4 Things to Buy at an Estate Sale Instead of Buying New

If you have any type of thrift-focused mind or are always looking for bargains then you need to shopping at estate sales! Estate sales are not garage sales where people are trying to get rid of the unwanted items in their home. Estate sales are literally taking the entire contents of a home and selling it. Which makes them a great place for college students, new family’s and first time home owners. Here’s 5 things you can almost always find at an estate sale that are great for your home without the pricey price tag of calling something “New”.

1. Furniture

I’m lumping all furniture into one category because why not. There’s almost always some type of furniture at an estate sale and almost always at truly amazing deals! Sofas, beds, nightstands, coffee tables, dining room tables, chairs, dressers, everything you would need to furnish a home! Sometimes you may have to get crafty and repaint or refinish a piece but there’s fun in that too to make it truly unique to you and your style! But let’s talk about end tables for a minute. I needed two nightstands for my bedroom and went to all the main (slightly cheaper) box stores. Hobby Lobby, TJ Max, Home Goods, everywhere and every single nightstand they had was $60 and over for a flimsy particle board piece. Estate sales generally have better made items (because things were just made to last longer back in the day) and better prices!

2. Flatware

I don’t know about you but I can not remember the last time I bought flatware from a normal store. Spoons, forks, and knives are things that generally don’t go bad. You buy them once and then until you lose all but one of your forks, you don’t buy a new set again. So save that extra bit of money and buy still perfectly good flatware sets from an estate sale! Most of the time they have pretty patterns that normal stores don’t have too, so extra perk!

3. Garden Supplies/Cleaning Supplies

Let’s start with the garden. Do you have any idea how expensive a new shovel is at Home Depot? Like, it’s a shovel, I do not want to pay that much for a shovel. So instead buy it at an estate sale! My husband’s dad is a rancher and runs through shovels like no one else and was getting tired of always having to run into town to buy new when he needed one. So every time we’re out at a sale we pick up any shovels we find for a couple of bucks and then his dad has a never ending supply of shovels!

Onto cleaning supplies. This list item may not sit well with some people. I get that “green” cleaning supplies is like the new thing and I’ll be honest, you probably won’t find that at an estate sale. But you will most likely find bleach, Windex, and vinegar for super low prices at sales! I like to take a peek at the cleaning supplies at sales to see if there’s something I’ve been wanting to try out but didn’t want to pay full price for. You can grab it at discounted prices and try it out to see if you even like it before buying new!

4. Towels

Maybe not every family needs what I call “crap towels” as much as my family does but they are towels that I use for not showering. Like, toweling off the dog after a bath, or cleaning up huge water spills, using for padding for baby ducks, shredding and using as an oil rag, or staining cloth. Like when you just need a bit of absorbent cloth to throw away and you don’t want to sacrifice any of your tea towels. Buy those type of cloths at an estate sale! Just do it.

Of course there’s always way cooler things to find at estate sales but these are a few things that if I can find them at a sale I will always buy them there instead of buying new from a box store.