA today might pop over after work

Yabu! We're total Ikea fans in this house. Me and a friend go frequently with the kids as they bloody love it their too. Meet in the restaurant for a free coffee, kids have a play, wander round the furniture hall, kids have a play in the kids bit, stop for lunch, then off through the rest, to the tills, stop for a coffee/ice cream, pick up some Ikea jam then all done

@kmc1111

You've never been with my mother. Quick and ikea do not work in the same sentence with her. She wants to go again and I keep dodging it... She won't drive herself and likes to take my big car.

The closest ikea to me is next to the metro centre though which is a whole new level of hell!

You were one of the showroom/softplay families MissK wasn't you?
Tbf if I had small DC I would abuse the shit out of Ikea. I think all kids love it.

@QuestionableMouse that’s ours too and I think it’s worse than other because of the metro!

at least five families using the showroom as soft play

Ikea is great for hide and seek. With older children. Allegedly. Ahem...

IKEA is hell on earth. Surely you can get what you want from Amazon?

Haha I went earlier tonight and families were using the restaurant as a soft play area. Signs, trays (inc crockery) and toddlers all ended up on the floor, very surprised nothing smashed!

Lol glad you survived @TheQueef 😄 alas no Ikea for us today 😭 so bloody love the place though. Dd wanted to go for her birthday last year 😂

misskatamari my DD wanted to go to Costco for her 5th birthday

OP most Ikeas have a second little Cafe upstairs now exactly for Rest Stops! ☺️ Loos too, and shortcuts through side doors on the display floor.

Our ikea doesn’t have an upstairs!

How do you people not love ikea! I'm making a 4 hours round trip on Monday especially, there isn't even anything in particular I want.....

I love going to Ikea but I think it’s because I hardly ever go. Last time was December 2017! Journey involves long motorway journey and paying to go over the Dartford Crossing.

I’m so daft but I get a real thrill entering the shop. Love stopping half way round for lunch. My ds used to love being left in the crèche for an hour or so.

I LIKE you OP!! totally get everything you are saying about the heaven/hell combo that is IKEA. (or as DM used to call it EYE-KAY-AH. That seriously pissed me off...)

I know all the shortcuts. Last time I went I was in and out in 20 mins inc buying stuff. I take no prisoners and speed walk very fast. I’m there at opening time and first one to the tills!

I’m an IKEA lover but it does help to be local. We go all the time so can nip in for just one thing rather than an epic trip. DH won’t go near the place though ever since we went in during the day and came out in the dark...

Hide and seek is also great and if you can’t find them the code 99 alert for a lost child is highly effective. My friend told me that... honest

Croydon People: This is the route from Pump Pail North (the roundabout underneath the flyover/if you've come up the Brighton Road from Purley).

Flyover

This would be the best route if you're coming from Carshalton or Mitcham/want to avoid the Lombard Roundabout (and who wouldn't want to avoid it?) - except when it's Christmas and Beddington Farm Road (the back escape from ASDA) is absolutely rammed - by which time, you have no business being anywhere near any of them;

Beddington Route

Park up, head straight up to the café, drink two cups of coffee, then use the caffeine fuelled adrenaline surge to take you straight into useful things, avoiding the people trudging round like an Escher drawing or treating it as a spectator sport (extra bonus; you bypass Children's IKEA), then down the travellator for picture frames, plants and the warehouse.

Best done at 9.30am on a weekday, as you get your free coffee, start moving at 10 and you're halfway round before the shufflers have got as far as the sofabeds.

Do all IKEA's have the corkscrew to the parking or is that Southampton?
That's the only IKEA I've ever been to and I had a massive panic attack on said corkscrew. We went cuz I'd never been to one, we came away with a night light that changed colours. I cannot remember anything else about that visit.

Anybody there?
www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/gallery/ikea-superfans-queue-overnight-launch-20790163

I think the trick to it is going there at mealtime.
have a meal or coffee/cake
then go through the maze and shop.

if you need for your nerves to have an ice cream or hot dog on the way out or whilst waiting for the stuff from that's not in self serve.

I went to IKEA once at 8.45 when it closed at 9. Walked directly to the warehouse bit, got my wardrobe doors, and was finished by 9. Easy!

I also love all the breast feeding rooms they scatter through the place. With Lounges, fake TVs, side tables etc. Perfect places to feed a baby.

IKEA Wembley used to be my local - couldn’t imagine queuing overnight there!

Nothing in the Virgil Abloh collection interests me so luckily I didn’t miss out! I can just imagine these items being resold online for 100s though.

Nah, my local IKEA (and I think all the ones I've been to) just has massive outdoor parking all on one level.

The ball pool is great except the one time I went to IKEA with kids, someone had just been sick in the ballpool...