NOW CLOSED IKEA Storage Feedback thread - open to all MNers with any IKEA storage - you could win £75

[AnnMumsnet]

This thread is for the MN testers who received one of the items below to test and have been trying it out for the last week or so.

The items being tested were:

ANTONIUS wire basket
GODMORGON bathroom cabinet
STUVA storage bench
TJUSIG bench with shoe storage
EKTORP BROMMA footstool
RATIONELL VARIERA plate holder

IKEA welcome all feedback on all of their storage products so if you are a ANTONIUS fan already or have a BILLY bookcase (etc) please let them know what you think of it here - everyone who is not an official tester but who adds some feedback on any IKEA storage product will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get £75

IKEA would like to know what you think generally but also would like to know your responses to the following questions. In your response please state the name of the product you are testing or that you own. For some products (eg the plate holder) not all the questions will be relevant so please answer accordingly.

Item name
Function - how do you use the item?
What do you store in the item?
Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally?
How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it?
What do you most like about your IKEA storage product?
What (if anything) do you think makes this product special?

Thanks and best of luck

MNHQ

Trofast (the smallest units, 3 drawers x 2 drawers)
Two, wall-mounted, one above the other.
Sewing equipment
Doesn't particularly matc h other furniture, doesn't clash either. Our house-style is 'eclectic', with a leaning towards wood. Simple furniture and complex mess.
Very good for keeping my sewing gear in order, but I still have to remember where everything is as labels do not stick to the plastic drawers. The children are not allowed anywhere near it!
It does the job and is satisfactory, but not special. Could be improved by making it possible to label the drawers and by making it possible to add runners to the underside of the carcass so that additional drawers could be hung from it. Could also have more robust wall-fixings, so that I could use the top as a book-shelf.

We just moved our Billies across to another wall to make space for the stuff that is being moved to make space for dc2, and they continue to be the most useful (if not the most glamorous) storage furniture we have - I'm particularly pleased that we got a couple of doors as this means it looks very respectable from the outside while concealing a whole heap of family junk.

Miraculously they are the right size for all our books, the stereo and tv etc. so we have managed to get everything tucked away, and DH even managed to make strategic holes in the backs to get all the ugly wires and plugs hidden. Bliss. At least I have one room in the house that does not look like a toddler-bomb has gone off.

They don't really match our other furniture, as it's all a mismatch, but at least they are wooden coloured so don't stand out too much. And they fit in our modern house which a lot of our older furniture doesn't. One of their best features is their comparative invisibility - they just do the job with simplicity and subtlety.

Not a tester but have these -

Trofast

We have 3, they are in the dc's bedrooms used to store toys and games. Also used as a book case by putting all the kids books on the top.

It matches in my daughters room as she has all white furniture, same in boys rooms but with the pine version. My house is generally modern and simple furniture.

I absolutely love these units, they give so much storage for taking up very little space. The kids love them as they could choose the colour storage drawers they wanted and they have no excuses for not putting their toys away

I love the fact it is fun and funky with the coloured boxes, it's not boring and fits anywhere. The kids can bring down a box whenever they like as they come right out then easy to put back again. Already planning to get 2 more!

Not an official tester...

Item name
Godmorgen Bathroom cabinet

Function - how do you use the item?
All purpose bathroom storage

What do you store in the item?
Bathroom essentials

Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally?
It matches the furniture in the bathroom, which is wooden (bamboo and oak effect). As we've just redone the bathroom after years of grottiness it's very important that it looks coordinated and smart.

How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it?
Well, I store stuff in it, so it helps me organise my stuff . DH and I have two shelves each, DS has one shelf and we have one shelf to store stuff like sun cream that is communal.

What do you most like about your IKEA storage product?
I like the style of the door handle best It looks really smart and it has a pleasing feel.

What (if anything) do you think makes this product special?
Contributes to making our bathroom look superduper.

Item name
EXPEDIT (5 X 5 cube storage wall) + LEKMAN translucent red boxes

Function - how do you use the item?
Storage in DS's room

What do you store in the item?
Books, toys, clothes, old LPs - everyday items at the bottom within DS's reach and longer term storage at the top.

Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally?
Good styling for a child's room (red and white) but would be less appropriate for an adult area - this is moderately important to me.

How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it?
Works very well for its purpose. DS uses it to some extent, although the boxes are a bit deep for him. Cubes are a good size for large children's books.

What do you most like about your IKEA storage product?
Provides enormous quantities of flexible storage, looks OK, at reasonable cost and without the hassle of installing shelves.

What (if anything) do you think makes this product special?
The LP/A4 size of the cubes.

