Cambridge shoppers looking for discount furniture, cabinetry, and building supplies tend to end up at the Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region ReStore on Preston Parkway, a big box style resale store whose entire purpose is raising money for affordable homeownership rather than turning a private profit. The Cambridge location, at 200 Preston Pkwy, is one of the ReStore network the Waterloo Region affiliate runs to support families across Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo, and it is open Monday through Friday from 9 am to 6 pm and Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm, closed Sundays.
Unlike a typical thrift shop focused on clothing, the ReStore concept was built specifically around household and construction goods. The Cambridge floor carries furniture, kitchens, major appliances, building materials, housewares and decor, flooring, hardware, windows and doors, lighting and electrical supplies, plumbing fixtures, tools, and seasonal outdoor items, most of it donated by homeowners, contractors, and renovation companies rather than manufactured for resale. Because the inventory comes entirely from local donations, prices run well under retail and the selection changes from one week to the next, which keeps regular visitors coming back to see what has just arrived.
Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region has operated in the community since 1988, partnering donors, volunteers, and families together to build stronger neighbourhoods through homeownership. Every purchase made at the Cambridge ReStore, whether it is a used dresser or a pallet of leftover tile, feeds directly back into that mission by helping fund the construction and renovation of homes that local families would not otherwise be able to afford. The organization has also made a point of designating itself a living wage employer for its paid staff, a detail that distinguishes it from resale operations that rely purely on unpaid labour, even though volunteers still play a central role in sorting donations, staffing the sales floor, and helping customers load larger purchases.
The ReStore also runs Kitchen Salvage Services, a program that sends a crew into homes before a renovation begins to carefully remove usable cabinetry, countertops, and sometimes appliances, which are then resold at the store rather than sent to landfill along with the rest of a gutted kitchen. That salvage work means a shopper hunting for a full kitchen set at a fraction of the cost of new cabinetry has a real chance of finding one on the Cambridge floor, already assembled from a single home and ready to be reinstalled. It is a detail that separates Habitat’s ReStore model from a general secondhand furniture store, since the goal is as much about diverting reusable building material from the waste stream as it is about raising funds.
For anyone renovating on a budget, furnishing a first home, or simply hoping to buy secondhand rather than new, the Cambridge ReStore offers an ever changing stock of furniture and building materials at prices set to move quickly, with every transaction supporting Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region’s work building affordable homes for local families. It stands as proof that a discount home store and a housing charity can be the very same building.
