Our kitchen above appears to be simple and easily put together, but little do you know that Diana and I were totally not prepared for the day XPO Logistics delivered the 156 specific boxes, which was our entire kitchen, to our house. But it doesn’t sound like we are alone here either considering that ‘Item #2′ of IKEA Service Products Terms & Conditions states, “please ensure that: There is adequate space to complete the delivery. This includes a cleared area large enough to accept all delivered goods.” Available space is clearly an issue for a lot of DIYers on a budget!
Upon delivery, it is your responsibility to inventory the order and examine that packages for damage within a 2-day timeframe. So if you are putting your hands on each box to begin with, why not organize things right then and there and save time going forward. Here are some ideas on how to handle the largest shipment you’ll ever receive to your home.
Strategy 1 – Organize your Boxes by Article #
This is the strategy we incorporated in our garage for the kitchen project. I think of it as my dewey decimal system of IKEA cabinets. As we took inventory, we organized each box in sequential order based on article number starting with 000 series through 900 series items and pulled as we needed.
Advantage: We knew the general area of the garage to go to for any specific box at one of ten storage locations in the garage.
Disadvantage: There didn’t appear to be a rhyme or reason as to why IKEA chose to start their catalog numbers with say 900… series versus 400… series. This resulted in articles of all sizes being stored next to or on top of one another which was a little confusing at times.
Strategy 2 – Organize your Boxes by Cabinet #
If you have the space, this is also an efficient way to organize your boxes for assembly. Each cabinet build will be stored uniquely, ready to be pulled and assembled when needed without any time wasted looking around for boxes.
Advantage: Picking your items for a cabinet build is most efficient knowing exactly where to find each item.
Disadvantage: This method takes up a larger storage footprint. Since you are storing by cabinet, you will end up with 20+ specific storage spots which is less efficient.
Summary:
Neither of the strategies are perfect but definitely offer advantages over continually looking for your items needed. Self-delivery is an option for your order, but this is not practical for many folks. Diana mentions here some of the benefits of having IKEA deliver the order to your home the most compelling benefit being that IKEA owns liability throughout the shipping process. I personally believe this is well worth the $199 we paid for this service.
How would you create your home warehouse?
Make sure to check out our kitchen before and how our kitchen turned out after our huge savings. Also, make sure to subscribe and follow us on Instagram and Facebook for all the latest updates and so that you never miss a post!
-Dimes