Item name: Trofast
Function - how do you use the item?....For childrens storage
What do you store in the item?.......Toys and clothes
Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally?......Yes it does, white bed frame and other shelving
How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it?.... Much easier to find toys and keep everything together. Yes much easier as can fit so much in to it, kids use it all the time.

What do you most like about your IKEA storage product?....Flexible use of space, other items to go with it.
What (if anything) do you think makes this product special? It's simple but clever!

not a tester but have quite a bit of ikea furniture

Item name HOL

Function - how do you use the item?
We use this to store all the kids crap toys, it holds a lot of stuff and they can sit on it to look out of their bedroom window.

What do you store in the item?
toys of all descriptions.

Does it match with their other furniture?
err not really.

How important is this?
not massively important neither of the bunkbeds match but the aneboda wardrobe and aneboda shelving thingy in beech match up.

What kind of style is your house generally?
hmm it was really mismatch but we have recently started to try make it modernish.

How does it help with organisation in your home?
the boys bedroom doesnt look like an explosion in a toyshop.

Has it made things easier for you?
yes I dont stand of random toys when I have to see to any of them in the dark/night.

Do the children use it? YES

What do you most like about your IKEA storage product?
it hides the crap toys and looks quite nifty too.

What (if anything) do you think makes this product special?
it was on offer when we bought it, its big and does the job we wanted.

Another non-official tester:

Item name TROFAST

Function - how do you use the item? CHILDREN'S BEDROOM

What do you store in the item? TOYS, JIGSAWS, GAMES, BOOKS, CDS

Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally? MATCHES WITH THE CHILDREN'S FURNITURE, MORE THAN THE REST OF THE HOUSE. HOUSE IS, HMM, MIXED STYLE..... VICTORIAN HOUSE, BUT A MIXTURE OF STYLES OF FURNITURE.

How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it? HELPS BECAUSE WE BRING A SELECTION OF BOXES FROM IT DOWNSTAIRS EVERY DAY TO PLAY WITH STUFF IN THE LIVING ROOM. THEN WE CAN JUST CHUCK EVERYTHING BACK IN THE BOXES AT THE END OF THE DAY AND TAKE THEM UPSTAIRS TO THE CHILDREN'S ROOM AGAIN. MAKES THINGS LESS MESSY AND THE CHILDREN SEEM TO ENJOY CLEARING UP MORE TOO.

What do you most like about your IKEA storage product? COLOURFUL, CHEAP, EASY TO CLEAN, FAB FOR STORING TOYS AND CLEARING UP.

What (if anything) do you think makes this product special? FACT THAT THE BOXES / TRAYS ARE REMOVABLE

Not official tester

Item name- Dombas
Function - how do you use the item? in spare room, as a storage cupboard
What do you store in the item? - coats and shoes in one part (no room in the hallway), towels and bed linen in the other part.
Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally? We have lots of furniture from Ikea so it matches a bit, the style fits in well. I really dislike the dark wood effect, would have preferred it in white or a pale wood effect but this was the only colour available.
How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it? It has made things much easier having a cupboard for coats and shoes, definitely made things easier, and my daughter can hang up her own coat and put away her own shoes.
What do you most like about your IKEA storage product? The price! A huge wardrobe for very low cost, and we can fit all our outdoor stuff in it.
What (if anything) do you think makes this product special? Low price.

Not an official tester

Item name - Aneboda
Function - how do you use the item? Wardrobe and Chest of Drawers

What do you store in the item? Clothes for 4 yo

Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally? Furniture is white so all goes together. Have no actual style anyway.

How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it? Big enough for most of her clothes, so yes it is easier with it.

What do you most like about your IKEA storage product? It was cheap and it does the job

What (if anything) do you think makes this product special? See above

Not an official tester but here goes...

Item name BILLY bookcase
Function - how do you use the item? I have many, the most used is in DSs bedroom as a game and bookcase
What do you store in the item? Games, teddy's, 'special' boxes and books, many many books!
Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally? The white unit matches his modern, airy room. This is very important to me.
How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it? Yes, it is a good size for him to reach and clear up after himself
What do you most like about your IKEA storage product? Price
What (if anything) do you think makes this product special? Nothing so much about the plain white one, but the patterned ones are pretty cool!

Item name - ANTONIUS wire basket
Function - how do you use the item? Toy storage.
What do you store in the item? soft toys and action man dolls in the baskets, playmobil in the plastic trays.
Does it match with their other furniture? Not really. It is (I think) meant to go inside a wardrobe/cupbaord, but is in fact next to it.
How important is this? Not at all. It happened to fit very well in the space I had, and has replaced acollection of cardboard boxes previously used for toy storage.
What kind of style is your house generally? Victorian 2 up 2 down. Furnished mostly with hand-me-down furniture. Almost all the stuff we have bought new is from Ikea, or made by DH.
How does it help with organisation in your home? See above - I have been able to remove battered cardboard boxes and a broken plastic one.
Has it made things easier for you? Yes
Do the children use it? Yes. Easy to access, and easy to tidy up.

