29+ Non-food items you should keep stocked at home

Until about four years ago, we all took for granted the ability to purchase whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. When covid hit and the world started shutting down, many people raced to the store to stock up on the most important things. Before supply chain issues had even begun to surface, panic buying cleared the shelves of essentials, like toilet paper!

Unless you were in the bidet industry, with sales through the roof, that time of shortages was probably a little stressful for you.

Would it have been nice to be stocked up on everything your family needed, so you didn’t have to worry about stores having basic essentials?

After the pandemic, did you change your buying habits and prioritize preparedness? Or are you in the same position you were pre-pandemic?

Back in 2020 I shared a whole series on food storage, including getting started with food storage, where and how to keep your food storage, how to rotate your food storage, and even planning your emergency water storage.

But clearly preparedness involves more than just food. Today I’ll focus on some non-food items you should always have a little extra of on hand.

Save money by stocking up on consumables

Even before the pandemic, we stayed well-stocked not only on food, but also on household items. We try to keep a few months of personal care and household items stocked at any given time, and for things that are easy to store, up to a year’s worth.

In addition to being prepared for whatever the future may hold, I love staying stocked up because it saves me money! Here are a few ways stocking up is great on the wallet:

I know that when my deodorant stick runs out or the dishwasher soap is empty there is no need to panic and run to the store because I always have more in the cupboard or the garage. Since I don’t have to rush to the store as soon as I’m completely out of an item, I don’t have to make extra trips to the store.

Since I’m not in a hurry to buy any particular item, I can wait to buy thing when they are on sale. I get many of our household goods at Sam’s Club, which has seasonal sales on almost everything. When an item is on sale, I try to buy enough to last our family until the item is on sale again. That way, I never have to pay regular price.

Between buying for a big family and buying to stock up, I usually buy in bulk, which is a great way to save money.

Non-food items to keep stocked up on

While everyone’s list will vary a little to reflect the different products we all buy, the general idea remains the same: stock up on the consumable items you regularly use so that you are prepared, save money, and enjoy the convenience of never running out.

Here’s what we store:

House Stuff

• Laundry detergent, dryer sheets

You’re going to keep doing laundry forever, so you’re always going to need laundry detergent. If you have other laundry products that you use regularly, like Oxiclean or a stain remover, stock up on those too.

• Dishwasher detergent

Keeping the dishwasher running keeps our house running, so we don’t want to be caught without dishwasher detergent.

• Dish soap

While I wish the dishwasher could take care of everything, we still need dish soap for things we hand wash.

• Trash bags

It’s always cheaper to buy the biggest box of trash bags instead of the small box. You’re going to keep needing trash bags, so you may as well buy the biggest box.

• HVAC filters

I always order these online so that I can make sure I get the right ones. It’s just as easy to buy several as it is to buy one at a time.

Paper Products

• Toilet paper

We store a large 20-roll pack of toilet paper under the sink in each of the bathrooms in our house, with additional toilet paper stored in the garage.

• Disposable plates, cups, silverware, napkins

We very rarely use disposable plates, cups, and silverware, but it is so convenient when we several families over for dinner at once.

• Paper towels

We use dish cloths and dish towels for cleaning spills, but there are some things that are just better dealt with using paper towels (I’m looking at you, bacon grease!).

• Wax paper

Although we don’t use wax paper very often, I keep it on hand because I use it for making chocolate no-bake cookies, some of my favorite treats because they are delicious and super fast to make.

• Aluminum foil, plastic wrap, sandwich bags

Whatever products you regularly use in the kitchen, keep extra.

Personal Care Products

I won’t go through these individually. Whatever personal care products you use, keep extras on hand. To help you get your wheels turning, here are some things that we stock up on at our house.

• Shampoo & conditioner
• Soap or Body wash
• Face wash or skin care
• Razors & shaving cream
• Deodorant
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrushes & toothbrush heads for our electric toothbrushes
• Feminine hygiene
• Vaseline
• Q-tips
• Hand soap
• Make-up products

First-Aid/Medicine

• Band-aids

Pro-tip: The dollar store! I don’t shop at the Dollar Tree very often, but when I do I always stock up on band-aids. With six adventurous kids, we go through a lot of band-aids. The same bandaid box will cost 3-4 times as much everywhere else.

