Welcome to Home Shopping Guide
I started Home Shopping Guide because the mail-order catalog world is bigger and more fragmented than most people realize. There are hundreds of catalogs for home furniture, appliances, outdoor living, garden, and décor — ranging from major retailers everyone knows to specialty houses that have been shipping to loyal customers for decades. Finding the right one for what you need used to be word of mouth or a stack of catalogs on the kitchen counter. This site tries to do that job systematically.
Home Shopping Guide is published by Harman Research — the discovery layer for the catalog cluster we operate. It answers the question "what kind of catalogs exist for X?" rather than trying to be a retailer or a price-comparison engine. You will not find paid placements here. A catalog earns a mention because it is genuinely useful, has real inventory, and ships to real customers.
What you will find here:
Catalog discovery by category. Furniture, appliances, kitchen, bath, garden, outdoor living, gifts, and more — organized so you can find catalogs by what you are shopping for, not just by brand name.
Brand histories and context. Catalog brands merge, rebrand, and go digital-only. A company that mailed you a book in 2005 may have a completely different ownership structure today. I track those changes so you know what you are actually dealing with.
Comparisons and editorial notes. When two catalogs cover similar territory, I write about how they differ — price positioning, product quality, return policies, shipping terms. Useful distinctions, not marketing copy.
Connections to the broader catalog ecosystem. Home Shopping Guide works alongside its sister sites. CatalogDB.com is a searchable directory of catalog brands with status tracking — still active, online only, defunct. Optout.ws helps readers stop receiving catalogs they no longer want. Together the three sites cover discovery, directory, and opt-out.
If you are starting a room from scratch, upgrading appliances, or building out an outdoor space and you want to know which catalogs are worth requesting — this is where to start.