What do you most like about your IKEA storage product? Generally the cost/quality balance is good.

What (if anything) do you think makes this product special?

I wasn't picked an official tester, but I love Ikea and over the years have quite a bit, so I'd like to add feedback too :) the only problem is that some of my things are over 12 years old and I can't recall the names.

I have a very large cubed bookcase in beech and black and I just couldn't live without it...I have the bottom cubes with baskets in to hide some of all the crap too! It houses books galore, ornaments and lots of other things too.
I have Rast for my towels and am amazed at how much goes into that little chest of drawers!
My CD cabinet is similar to the shoe cabinets and is genius...why did they stop doing them?!!!
I have Effective for all my good crockery and crystal. Brilliant!
I'll stop there as I could shout their praises for hours!

Bugger! didn't answer the actual questions!
Item name Can't recall most of them.
Function - how do you use the item? See my last post.
What do you store in the item?See my post before
Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? Some of it matches, but my house is fairly eclectic, however, sometimes I have wanted things to match and haven't been able to (Besta is one example as that doesn't come in oak veneer!)What kind of style is your house generally? eclectic.
How does it help with organisation in your home? It all holds more than you'd ever imagine. Has it made things easier for you? In some ways, but in others, it just makes you hoard things! Do the children use it? Yes, bookcases/shelves and will be using Pax very soon too.
What do you most like about your IKEA storage product? versatile and practical. Strong and reliable.
What (if anything) do you think makes this product special? Ikea products rarely let you down IME :)

not an official tester but most of my house has ikea furniture/storage in!

Item name - Billy bookcases
Function - how do you use the item?
as bookcases and also shoe storage in the hall

What do you store in the item?
Books, files and shoes

Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally?
The ones in DH's office, used as bookcases, all match each other and look good. The one we use for shoe storage is great and matches the hall. I like my furniture to match and coordinate. because of the simple style of Billy's bookcases there are very few houses they wouldn't suit.

How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it?
DH's office will always be disorganised but the bookcases help. For the shoes in the hall it has proved to be a fantastic solution. The girls shoes are at their level and easily accessible and the grown-ups shoes are at higher levels suitable for us. The depth of the bookcase is just right for lining the shoes up without sticking out too much into the hall.

What do you most like about your IKEA storage product?
I find it easy to put together, there is always something within the ikea range that fits the space i have available, they offer a variety of sizes and colours.

What (if anything) do you think makes this product special?
It does what it says on the tin - its a bookcase which holds books, its hard wearing, ours are over 10 years old!, they look good and make life easier.

not official tester but.....

Billy Bookcases. Loads of them. some with doors, some without.

Function - how do you use the item?
Bookcases, with baskets on for storing 'stuff'. ones with doors on have more baskets and boxes for storing other 'stuff'

What do you store in the item?
Books, photo albums, nik-naks, piles of paperwork, photo frames and clocks on the top, boxes filled with stationary, pens, hair stuff, photos, bits-and-pieces

Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally?
living room is mostly ikea so all fits in nicely. house style is generally the 'lived-in-by-4-untidy-busy-people' look

How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it?
organisation is good, in theory, there is a place/box/basket for most things. although nobody actually follows the rules and piles stuff up on spare shelves

What do you most like about your IKEA storage product?
it is plain and simple and has lots of room. i like the doors which can be added to hide the mess.

What (if anything) do you think makes this product special?
Even I am capable of putting it together.

Also
Expedit

Function - how do you use the item?
To store all the 10,0000 games and activities things inthe study/playroom

What do you store in the item?
games/activity/cafty stuff storage

Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally?
see above

How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it?
yes. it keeps all the boxes of games/activity stuff in one place. children know where things are

What do you most like about your IKEA storage product?
I like the depth of the unit. it is wider than a normal bookcase so things like games boxes fit on it. also like the boxes and baskets which fit nicely.

What (if anything) do you think makes this product special?
the way you can use diferent combinations of sections to create different hights depending on size of room.

also have 2 computer work desks, one TV/video thing and loads of bedorom furniture. All hard wearing and easy to put together.

also got lots of those in-drawer organiser things for separating knickers, socks and belts which i like v much.
for an untidy, disorganised person i'm a bit anal about having my underwear in the right order.

