ikea must haves? what do you love?

[neeleymartin]

we are making a trip to ikea tomorrow and plan to get a few small items. we love the small plastic plates in rainbow colors and the bag clips for sealing chip bags and the like.

are there any small items that you all like and use from ikea? not looking for furniture, as we are set there. for instance, is there a kitchen tool you can't live without? or a cleaning tool you find unique and useful? maybe a toy your kids can't put down? tia

[MamaMolly]

I love the kid's kitchen toys. They are so cute and fun. The rolls of art paper are great because we go through a ton of paper! I like the tempra paint colors, but it doesn't always wash out of clothes.

DD still loves her rocking moose we bought about 2 years ago, but that might be more furniture like than you had in mind.

[citymama]

Lingonberry jam - LOVE IT! Not very sweet and really delish - we usually leave with at least 4 jars!

I like their comforters and comforter covers for kids rooms. If you have an easel, then the easel paper is a good thing to stock up on. We always end up buying new wooden cutting boards at IKEA (really inexpensive) and frequently stock up on wine or drinking water glasses! Ditto shower curtains since they have inexpensive non-PVC ones.

[sewarsh]

i LOVE the kids wooden slide, but its $150 so we dont own it. they also have great photo frames for cheap and the expedit shelving system. i'm a big fan of their plastic dishes, utensils for kids becuase they are BPA free and cheap. My MIL has their cheap $15 highchair and its great. it actually "won" best affordable highchair by Parents magazine recently. also bath mats are relatively cheap and plants.

[DietCokeLover]

I love the blue kitchen scissors!! Wish I had about 3 more pairs. I agree with PP about the jam. Yum!!!

[neeleymartin]

I love the blue kitchen scissors!! Wish I had about 3 more pairs. I agree with PP about the jam. Yum!!!

may be a dumb question, but what do you use kitchen scissors for? food?

[JoyNChrist]

I love the kids' kitchen toys, and the unique stuffed animals (DS really loves the big yellow camel). I love their curtain panels and throw pillows as an easy way to freshen up a room. I don't think I ever get out of Ikea without buying plants and picture frames.

We don't have an Ikea near us, but we visit my aunt in Houston several times a year and always go to that one, so I keep a running "Ikea list" for when we make it over there.

[sewarsh]

may be a dumb question, but what do you use kitchen scissors for? food?

I have a few pairs of kitchen scissors.....one used excludsively for cutting fat off of raw chicken/meat. 2nd pair for cutting herbs. SO much easier than a knife.

[infocrazy]

We use scissors to cut DS food into bite size. WAY faster than knife/fork!

[DietCokeLover]

may be a dumb question, but what do you use kitchen scissors for? food?

Cutting chicken, cutting pancakes for dc, cutting pizza.... So many uses for a good pair (s) of kitchen scissors.

[jgenie]

I bought their cheese graters (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50153180) and really like them. It used to be a black and a red container. Now it's one container with two graters.

[mrshalco]

I always buy a package of their bibs (set of 2). They cover the arms and are GREAT! I think they are about 3.00-4.00 for 2

[AnnieW625]

LOVE our Trofast Storage system! We will be getting one for #2 also!
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S49819508

We also have this rug for DD's room (not super excited about it being so pale, but for the price it totally works!)
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30151709

We have this rug for the baby's room (initially bought it for DD and it's a nice medium blue, not black):
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60117573

We recently bought this rug to go underneath our bed but we haven't placed it there yet:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30121779

Their plastic placemats are great for DD too.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70151712

[KrisM]

may be a dumb question, but what do you use kitchen scissors for? food?

And what makes them different than other scissors?

[Babymakes3]

I really like the kids plastic dishes, the rolls of paper and the Antonius basic drawer units are great for closets and storage!
I've only been there once and hubby and 13 mo old ds were with me so as you can imagine I didn't get to do a whole lot of lookin'!

[♥ms.pacman♥]

ah, IKEA..where do i begin? half my house is ikea...love it! what's great are the baby burp cloths..very big, and nice and light. great for covering nursing pillows and prevent stains. the stuffed animals are cute too, and very cheap.

[amm40]

And what makes them different than other scissors?

Sometimes they are shaped to get better leverage for cutting through tough stuff like chicken bones, but IMO the most important feature of good kitchen shears is that they come apart at the pivot point, making it possible to clean between the blades thoroughly.

[DrSally]

They have a lightweight painting smock that isn't PVC (nylon, I think), a cute kid's apron, a flatter, rectangular pillow in the kid's section, hooded bathtowels, cork trivets. For food, love the sweedish pancakes, meatballs and sauce, lingonberry jam, smoked salmon.

