9 Useful Things Hidden on the IKEA Website

As if the chic and affordable home furnishing weren’t enough of a reason to love IKEA, it turns out they’re hiding lots of useful stuff on their website, too. Along with assembly guides — as well as some videos — for nearly every single product, the Swedish super-retailer’s site allows you to check your local store’s inventory, while offering up all sorts of convenient shopping tools.

Here’s a breakdown of nine helpful things hidden on the IKEA website that your probably didn’t know about.

We all know how tricky putting together certain IKEA furnishings can be, but did you know there’s an online assembly guide for almost every product the retailer has to offer? If you lose your instructions, or want to refer back to them — like when you’re moving — check out the bottom of the product’s page, where you can find a downloadable PDF with assembly instructions (under the assembly & documents tab) so you’ll never have to fret over how to put together that pesky pendant light again.

Not a fan of written assembly instructions? Fret not, my IKEA-loving friends. Turns out the retailer’s website has a pretty solid offering of assembly videos for help putting together some of their best selling products. Check out the official IKEA assembly video page for visual guides to a few of their more popular items, including the BEDDINGE sofa bed and the PAX wardrobe with hinged doors.

Looking for ideas on how to care for—i.e. clean, combine, and orient— your IKEA furnishings once you have them? The website offers dozens of downloadable buying guides (aka PDFs) for each of their product lines, so you can get a sense of how to properly care for your IKEA goods and find out which other products they work well with (as well as the materials they’re made of and some assembly info).

If you’re not interested in paying (or waiting) for shipping, IKEA’s website still has you covered. You can check whether or not your local store has the item you’re shopping for by simply choosing your location on its product page or by entering the article name and location into IKEA’s stock check search engine.

Did you know that anytime you buy a children’s product from IKEA, you can register online to be informed of a recall or any other alerts regarding that item? It literally takes two seconds and guarantees that you’ll be the first to know if any safety-related issues arise with the product.

It might seem like a no brainer, but checking the dimensions of any IKEA product’s package is vital to knowing whether or not it will actually fit in your car. Luckily, on top of stating the assembled product’s measurements, IKEA product pages also offer the exact details and dimensions of the packages they come in. You’ll never need a last-minute UberXL again.

Who knew you could determine an IKEA product’s recyclability just by clicking on the “Materials and environment” tab on its product page? In addition to offering up any and all of the renewable materials each product is made of, each of IKEA’s product pages lists its recycling potential and use for energy recovery, as well as whether or not it will require special waste handling in the future.

If you think you need to hire an interior designer to forge your IKEA-furnished home, then think again. The IKEA Home Planner lets you plan and design your dream kitchen, bathroom or your office on their website, then print it out and bring it your local store to easily execute.

If you weren’t already hip to the benefits of joining IKEA Family, then now’s the time to smarten up. The retailer’s loyalty program offers everything from 90-day price protection to exclusive product discounts for members, and it’s totally free of charge to sign up for. Did we mention members also get free hot coffee or tea at the IKEA restaurant just for joining? You can thank us later.