I don’t know about you, but just pulling into a Costco parking lot and thinking about all the people and carts and lines gives me a tiny anxiety attack. Plus it takes a lot of time and energy out of my day that can be better spent elsewhere – like on my career or enjoying time with my family and friends.
What are household essentials?
This is the stuff that you need on a regular basis to keep your house running and to prevent you from being the smelly person at work. Things like toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies, toothpaste, body wash, kitty litter, etc.
I think it is safe to say that if you run out of toilet paper or kitty litter, troubling times are afoot.
So you want to automate this first. While I would love to automate my grocery shopping as well, that tends to have a markup I’m currently not willing to pay. But when you order household essentials from places like Target or Walmart online, there does not seem to be a markup and shipping is free when I order items I need for the entire month.
Free shipping is life!
Target has two shipping options. When you order at least $35 from regular Target.com you get free standard shipping. Target Restock has a minimum purchase of only $35 for free next-day shipping.
They deliver heavy items right to your door! Depending on where you live some apartment complexes make you go down to the office or an Amazon locker to pick up all non-USPS packages.
Costco has free 2-day delivery as well, but the minimum purchase is $75 and you are a bit more limited in what you can purchase with the 2-day delivery.
If you are an Amazon Prime member you can get free 1 to 2-day shipping on some household items there as well.
Either way, I love using free shipping to stock up on household essentials.
Have a small stock room
Order a 1 to 2 month supply of what you need in your home. Others keep a stockroom with a 3 to 4 month supply, but since I started implementing the KonMari method I decided to compromise.
You save hours of time
The thing I love about Target is that they make it really easy to add previously ordered items back into my cart, especially when using Restock, saving lots of time because it helps me recall what I need and what I like.
Plus you are you saving time not having to drive to the store and lug a bunch of heavy stuff into your house from the car. If you live in an apartment – you know the struggle.
And when you order in bulk you don’t have to think about it for at least another month.
Save money so you can spend it on what you truly want or need
By not wandering down the aisles aimlessly you are preventing yourself from making impulse purchases.
And when you order online you can use something like Rakuten (formerly Ebates) to get money back rebates on your purchases (usually anywhere from about 1% to 10%).
Start ordering your household supplies from Target or Walmart and get them shipped for free to your house. It saves so much time and reduces trips to the store so you don’t spend on things you don’t need. Plus you can see your order history from your account and easily add items to your cart from there. Over time you can see a pattern of when you order items and possibly even set those up for automatic shipments, but for now – just order when you need and ship for free.
If you haven’t tried it yet, I recommend making a shortlist of household items you need and were planning to buy anyway and experiment with having it shipped to your house in the next two days for free.
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