How to Take Drawers Out of Ikea Alex Drawers (Helpful Guide)
Storage spaces are a must. One way to get good storage space is to add a nice dresser with drawers to it. The extra drawers can help you store fabrics, threads, sewing tools and more. With the extra space, you can be organized and help your sewing time go smoothly.
How to take drawers out of Ikea Alex drawers: It is a pain to pull on a drawer and have it come all the way out when you don’t want it to. That is why Ikea and other furniture manufacturers place drawer stops on their drawers. These stops need to be removed before pulling the drawer out.
To learn more about Ikea Alex and its drawer system just continue to read our article. It explores the issue so you know how to remove the drawers on the Ikea Alex with ease. And without any hassles.
Ikea Alex Drawers 101
Do Ikea Alex Drawers Come Out?
There is a yes and a no answer to this question. Because Ikea has made their Alex drawer system the way it has the drawers will not come all the way out when you pull on them. This is to protect you and the contents from making a mess in your room.
But the drawers will come out if you remove the drawer stops stopping them from being pulled out of its berth. The drawer stops only protect you from pulling the drawer out too far. To get the drawer all the way out, you need to remove those drawer stops.
Once you do that you can remove the drawers from their location with ease. Drawer stops are intended to be your friend and not meant to cause you any trouble when you need to get behind the drawers and correct some problems at that location.
How to Remove Ikea Alex Drawers
The only tool you should need to remove the Alex drawer is a Phillips head screwdriver. That lone tool tells you that it is only going to take a couple of minutes before you can remove the drawer from the cabinet.
About 6 inches in from the front of the drawer you should be able to see a screw on each side of the drawer. Take your Phillips screwdriver and remove both screws. Once that is done, you should be able to pull the drawer out with ease.
Just reverse the process if you do not want the drawers to come all the way out. Those two screws are drawer stops only and will not affect the set of drawers assembly in any way. You can remove them without worrying you will damage the Alex.
The screws go back in just as easily so you have not created a mess or a problem fr yourself.
Can You Stack Ikea Alex Drawers?
According to the assembly manual no you cannot stack Ikea Alex drawers. One unit is made to bear the weight of the contents only and not the weight of another set of drawers. If you want to see or need the assembly manual, just click here.
The very last page has a picture of stacked Alexes with a big X through the picture telling you in no uncertain terms that you cannot stack these drawers. You can, however, stack the Alex on a strong table or another piece of furniture that can hold the weight.
Just make sure that the piece of furniture you use is sturdy and strong enough to hold the Ikea Alex. Stacking is not always a good idea as that adds an element of risk to all who enter your sewing room or area. Just be careful when you do it so that top drawers do not fall on you
How Deep are Ikea Alex Drawers?
The Ikea Alex overall depth is 22 7/8 making it just under 2 feet deep. You will have to make allowances for the widths of the front and back panels that help make up the drawers. You are looking about 3/4 to 1 inch that needs to be subtracted from the overall depth.
A rough estimate would be that the drawer depth is about21 7/8 or 22 1/8 inches in size. That is still plenty of room to help you store and organize your different sewing accessories, fabrics, and tools. With 5 drawers you should have lots of storage and organization options to use.
How Tall and Wide are Ikea Alex Drawers?
The overall height of the drawers is 27 1/2 inches and the overall width of the drawer set is 14 1/8 inches. If you want the height and width of each drawer the same calculations above work w=for measuring the net width of each drawer.
You have to remove the width of the Ikea Alex sides as well as the width of the drawer sides to get an accurate measurement. Each drawer on the Alex seems to be divided between two different heights.
The top two drawers are smaller than the bottom three with each set of drawers measuring the same height. To get their actual measurement you would have to use a tape measure.
The Ikea website does not seem to have any specific measurements for the individual drawers.
How Much are Ikea Alex Drawers?
If you go to the Ikea website linked above you will find that the company has recently lowered the price of Alex to $79. It used to be $89. Don’t forget to add in any shipping and handling costs Ikea may tack on to their sale price.
That price is for the 5 drawers set without castor wheels. If you want the 9 drawer cabinet then you are looking at paying $159. A 4 drawer Alex file set is priced at $99. All of these models are without castor wheels.