[citymama]

LOVE our Trofast Storage system! We will be getting one for #2 also!
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S49819508



We love our Trofast too! We have the brightly colored buckets and the pine frame.

[Seitvonzu]

the new painting smocks in the kids section are GREAT-- they are really a nice size (cover everything) and cheap (we bought 2 to have an extra and allow messy play when a friend is over....). i liked the sleeved bibs, but they are finally getting too small on my lowerweight/average height 27 month old. we have their easel (which is VERY cheap now--15 dollars, if you don't have an easel and have the space), and use their paper rolls. we haven't tried their paint, but have bought their dry erase markers (nice, but i found dry erase crayons for my 2 year old that can't put lids back on and their paintbrushes.

i'm a sucker for housewares (both kid and adult)-- so IKEA is very tempting to me. we have ALL the children's kitchen toys (except for the tea set because our house has too many children's tea sets already :) and it's very durable and loved. the favorite with my child and all her friends? the plastic cups-- there are four tumblers and four footed "goblets"-- 8 little glasses for 3.99. i'm not sure why, but the kids LOVE them. it's universally and really cute (and reminds me of my unreasonable love for my plastic "crystal" punch bowl set as a child) we actually use the "play" utensils for lucy to eat with. all the play kitchen stuff can be used!!!-- it's completely food safe and things like pans can be put on the stove/in the oven.

lucy's crib & changing table/chest of drawers are from IKEA. i also bought her linens at IKEA (which was a great idea since as an infant she couldn't really have things like quilts/bumpers anyhow, and ikea is nice and cheap and scratched the "cute baby linens" itch!). oh- and the panels on her window are IKEA. and her bookshelf in her room. basically everything "big" but her glider/light fixtures :)

we have an expedit and a cheap LACK "coffee table" in the playroom. we filled half of the expedit holes with light pink canvas cubes (also IKEA-- i believe they also had charcoal or turquoise when i was buying). we fit TONS of stuff in the expedit- it's just PERFECT and i couldn't be happier. i believe the price on expedits went down recently (at least in certain finishes) The coffee table is currently housing lucy's developmental dollhouse, but has also been home to the plan barn and various train layouts, in turn. oh-- we have the ikea trains -- basic set, extension set (with the tunnel and hill), and extra trains. we did that before we got into thomas because it was low investment-- i actually think the tracks are easier to deal with than thomas ones.... i like the ease (even if they have plastic connectors) because lu can build tracks herself.

the playroom also houses the "bead roller coaster" and probably some other things i'm forgetting from IKEA (including but not limited to finger puppets & silly fabric hats (we gave those as favors at lu's 1st birthday, a la the madhatter...it was a one-derland theme) we also bought one of those "crib canopy" things (the circusy one) and hung it over a kid's sized wing chair. lu & her friends love to "hide" under the canopy....it always provokes giggles :)

one of my favorite "baby" things that has endured is the fabric book they sell-- it has a rainbow on the front. we still keep it in the crib and i find lucy "reading" it at least once a week when i go to get her out of bed. there is a playmat in the same line that is REALLY cute--so bright and cheerful. (we have that too) lots of feeding stuff- the plates, the cups, etc.

our first BIG ikea piece was a china cabinet w/a hutch. they don't make the one we have anymore--it was in the liatorp line and the backing of the hutch was sage green (which just happened to be a perfect match for our kitchen). it is HUGE and holds a ton of stuff. it has glass fronts on the cabinets and i'm just fiercely in love with it :) i felt like it was expensive for something IKEA (380? five years ago?), but it is TOTALLY worth every penny. i have lots of glassware and it contains it so nicely & displays my dishware collections (which is important to me).

on the advice of this board we have cork trivets (really needed these!) and kitchen scissors.

sorry to write a novel...as soon as i stop typing this, i'm sure i'll think of more things we've gotten at IKEA that we can't live without ;) we ALWAYS eat when we go--- we're big believers in the swedish meatballs, though i can't believe how cheaply you can get an all beef hotdog !!!! :) (i'm very picky about hotdogs) one of my child's first "sentences" was "Ikea! EAT MEATBALLS!" and boy does she ever... when she blows through her kids meal (leaving the side dishes) she goes onto my leftovers

[hillview]

kids toys and room decor. Bath rugs. Drinking glasses. Napkins and candles. Sheets. Pillows. Comforters. Comforter covers.
/hillary