IKEA's New Second-Hand Marketplace Could Clear Your Clutter and Your Budget
You know that KALLAX unit in the spare room that nobody’s used since you moved the kids’ stuff around two years ago? Or the armchair that seemed like a great idea until it became a permanent home for clean laundry? IKEA has just launched something that might finally help you do something about both of them.
IKEA has launched a brand-new peer-to-peer second-hand marketplace in Ireland, and it’s free to use. It lets you buy and sell pre-owned IKEA furniture directly with other people — no middleman, no faff — through secondhand.ikea.com. Think of it as a dedicated, clutter-clearing corner of the internet, but one that actually knows what a BRIMNES bed frame is.
The numbers that will make you raid your own spare room
IKEA commissioned research among 1,000 adults across Ireland and what it found is genuinely eye-opening. The average Irish home is sitting on around €531 worth of unused furniture and €347 in unused home décor and accessories. That’s nearly €900 worth of stuff just… existing. Taking up space. Gathering the kind of dust that makes you feel guilty every time you open a cupboard.
More than nine in ten adults in Ireland (93%) already shop second-hand in some form, and 58% say their main motivation is making their household budget stretch further. That feels very on the nose for October, when the back-to-school spend has barely recovered and Christmas is already appearing in your peripheral vision.
Selling is actually simple this time
One of the more frustrating things about selling furniture online is the effort involved — measuring things, photographing them, writing descriptions, figuring out a fair price. The IKEA marketplace takes most of that off your plate. You scan the item, and the platform pulls in the original product photography, dimensions, care instructions and assembly guides automatically. It even suggests a price. For anyone who’s ever abandoned a Facebook Marketplace listing halfway through because the kids needed dinner, this is a meaningful difference.
When your item sells, you can take the money as cash or opt for an IKEA digital refund card with a 15% bonus on top. So if you’re already planning to replace something, that top-up gives you a bit extra to play with.
The marketplace covers current and previously sold IKEA home furnishing products — which is actually a nice detail, because 42% of adults in Ireland say they find pre-owned furniture with a personal history more appealing than buying new. People actively use second-hand platforms to hunt for discontinued IKEA styles, so if you’ve been searching for a piece that’s no longer in store, it’s worth a look.
When does most of the selling happen?
According to the research, the biggest triggers for selling furniture are moving home (45%) and redecorating (42%) — which sounds about right. But there’s also a solid contingent who’d be motivated by a good spring clean (31%) or a post-St. Stephen’s Day declutter (22%). The new year, new home energy is real, and having a ready marketplace to sell into makes it a lot more likely you’ll actually follow through rather than just moving the bookcase to a different wall.
The marketplace sits alongside IKEA’s existing in-store Buyback & Resell service, which has been running since 2021 and lets you sell eligible products back to IKEA in exchange for an in-store credit. Both options are now available, giving you more ways to move furniture on depending on what suits you.
Emily Birkin, Development & Transformation Manager at Ingka Group, put it plainly: “The second-hand marketplace is another way we can help more people access affordable IKEA products, while giving customers a simple way to pass on items they no longer need.”
Prices on the marketplace are on average 60% lower than comparable new products, which makes it a genuinely useful place to browse if you’re furnishing on a tight budget. That’s particularly relevant given that IKEA Ireland has also recently cut prices on 457 popular products — including the KALLAX shelving unit, now €59 down from €70, and the BILLY bookcase available at IKEA Ballymun for €29, down from €40.
The marketplace is available exclusively to IKEA Family members, but joining is free. You can sign up and start browsing or listing here