We mention the castor wheels because there seems to be a model of Alex with that feature. We just have not been able to find a price for it. All the Alex cabinets seem to be reasonably priced through Ikea.
If you do not want to buy new, you should look at the used furniture stores or thrift stores to see if you can find one in reasonable shape and at a cost you prefer.
Fixing Ikea Alex Drawer Hard to Open
There will be those times where even an Ikea Alex will have some difficulties. Usually, those difficulties are in opening and closing the drawers. For simple fixes like jammed paper or pencils, erasers, etc., all you have to do is remove the drawer stops and then remove the jammed item.
That is the simplest and most common fix you will face. Sometimes if your home or room is too humid, you may find that the drawers swell and are hard to open and close. In this case, you should dehumidify the room and see if the swelling goes down.
That may not always be the case and if your drawers warp because of moisture, then you would have to replace the drawer or buy another cabinet. If you can live with the drawers in their not so perfect condition then just leave the drawers alone.
A final place to check would be the drawer runners. The wheels that follow those tracks may have a problem. For example, they warped or got broken. In those cases, you would need to replace those wheels.
If the tracks are broken or bent, you can try to unbend them but replacing them is a better option.
How to Take out Ikea Dresser Drawers
It took you about 3-4 tools to assemble the Ikea Alex. You may not need all four tools when removing the drawers. In fact, you may need only one and that would be the Phillips head screwdriver.
Once you get the screws out that stop the drawers from sliding all the way free from their berth, you should be able to pull the drawers completely free and set them aside. Then you can pursue the objective that caused you to remove the drawers in the first place.
Replacing the drawers is just as easy. Just make sure to replace those 2 screws after you get the drawer back in its spot. You can’t really use any lubricants to remove the drawers if they do not slide very well.
The wood construction material would soak up the lubricant and possibly be damaged if it soaks up too much. Lubricants are liquids and not a friend of wood products.
How to Remove Ikea Wardrobe Drawers
The same process should apply to Ikea wardrobe drawers as used on the Ikea Alex. The drawers on the wardrobes, and this doesn't apply to all models of Ikea wardrobes, uses the runner or track system.
All you would have to do is remove the drawer stop in the drawers to pull the drawers all the way free from its berth. It looks like the wardrobes with the plastic or open bins that double as drawers also work on the runner or track system.
The difference for that latter set of drawers is that the plastic or wire drawers only need to be elevated to remove them from those tracks. Tip the end closest to you up and pull back gently but firmly and that should do the trick
Assembling The Ikea Alex And Other Ikea Products
For the bigger items, you really should ask a friend, your spouse or your kids to help you assemble them. These pieces of furniture have long pieces that require more than one or two hands to manipulate into place and hold them steady while you attach all the pieces.
The Ikea website has included the assembly manual on the web pages displaying the details of each product. You just click on the product you want to buy or have bought and then scroll down till you see the words assembly and documents.
Click on those words and you will see the button to get to the assembly manual. Each manual is a different length and that length depends on the size of the product you want to put together.
Here is the link for one of the wardrobes already mentioned and here is the one to the plastic or wire drawer system. if you are missing the assembly instructions for the Alex, do not worry. We have already linked those instructions in an earlier section.
Ikea has done a lot of work to make sure you are never without assembly guidance. Each manual also tells you which tools and how many tools you will need to assemble their products correctly.
Ikea Refund and Warranty Policies
This company seems to have a fairly generous refund policy. You have a full year to return your Ikea products if you are not satisfied with them. They will take the product item back if it is clean, undamaged, and so on as long as you have proof of purchase. Read their policy at this link.
Ikea also offers limited 10-year warranties on many of its products. That coverage starts on the day of purchase and requires proof of purchase to use. Coverage is up to Ikea and they will determine if the product is covered or not.
You can read about their warranty on this link.
Some Final Words
Having a sewing hobby or business means you need storage space. One of the ways to get great storage and organization space is by using the Ikea Alex to hold your spare sewing materials and tools.
Unfortunately, Ikea doesn't make perfect products so there will be times when you have to remove the drawers and get them operating like normal. It is not hard to do and usually, all you have to do is remove 2 screws.
Once that is done the drawers should slide out as you want. Reversing the process is just as easy and should not take up any more time.
