What to Buy From the Habitat for Humanity ReStore

Have you ever wondered just how people find these great items to use in their homes at Habitat for Humanity ReStore locations? It helps to know what to look for. Here’s what to buy from the ReStore!

Walking into a Habitat for Humanity ReStore location can be a bit of an overwhelming experience. There’s just so much stuff and so much of it is kind of hard to know what to do with. They have a lot of things that aren’t immediately obviously beautiful or super useful and it’s quite a different experience from shopping at a regular local thrift shop, so it really helps to go in with a plan. You need to know what kind of things to look for when you’re going in there. I thought I’d put together a little list of some of my favorite things to check out when I’m there to give you some ideas and maybe a little direction if you’re visiting one of these unique stores for the first time and aren’t sure what to buy from the ReStore! I’ve also included some examples of how I’ve used furnishing finds around my home to make it a bit easier to envision how these pieces might work in your house.

Another favourite local spot for antiquing: Visiting Cobbletog Antique Market in London, Ontario

What is a Habitat for Humanity ReStore?

First of all, if you’ve never heard of the ReStore, it’s basically a store where Habitat for Humanity re-sells all kinds of salvaged goods that people drop off at their donation center. They have furniture and sometimes some home goods like the home section of a thrift store, but they also have all kinds of building materials and tools taken out of houses as they are being renovated or torn down, or during the remodeling process.

Contractors and every day homeowners often remove things that are still usable and sellable, and they save them from going into the landfill by dropping them off for donation instead. You can find railings, tiles, bathroom vanities, kitchen sinks, tools and hardware, and things like that. Depending on where you live, what you find there may be mostly out of newer homes, or it may be out of older historic homes if you have a lot of them in your area. There are quite a few of these stores and if you look it up, you’ll probably find one in your community or in a community nearby.

Truthfully, our local ReStore is probably the best spot for used furniture and antiques in our town.

More home decor inspiration featuring thrifted finds: Bookshelf Wealth is the Trend That Needs to Not be Just a Trend

Profits generated from sales at the ReStore are used to fund Habitat for Humanity housing projects, providing affordable-housing options for families in need and volunteer opportunities for those willing to help build homes. So shopping there is not only something that will allow you to get a great deal, but it will also help your community out as well!

What to Buy at the ReStore

Here are some of my favorite things to keep an eye out for. We live in a 120-year-old farmhouse, so the selection of vintage and antique items is just perfect for our home.

Headboards and Beds

I was so happy to be able to take advantage of the headboard/footboard/bed section of the ReStore when we were giving Jack’s room a little refresh. As far as used furniture stores in our town go, this place is really the best. We thought about building a new bed for him, but then I remembered the ReStore! We popped in there one Saturday morning and found a great wooden headboard and footboard set for $15 on our first try. I painted them in a deep navy blue and they were just the right fit for our old house.

Expert tips and tricks for shopping secondhand: Ten Finds to Never Pass up When Thrifting for Home Decor

Old Windows

The ReStore is definitely the best place that I’ve found for old windows. You can find just slightly old windows that you can reuse if you’re building yourself a garden shed on a budget, or you can find really old windows to use in your decor. It was quite a big trend a few years ago to hang antique windows as wall art, and while we’ve moved beyond that look now, I still think there are some great uses for old windows, especially in the garden if you’re building a character-filled greenhouse or a charming row of cold frames for winter gardening. You could even use an old wood window as a trellis for climbing and trailing plants.

Dressers, Cabinets, and Sideboards

I always seem to find at least one dresser or piece of cabinetry that I’d like to take home with me when I visit the ReStore. They always seem to have at least 20 good choices, and often, quite a few of them are of really good quality as well. If you want to find a dresser to sand down and re-stain, definitely look for something solid wood, and check out the craftsmanship on the drawers as well to make sure you’re buying a solid piece. If you just want something to paint, though, there’s nothing wrong with a little pressboard here and there. I’ve had this dresser that we use in our dining room for craft supplies for many years now and while it’s not the highest-quality piece, I like the shape of it, and it’s served us well. And it was dirt cheap, which is always fun.

Thrifted home decor for all types of homes: What I Always Look for When Thrifting for Modern Home Decor

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I’ve been hoping to find another large used furniture piece to provide extra storage in our kitchen, and I recently found just the thing at our local ReStore. A lot of the larger pieces at our ReStore are great quality antiques, and often, I come across pieces that are more than 200 years old. The antique furniture I find usually seems a bit banged up when I see it in the store and looks like it would need at least a bit of sanding and refinishing to be something that I’d want to use in my home, but when I get it home, I often realize that it’s actually in much better shape than I thought. Sometimes these pieces just need a bit of cleaning and the benefit of being in a bit of a nicer setting.

I recently came across the most beautiful 18th century Hepplewhite sideboard that fit perfectly on the wall in my kitchen that I needed a piece for and I’m so excited about it. I’ll share more about that soon!

Dining Sets and Chairs

The thought that most often runs through my head when I see the section featuring tables and dining chairs at the ReStore is “Why in the world does anyone ever buy a dining table brand new?” Unlike with the buffets and cabinets, the dining tables, matching chairs, and other dining room furnishings are usually in very good condition and there are always so many beautiful, gently used, classic styles to choose from. Dining chairs are quite simple to have reupholstered if the fabric on the seat isn’t to your liking and even if you had that task professionally done, you would still save a lot of money compared to buying a new store-bought set at full retail price. Plus, reusing old furniture from a thrift-shop is obviously a much more environmentally friendly choice.

Old Doors

I’ve always loved the selection of old doors that have been donated at our local ReStore. I’m always tempted to buy one and fix it up so I can use it somewhere really fun in my home, but you don’t necessarily have to use these beautiful old pieces of architectural salvage as a door in your home. You can use them leaned up against a wall as artwork on their own, in much the same way as you’d use a big old shutter on a farmhouse porch, or they could even be reusable as garden decor. There are literally dozens of doors like this at my local store.

Hanging and balancing a door is never an easy task, even if you’re working with a brand new door from a big box store, but if you’re a really skilled carpenter, adding one of these second-hand doors to your home as the entry to a pantry or home office is such a charming design choice. Here’s a really beautiful one I shared in my Instagram Stories one day when I was visiting the ReStore.

Brackets

I haven’t made use of these yet, but I just had to mention that the ReStore has a great selection of basic wood and metal shelving brackets in the tools, housewares, and appliances section and they’re only about $1-2 each. Perfect for if you need to organize a storage closet or a garage, but want to do it in a way that brings a bit of personality to your home.

Desks and Filing Cabinets

A desk in a home office should be spacious, sturdy, and a focal point for the room. I frequently come across just this type of desk among the used items and I have a hard time leaving them behind, but the truth is that I already have one that I love at home. I refinished this secondhand desk in my little living room office nook over a decade ago and it’s still the perfect traditional furniture piece for our home. I often have readers ask where they can buy the same desk I have. While you might be willing to pay over $100o for a perfect timeless desk like this one, there’s no need to because you can probably find an identical one waiting for you at your local ReStore for $50.

See more from this space: Updated Home Office Desk Nook

Tools

If you’re working on building up a good collection of basic tools, the ReStore drop-off center is a great place to look. They often have people donate things like old files that still work perfectly fine, hammers, and clamps. That’s definitely one thing that you don’t see at most secondhand shops or your regular local thrift store.

So those are some of my favorite things to buy from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. What have you found there that I’ve left off this list?