My wife Eileen still keeps a stack of catalogs on the kitchen counter, right next to the fruit bowl. The Heartland America book is usually somewhere in that pile. She circles things in pencil. I look at the prices and decide whether the pencil mark stays or gets erased. Frankly, that's the whole system.
If you've never ordered the Heartland America catalog before, the short answer is yes, it's still free, and yes, you can still have one mailed to your house. The longer answer, which I'll get to, is that the kitchen and housewares pages are where the catalog actually earns its keep. Everything else in the book is fine. The housewares are where the math starts working in your favor.
What Heartland America Actually Sells
Heartland America has been in the overstock and closeout business for more than forty years, run out of Minnesota. They buy brand-name surplus, factory-renewed electronics, liquidation lots, that kind of thing, and pass the markdown along. In March 2025 they were acquired by an outfit called S5 Equity out of Southern California, but as of early 2026 the catalog still goes out monthly, the website still works, and the phone still gets answered. So nothing on your end has to change.
The departments inside the catalog read like this:
- Household and kitchen (the section we're here for)
- Electronics, including renewed laptops and tablets
- Tools, auto, and hardware
- Recreation and health
- Footwear, fashion, and gifts
The kitchen and housewares pages are the ones I look at first. Cookware sets, knife blocks, small appliances, food storage, vacuums, lamps, clocks. Brand-name stuff, often a model year or two behind, sometimes open-box, almost always cheaper than the same item on the shelf at the big-box store. Twenty bucks here, forty there. It adds up if you're outfitting a kitchen or restocking after a flood, which is what my brother-in-law in Quincy did last spring.
How to Order the Free Catalog
You've got two ways to get on the mailing list. Pick whichever one annoys you less.
Online, in Two Minutes
- Go to heartlandamerica.com/catalog-request.html.
- Fill in your name, address, city, state, ZIP, and an email. They also ask for a phone number.
- There's a checkbox at the bottom for email offers. Skip it if you don't want the inbox traffic. I skip it.
- Hit submit.
The catalog usually shows up inside two weeks. Mine takes about ten days here in Quincy. Your mileage will vary by route.
By Phone
Call 1-800-229-2901. That's the customer service line. Tell them you want to be added to the catalog mailing list and read off your address. The whole call takes about three minutes if you have your information in front of you. Eileen does it this way because she likes talking to people. I do it online because I don't.
Heartland America ships within the United States. The form has a state dropdown, no Canadian provinces, no APO box workaround that I've seen. If you're outside the country, the website is the only way in.
Where the Real Savings Live
Here's the part most people miss. The catalog itself is a sampler. The website carries quite a bit more, and there are three corners of heartlandamerica.com worth bookmarking:
- Deal of the Day. One item, deeper discount, twenty-four hours. I've seen kitchen scales and small appliances on there for half what the catalog page lists.
- Month-End Cyber Sale. They clean house at the end of every month. If you're not in a hurry, wait for it.
- Value Club. A paid membership that knocks more off the already-discounted price. I haven't done the math myself on whether it pays back, and I'd want to before signing up. Track what you'd actually buy in a year, then decide. That's the only way to know.
One thing I'll say honestly. The customer reviews on Heartland America are split. Most folks get their order in a few days and love it. A handful report a package that never showed up or a refund that took a couple of follow-up calls. That's true of most catalog houses, frankly, but if you're spending real money on a kitchen appliance, pay with a credit card so you have a chargeback if it goes sideways. That's free advice I'd give for any catalog purchase, not just this one.
What I Actually Buy From the Housewares Pages
Stainless mixing bowls, the heavy kind. A backup coffee maker after the last one died on a Tuesday morning, which is unforgivable. Replacement knife blocks for two of the grandkids when they got their first apartments. A floor lamp for the den that's still going. Frankly, none of it is glamorous. None of it has to be. The point is the price was twelve to twenty bucks under what I'd have paid at the store down the road, and it showed up at the door.
Things I'd skip in the housewares section: the no-name electronics, the gadgets that promise to do four things at once, and anything described as a "set" of more than ten pieces for a price that seems too good. There's usually a reason. Stick with brand names you recognize and you'll do fine.
Other Catalogs in the Same Lane
If you like Heartland America's overstock approach, a few other free catalogs hit similar notes. None of them are the same store, and the inventory doesn't overlap as much as you'd think:
- Carol Wright for budget housewares and household basics.
- Harriet Carter for the gadgety end of the kitchen aisle.
- Improvements for storage, organization, and the practical stuff.
Order two or three of those alongside Heartland America and you've got a decent picture of what's on the closeout market in any given month. Costs you nothing but the time to fill out the forms.
The Bottom Line
Order the catalog. It's free, it shows up in about two weeks, and the kitchen and housewares pages alone justify the small footprint on the counter. Pay with a credit card, skip the email opt-in if you don't want the noise, and wait for the month-end sales if you're patient. That's the whole playbook. Eileen will keep circling things in pencil. I'll keep doing the math. The system works.