• Vitamins/Supplements

We don’t do a lot of vitamins or supplements, but we stay stocked up on the ones we do use.

• Medicine (Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Benadryl, cough medicine, kids medicine)

Store whatever your family uses. We don’t use a lot of medicine in our family, but we make sure to have some of the various medicines we might need. It’s no fun having to run to the store just to get some ibuprofen.

• Tecnu

Tecnu isn’t a medicine, but more of a preventative measure. There’s a lot of poison oak around, and we have several in our family with a severe reaction. We make sure they wash with Tecnu if they ever suspect an encounter with poison oak (or poison ivy or poison sumac).

Baby

• Diapers and wipes

It’s been several years since we’ve had anyone in diapers, but when we did, I definitely stayed stocked up on diapers. That was something I sure didn’t want to run out of (though I used cloth diapers with half of my babies, which really calmed the fear of running out of diapers). When I found a good sale on diapers, I would buy ahead so that I wouldn’t have to pay regular price.

• Formula

If you use formula, you definitely want to keep some extra on hand at all times. I cannot imagine the stress of being able to feed your baby when there have been shortages because of recalls or supply chain problems. I breastfed all of my babies, so I made sure to keep extra breastmilk in the freezer in case I wasn’t able to be there at feeding time.

Money

Having cash on hand is always a good idea. I’m not talking about stashing thousands of dollars in your mattress, but keeping $500 or so in small bills can come in handy in a pinch. Any more than that probably won’t be covered by your homeowner’s insurance, so you risk losing completely if there were a fire, break-in, or other disaster.

Where to shop when you’re stocking up

If you’re a smart shopper, you’ve already comparison shopped and know where the best place is to buy everything on your list. As prices are constantly increasing on everything, it’s a good idea to periodically check to see if you’re still getting the best price on the things that you buy regularly. Thankfully much of that comparison shopping can now be done from the comfort of home. Be sure that you’re comparing prices by the cost per unit rather than the total price.

With a stocking up mindset, you might decide that buying a larger package or buying in bulk is a better purchase for you. Otherwise, just keep buying what you normally buy; just buy more of it.

For products where Amazon has the best price (like aluminum-free natural deodorant, mascara, and kids toothpaste) I buy in  bulk and use their Subscribe and Save to automate the process to save even more. You can always change the frequency and skip deliveries if you want, but if you coordinate the subscriptions so you have 5 items coming at once you can save up to 15%.

Where to store your stash

If you aren’t used to keeping a stockpile of household supplies, you might be wondering where you would keep all these products!

The good news is that there’s no right or wrong answer. A corner of your closet, on a shelf in the garage, under the kitchen sink, in a bathroom cupboard, in a coat closet, in a bin under a bed. Anywhere that you have a little free space will work. While some things like toilet paper and diapers take up a significant amount of space, these non-food items aren’t picky about where they are stored.

Over the years I’ve moved our stash of personal care products from the hall cupboard, to the master bathroom cupboard, to a bin in the garage. Our laundry extras live under the utility sink in the mudroom. Our paper products and other household extras have a shelf in the garage.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Get creative and I know you’ll find a spot to start stocking up.

Make it work for you

Don’t go out and throw off your entire budget by buying everything on this list today (though if you have a lot of wiggle room in your budget, I won’t stop you!).

Instead, gradually incorporate preparedness into your way of thinking and shopping. If shampoo is on your list this week, buy two or three instead of just one. When you see laundry detergent on sale, buy extra.

Over time, you will build up a supply of the things your family uses so you will be prepared for whatever life throws at you and you’ll enjoy the convenience of never running out of anything.

I’m curious…

• What you like to keep stocked up on that’s not on my list?
• Where do you store your extra non-food consumables?

Let me know in the comments!

 

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