Personally I have a hard time hanging on to those wrenches. Sooner or later I want to move the piece of furniture or tighten up when the allen bolts loosen. I soved that problem by taping the wrench to the back of the furniture piece or under a shelf after I’ve finished assembly so I can find it when I need it.

IKEA could offer them at the tills (”Do you need an allen key?”) rather than packing them as standard.

Too bad they don’t have a “take-back” program

How about using them to make a coat rack, of a as the hooks to hang pans, or any other object?

How about Freecycle, advertising them on a noticeboard at work/school or offering them to a bike shop?

Also, why not write to Ikea and ask! It’ll hopefully make them think more about the issue. You could also try offering them to a member of staff next time you go to Ikea (seriously); they probably won’t know what to do with them, but it’ll raise the issue!

I like the sound they make when they clink together so if you had loads, make a windchime for the garden with them!

In the Ikea of my town they have a place where you can take freely little tools and little pieces (like screws): if yours have it too you can put them there.
I used them putting one in a plastic bottle cap and then put on the other end one of my plastic flower. Use it as a place-indicator for a lunch or attach on a pin to put messages.
My flowers are on the site.

Since IKEA recycles metal, you can bring them back to any store and give them to the Recovery Department and ask them to recycle them.

They are pretty much the #1 ideal tool for making tension wrenches for lockpicking…

I keep one in the kitchen to use when I disassemble my Gaggia espresso machine head for cleaning — it fits perfectly, and I don’t have to use the oily one from my toolbox.

I find if you lightly fry them in olive oil, then stir them into a sundried tomota and olive sauce, you have a nutritionally balaced delicious meal full of vitamins and iron.

yummy!

I’ve just spoken to the IKEA press office about this and they’ve said that they are planning to introduce new measures to address this type of thing - but it’s logistically difficult: they have to get quality assurance procedures in place to check whether they can be reused or just recycled etc. They are working on it though.

The woman I spoke to added that you can take them back to the returns department - along with other things they recycle through there including batteries - but they’d just be recycled instead of going back into the product chain.

I’ve used two as tent stakes, and they worked well … they were slightly bigger ones, but it solved two problems, what to do with the allen keys and what to do when the tent stake’s gone missing.

Lifehacker just put up a post on making an IKEA wrench into a drillbit: http://lifehacker.com/398865/convert-an-allen-wrench-into-a-drill-bit

Bang them more, dress into stripes of contrasting paper, fabric or paint, and you have Christmas ornament candy cane!

I am always looking for Ikea allen wrenches. I make art out of them. If you have extras you can mail them off to me.
James
jamesrowe4@hotmail.com

I saw on another website if you get bolt cutters and cut one of the sides off you can use it as a drill attachment to assemble other ikea pieces