Are the only stuff packs I don't have now.

To anyone that does have them; are they worth getting before Sims 2 stuff becomes really expensive or do they not really have much to add?

I really liked both of them. H&M for clothes, Ikea for furniture. There's also a lot of add-on stuff people have made, especially for Ikea, to help round out some of the sets.

IKEA would be the first SP I'd get, and the first I'd recommend. I am an IKEA-holic in real life, and my Sims are too.

H&M clothing are some of the few maxis clothing I'll actually use, for almost all ages.

Those are two of the best stuff packs, especially Ikea, I probably use that more than any other sp.

I don't often use Maxis clothes, but when I do it's usually H&M, and Ikea furniture is great for sims starting out-cheap and it looks far more modern than many of the other out dated Maxis pieces.

I can take or leave the H&M pack, but I need the IKEA one. NEED. My one and only complaint about that pack is that it didn't come with an IKEA store for your sims to own!

I haven't got them, but I have an idea for you. Look at the clothes for each age group/gender here http://sims2defaults.dreamwidth.org/189630.html (I have linked you to the female adult page so you can see what I mean), and look for all the clothes with the H&M icon in the top right. The very first outfit on the left, Adamtopjeans, has it. You could look at all the outfits with that icon, and see if you like them. Unfortunately the pictures are a bit small though.

Well, if you have OFB, then I think you just need to "connect the pieces".

I like both SPs. So, I'd say get them both.

In real life, I have a few pieces of Ikea furniture around my house (seat pillows, book supports, pen holders), and the past weekend, I just bought some grey jeans from H&M.

As for in game, several sims in my game have Ikea and H&M stuff. Also, I use the building materials (walls and flooring) from H&M as the suit some of my sims' homes. Ikea is just ideal for several of my couples who are just starting out. So, they're both worth getting.

I'm just whining about it because the H&M pack does come with commercial lots. Then again, you don't need OFB for a clothes store to function and you do for a working furniture store, so it makes sense that they'd only bother making lots that everyone can use. Still, an IKEA store would've been nice. I downloaded one from here and it's one of my favourite stores to send sims to.

I use a lot of the IKEA furniture, and whenever I play without CC, my sims often ends up in H&M clothes. They're two of the stuff packs I'd not be without.

I have never used H&M and I would love to try it out, but only God knows where to find that SP these days.

I have IKEA and it is a really good SP. A lot of great pieces of furnite for a low price, and the furnitures are designed really great.

I just bought H&M on e-bay bundled with Glamour Life for a total of about $13, with shipping.

I had never heard of H&M before seeing this expansion, and I'm not all that impressed with the clothes, but completeness is a powerful motivator. I gather H&M is the name of a department store that's a big deal someplace other than Texas.

H&M is one of those name brand designer stores like Abercrombie + Fitch or Old Navy. I don't really know (where) it's popular though... they might have one in Denver, my cousin lives there and claims to have shopped at one.

I have H&M and thoroughly enjoy the clothing the SP provided; there aren't really any belly shirts or jeans with sandals in the clothing section and the decoration that came for the game designed store (that are usable for other applications) really add depth to your clothing experience, whether you're at the H&M store or creating your own. The only gripe I have is that H&M didn't come with any hair styles (and I know. "It's a clothing store!" but a girl can dream. ;-)

I borrowed IKEA from my cousin once and installed it on my computer (please don't yell at me, I was nine and she was eight when we did this) and was impressed by the range of options in furniture that come with the stuff pack. All items are streamlined, a bit more recent in terms of their style and easy on the eyes. They'd work really well for anyone who just wants a slightly bigger CC free catalog when it comes to furniture.

I'd say it depends what styles you either already use all the time, or feel like you don't play enough because there's not enough to work with... Both IKEA and H&M have pretty modern themes, so if you spend all your time playing medieval hoods, you probably won't get a whole lot of use out of them. Naturally then, if you love modern, urban building design and gameplay, both of them can be a big help! IKEA is also great just because of how cheap its items are, since IMHO, the basegame and UNI "cheap" furnishings leave a lot to be desired... I'm still kind of surprised how much I use IKEA.

And the only real-world H&M store I've ever seen was in Tucson, AZ... not sure what that says about the business...

H&M is quite common in the UK. Sells adult and children's clothes in modern and trendy styles.

