Prepping Items to Buy at Yard Sales

If you have decided that the prepping lifestyle is for you, there is a good chance that you want to work on your stockpile. Collecting items to add to your inventory is essential. These items can get put to good use when dealing with emergencies.

Prepping Items to Buy at Yard Sales and Garage Sales

While you may go to different stores to buy some prepping items, there are other options. If you want to save money while getting some essentials, check out local yard sales. You can find a lot of great prepping items at garage sales.

Best of all, the prices on these items are much lower than the in-store prices. When you want to get a great deal on the essentials, look for yard sales taking place in and around your area. Here are prepping items you can buy at garage sales.

Non-Electric Kitchen Tools

The non-electric kitchen tools are an easy find. People often upgrade to electric kitchen tools, such as can openers. When they make the upgrade, they often want to get rid of their old manual kitchen tools.

If you find these tools, it is a good idea to buy them at the yard sale. You may need them during an emergency if there is no power. Without a source of electricity, it is impossible to use an electric can opener.

However, you can open canned foods with ease when you have a manual can opener. Some of the other non-electric kitchen tools to look for include manual food processors and mixers.

Warm Clothes

You can never have enough warm clothes. While you may go to your favorite clothing stores to buy winter attire, it is still a good idea to get warm clothes from yard sales. You can find shirts with long sleeves, sweatpants, and other thick clothing to store in a plastic tote container. After putting these items in the tote, you can keep them with other objects to save for emergencies.

If something were to happen on a cold day and there was no heat available, having layers of warm clothes to wear would help.

When searching for warm clothes, make sure to select options in different sizes to fit your family members. Besides warm clothing, you might want to look for other winter accessories. Some great accessories to have stored away include thick gloves, scarves, and winter hats. Most people who sell these items at garage sales are offering the items at meager prices.

You might even find some of the shirts and pants for less than a dollar. It is better to buy pre-loved clothes for prepping than to go out and spend a lot of money on these items.

Camping Tent

If you can find a camping tent at a yard sale, be sure to grab it. You may have noticed that camping tents are not cheap. These tents can cost hundreds of dollars. However, you can find them for much less than retail price when buying the tents at a yard sale. You may not find a tent during your first visit to a yard sale, but you can look around to see what is out there. It is possible to find tents of different sizes that people would like to get rid of for one reason or another.

Some people may sell their camping tents because they have recently purchased a new one. If they no longer need the old tent, they can part with it by selling it at their yard sale. A tent that would typically cost $100+ in a store may now have a price tag attached to it for less than $20. Can you imagine saving that much money on an essential item that comes in handy during emergencies?

If you find yourself in dire need of shelter, it helps to have a camping tent with space for you and your loved ones.

Sleeping Bags

Along with getting a camping tent from the yard sale, you may find assorted sleeping bags available for low prices. You can look for kid-friendly sleeping bags for your children to use. Having sleeping bags for each member of the family is vital during an emergency. The sleeping bag provides extra protection and warmth to keep everyone as comfortable as possible.

Even if you find pre-used sleeping bags, there is nothing wrong with using them. You can wash them in your washing machine to get them clean before using them.

Keep the sleeping bags stored in a large plastic storage container to keep them protected from dust and dirt when not in use.

Heavy Blankets

If you see some heavy blankets for sale, take advantage of the opportunity to get them for low prices. You might have all the blankets you need on your bed, but what if you were dealing with an emergency? As a prepper, you need to have extra heavy blankets available to use.

Like the sleeping bags and camping tent, these blankets can provide more protection and keep you warm.

Glass Mason Jars

The glass mason jars (canning jars) are good to have for prepping because you can use them for canning purposes. If you would like to start preparing canned vegetables, fruits, and other preserves, you need to have these glass jars. If you can find the jars at a yard sale, you can get them for much less than what you would spend at other stores, such as Target or Wal-Mart. After purchasing the jars, make sure to soak them before using them.

You can soak them in a mix of hot water, dish soap, and vinegar to get them clean. Once you have thoroughly cleaned the jars, you can start the canning process.

Other Prepper Items to Buy at Yard Sales or Garage Sales

Cast Iron Cookware like skillets and Dutch Ovens
Fishing Poles and Gear
Gardening Tools
Battery Operated Appliances
Flashlights
Camp Stoves
New, unopened medical supplies and first aid kits
Hunting Supplies and Gear

If your goal is to start prepping different items to prepare for any emergencies, you need to visit some yard sales. While shopping at the yard sales, you may find a lot of essential items. Some of these items include camping tents, warm clothes, and mason jars.

You do not know what you will find, which is why it pays to look around at the different yard sales and thrift stores. The saying, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” is true when it comes to getting items for prepping purposes. You just might find a good deal in an unlikely place!