Household Supply Closet Stock List

Special thanks to SheSpeaks and Walmart for sponsoring today’s post.

Over Spring Break we had a lot of visitors. Despite the fact that I usually keep a good stock of household supplies on hand, with so many activities that week and several additional people, I ran out of some critical everyday items and had to run out to get them. So, once all of our company had left, I realized I needed to completely restock our supply closet. As I was stocking up on all of these necessities, I decided to create a list to help me keep track of what we have on hand so that I could easily determine what items I need to restock during my regular shopping trips. Today I’m sharing my list to help you with your own household supply stock up.

Reasons to Stock Up

If you’re not in the habit of stocking up on household items, you might be wondering why you should start. I’m going to share a few reasons but the most important one is to SAVE MONEY. Having a supply closet helps you save money in two ways:

Buy items when they are on sale and/or when you have coupons.
Buy in bulk to pay less per item.

Since I was restocking out of necessity (our supplies had been depleted by numerous house guests over Spring Break), I didn’t wait for a special sale so I tried to make the most of bulk discounts. I was fortunate that I was restocking in April since it just happened to be when Walmart was running it’s April Stock Up & Save event. I was able to snag a bunch of my household necessities during this special.

Another benefit to having a backup supply of household items is that you avoid the stress that accompanies a crisis of being out of toilet paper, or realizing you don’t have laundry detergent and your child has to wear their school shirt on the field trip tomorrow but it’s still dirty from when she wore it last Friday for school spirit day.

Plus, my keeping a supply closet full of items you use often, you can shop on your time, not when you HAVE TO because you’ve run out of an important item.

Supply Closet Items

I keep all of my household supplies in a supply closet in our guest bathroom.

I keep my list taped to the inside door of my supply closet.

Whenever someone removes items from the closet, it’s there to remind them to mark the “# Used” column with a hash mark. This way, when I go to the store, I can just take a quick glance at the list rather than rooting through the closet to see how many of each item we have on hand.

Paper Products

We go through paper products like crazy (I know this isn’t very green, but I’m not ready to switch to reusable toilet paper or handkerchiefs). So, at the top of my list are paper towels, toilet paper, tissues, and trash bags (not technically paper, but they’re usually near paper products at the store). As you might be able to see in the picture of my supply closet, I also stock flushable wipes because my family uses them in conjunction with regular toilet paper. However, I know this hasn’t caught on with everyone so I didn’t add it to the printable list I’m sharing here.

Hygiene Products

Since personal hygiene is a trait I try to encourage in my kids, I keep a lot of these products on hand. If they neglect to shower or brush their teeth, it’s certainly not due to the fact that we were out of soap or toothpaste. And because I’m a tyrant (or so they tell me), I don’t buy different brands for each of them. Everyone uses the same products. I do this for two reasons: 1) I refuse to stock 6 different types of shampoo, body wash, and hand soap and 2) it’s cheaper to buy in bulk. That being said, I do stock both regular shampoo/conditioner and dandruff shampoo because it seems like every time the weather changes, at least one person in my family has an issue with dandruff for a few weeks.

You can see in the upper right-hand side of the picture that I have a bin labeled “toothbrushes.” I keep a stash of toothbrushes, dental floss, and travel-sized toothpaste and mouthwash that we collect from our dentist at each cleaning for us to pull from when we travel or for when we have guests who have forgotten to pack one or more of these items. There’s also a bin up there (the polka-dot bin) filled with the shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and lotion bottles we collect from our hotel stays for the same reason.

Cleaning

Other than cleaning wipes and disposable dusters, I don’t usually keep a backup supply of cleaning products. I’ve been making a lot of my own cleaning products to replace chemicals so I haven’t been restocking those types of cleaners. However, like most moms, dishes and laundry are never ending in my house so I do keep those products stocked.

Miscellanous

Another thing we go through quickly is batteries. Between remote controls, wireless mice and keyboards, video game controllers, and other electronic devices, AA and AAA batteries are in high demand in my home. We don’t use a lot of 9V batteries but I always keep them on hand for when one of the smoke detectors starts that annoying beep to let you know the battery is running low. I store them in a drawer at the bottom of the storage cabinet (not pictured).

Like 9V batteries, we don’t need light bulbs all the time, but when we do, we need them NOW. So, I keep the two types stocked that cause the most inconvenience when they burn out – the ones we use in our lamps and light fixtures and the ones needed for all of our recessed lighting.

Also in my supply closet, but not on the list since it’s not a consumable item that needs to be restocked, is a bin filled with flashlights, candles, and matches and lighters for when we lose power. It’s not labeled, but it’s the bin underneath the “toothbrushes” bin in the picture.