We've got H&M stores all over here. Might be a thypical Europe brand?
IKEA is originally Swedish. It's pretty much the only place you can get cheap and alright-looing furniture that doesn't look completely awful.

If I had to choose one, I'd get IKEA. I'm actually not a huge fan of IKEA's style in real life (I went to the store for the meatballs, not for the furniture. ), but I find myself using the stuff a lot in my game. Probably because it's cheap but nice-looking. As opposed to "cheap" and ugly when it comes to the basegame stuff.

@Zarathustra: I don't think H&M is really much of a thing in the Southwest. (Yet?) Although I'm in southern California right now, my home is SW Colorado, and I'd never even heard of H&M until I got the stuff pack. (But then, we don't even have a Walmart in my hometown because there are no chain stores allowed by ordinance. No Walmart, no McDonalds. It's all locally-owned stores, and we like it that way.) But then I actually saw an H&M store in Denver (So there is one up there, Sanypsia...can't remember exactly where, though, Might've been the Cherry Creek Mall), and I was like, "Oh! You mean it's a real store?" Derp.

As for the H&M stuff pack, I consider it pretty necessary if you're not using CC clothing and want to stick with just EAxis stuff. But, IMO, you can find much better and for free from some of the clothing creators out there. Also, the store fixtures that came with the pack pissed me off because they aren't "shoppable." But now that I think about it, maybe the pack came out before OfB? I honestly don't know. Still, I WISH those display tables and fixtures were Sim-shoppable...

Wha? Why can't my town have an ordinance like that! It would be wildly popular, I'm sure! Most of us manage to avoid big-box stores as is, but it's still sad to have to drive past a Wal-Mart every day... So jealous!

Hey, petition your city council, maybe it will go through. But then, my home (Telluride, CO) is a tiny town of only about 2500 full-time residents. Plus, it's in a box canyon which means that there's just not enough room for big-box stores because there are big old mountains plunked down all over the place, on three sides. But without the ordinance, there'd certainly be room for a Starbucks (ACK!) and a few fast food joints, but...nope. You want that stuff, you gotta drive your butt over to Grand Junction, about 1.5 hours away, one way. It can actually be a pain sometimes, because sometimes what you need isn't available in town. So....I do a lot of online shopping. But I also patronize the local stores as much as possible. The whole point, after all, is to keep the town small, closely-knit, and self-sufficient, not to make everyone Amazon's best customer. Oddly enough, small, closely-knit, and self-sufficient is what I aim for in my game, too. Wonder why that is....

But anyway, this is probably why I'd never heard of H&M. That, and I tend to avoid shopping malls like the plague. Another thing we don't have in Telluride: A mall.

To me, IKEA stuff is the better of the two. Simply, because there are now so many CC object add-ons/ recolors available for download. Also, it really is a lifesaver for those Sims that have little money to spare when decorating (that is...if you don't use cheats and like things to match).

H&M stuff came with some nice clothing, but nothing that is a must have. Again, just my opinion.

H&M also came with some awesome stuff to make stores too!

First of all, both H&M and IKEA are originally Swedish brands. (aka me is a proud Swede and points that out)

However, I think they're worth to get. The furniture is nice (ofc :P) and the clothes are useable + as other have said there's alot of good CC that makes the IKEA stuff even better (and completer)

I never heard of H & M until the stuff Pack, but a real life H & M store recently moved into a mall near me. I'm in Southern Arizona (Tucson) so they may have started coming into the Southwest.

I bought the H &M stuff Pack and the IKEA stuff Pack. I like some of the clothes and furniture, but I'm not sure I would call them must haves. It depends on your taste in clothes and furniture.

All expansion packs are must haves 0_0

Ah, but these are stuff packs, not expansion packs!

I got them both within the last few months and enjoy having them in my game. I have a few mods in my game but don't use any custom items or clothing; both stuff packs really add to the selection because they are tailored toward 'daily' use (i.e. not just parties or holidays but furniture that stays put and clothes your sim wears daily). I prefer the H&M pack over Ikea to give my sims more variety in types of clothing. Most of it is pretty nice looking and I like the fashion options it adds for male sims. A few pieces of furniture in the Ikea set are nice but most of them are pretty cheap looking imo. Then again, they are cheap so it offers a nice option for your sims on a budget!