Not an official tester but........
Malm kingsized bed which we use for sleeping in.
Malm beside chests of drawers that we balance lamps on
Malm four drawer chests of drawers for clothes
Pax three doors wardrobe for hanging stuff in
DD had Hemnes bed, bedside table, chest of drawers and wardrobe.
We also have three ikea sofas - a Karlstadt sofa bed, two ektorps. The sofa bed is marvellous, the ektorps are already saggy despite being not a year old.

Have had various bits of IKEA furniture in past - book cases and cd cases etc. Howver, got to say the Stollmen range of poles / shelves and cabintes is very cool. Had to put in some sort of open wardrobe in a basement room for teenage boys and this just works perfectly. A pain to bolt together but very flexible to change about and looks interesting.

Not an official tester

Item name
Antonius wire basket (Least I think they are - we've had them so long I forget!)

Function - how do you use the item?
We have two in DH's office, freestanding though we did get optional wheels.

What do you store in the item?
Storing loads of DH's junk office and computer stuff

Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally?
Doesn't match but this is his office, so he doesn't care...
house is 1950's postwar mass-build

How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it?
Yes, yes and no!

What do you most like about your IKEA storage product?
It's not plastic like so many other storage solutions!

What (if anything) do you think makes this product special?
Cheap and cheerful really, and robust. We've had them for about 14 years.

We also have BILLY bookcases - loads of them. Some with doors, others just floor-to-ceiling. Whole house is full of bookshelves. I dream of having space for one of those immaculate lounges with nice sofas and perhaps a newspaper rack, but it's not going to happen unless we move and have a room just for books!

Not a tester, but we have a houseful of IKEA stuff!

Item name LEKSVIG TV CABINET
Function - how do you use the item? TV ON TOP - OTHER STUFF INSIDE
What do you store in the item? BLUE RAY PLAYER, FREEVIEW PVR, ASSORTED cdS AND DVDS AND A WHOLE LOAD OF OTHER STUFF THAT NEEDS LOCKING AWAY FROM THE KIDS
Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally? WE LIVE IN A COTTAGEY STYLE TERRACE AND HAVE LOTS OF LEKSVIG AND STUFF IN A SIMILAR STYLE AND WOOD.
How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it? IT KEEPS LOTS OF ELECTRONICS AND THINGS AEFE FROM THE KIDS' STICKY FINGERS!!!!
What do you most like about your IKEA storage product? IT'S LOCKABLE. WE ADDED AN EXTRA BOLT TO MAKE IT MORE ROBUST.
What (if anything) do you think makes this product special? IT'S RELATIVELY KIDPROOF AND WAS CHEAP ENOUGH WHEN WE BOUGHT IT, 8 YEARS AGO, FOR US NOT TO CARE MUCH ABOUT THE ABUSE IT'S RECEIVED FROM THEM.

BILLY bookcase(s)
Function - how do you use the item? We have 2 in the living room - one holds books the other ornaments. DD has one in her bedroom, for books, toys, drawing stuff
What do you store in the item? see above
Does it match with their other furniture? Yes
How important is this? Very important
What kind of style is your house generally? Average - not flamboyant, not old fashioned, not cutting edge, just ordinary
How does it help with organisation in your home? Perfect for storing all the stuff outlined above
Has it made things easier for you? In its functionality, yes
Do the children use it? Yes, DD uses the one in her room
What do you most like about your IKEA storage product? It's easy to assemble, very good value for money, colours match existing furniture/colour schemes, adjustable shelves are good, it's a good 'go to' buy when looking for storage solutions
What (if anything) do you think makes this product special? It's flexibility and price

Ooh I love ikea, wish I'd been a tester!

I'll review: changing table, probably LEKSVIG, 11 years old and still going strong as chest of drawers.
Wooden swing, trapeze and rings- look great hanging from tree and have lasted ages.
ANEBODA chest of drawers, think I have the name right, v sturdy for the price.
LACK side table, also sturdy, has a gerbil on!
V pretty bathroom cabinet in White, possibly FLOREN

Love going to ikea and eating lunch and buying random candles/ Swedish food etc!

Not an official tester.

Item name Skubb series

Function - how do you use the item? Wardrobe and under bed storage

What do you store in the item? Anything light - clothes, bedding, towels, camping gear, bags, DVDs, shoes

Does it match with their other furniture? How important is this? What kind of style is your house generally? Matches well with conventional house and furniture.

How does it help with organisation in your home? Has it made things easier for you? Do the children use it? Definitely made things easier. Keeps items separate and easy to find. Children now sort their clothes and put them away rather than leaving them lying around. Even if the clothes aren't folded only the front of the storage is visible so the wardrobes look tidier.

What do you most like about your IKEA storage product? Versatility and price.

What (if anything) do you think makes this product special? Simple and practical. Different sizes. Folds down when not in use.