Amazon Memorial Day sale – these are the 6 early deals that are actually worth buying

With Memorial Day just weeks away on Monday 26 May, we're expecting to see brands and retailers launching site-wide sales on some of their most popular goods.

Anything from furniture to appliances to simple cleaning supplies will be discounted massively, and our team of expert e-commerce editors has already started looking for early Memorial Day deals so you don't have to.

Amazon's Memorial Day Sale hasn't landed just yet, but there are plenty of deals to be had on products that we love here at Homes & Gardens. I'll be updating this page regularly with the help of our dedicated team to collate all the latest and best deals at Amazon this Memorial Day, so be sure to bookmark this page so you don't miss the good ones.

Shop early Amazon Memorial Day sales by department

Each of our shopping writers has their niche. Lydia covers kitchen content, including blenders, juicers and air fryers. Emilia is our sleep editor, bringing you the best bedding and mattresses. Charlotte covers all things style, knowing all of the greatest interior trends and products to buy. And I'm Dan, Homes & Gardens' resident home tech expert, specializing in vacuum cleaners and air purifiers.

• Amazon home deals: Vacuums, blankets, smart home gadgets and more with up to 44% off.
• Amazon furniture deals: Save more than $120 on furniture for the whole house.
• Amazon kitchen deals: Up to 50% off on air fryers, coffee makers and more.
• Amazon mattress deals: Save $100+ on high-quality sleep.
• Amazon outdoor living deals: Lawn mowers, outdoor lights and patio furniture with up to 59% off.

Our favorite finds in the early Amazon Memorial Day sale

When is the best time to get an Amazon deal?

Amazon Prime Day deals

You will see the greatest breadth and depth of Amazon deals on Amazon Prime Day. Remember, there are two Prime Days each year – one in July, one in October – and each event lasts for 48 hours.

In my experience as a sales hunter, the deepest Amazon Prime Day deals are on Amazon hardware, such as Kindles, Fire Tablets, and Echo devices. If you're shopping specifically for home goods, you're just as likely to find a deep discount on Black Friday.

Where Amazon Black Friday deals are open to everyone, you can only make the most of Amazon Prime Day deals if you're a Prime member. Not to worry: other major retailers, including Walmart and Best Buy, tend to run their own counter-sales around Amazon Prime Day, and you don't have to be a member to shop at those.

Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals

Amazon Black Friday deals start dropping around a week in advance of the big day. If you want to beat the crowds and bag a bargain on a trending appliance, I suggest you shop early.

In my experience, Black Friday is the best time to shop for homeware, whether it's the best non-toxic air fryers or the best pizza ovens. It's when all the major home retailers compete to offer the lowest prices. I've seen sheet sets on sale for less than half price, hundreds of dollars off mattresses and sofas, and deep discounts on small and large appliances.

Amazon Lightning deals

Lightning Deals are flash sales that pop up around major sales periods. You're less likely to find small or large appliances in the Lightning Deals section – think more along the lines of skincare, make-up, and other impulse buys.

You can make Lightning Deals work for you by stocking up on a few inexpensive items to get you over the threshold for free delivery. So, if I were buying a $35 sheet set, but I needed to spend $40 to qualify for free delivery, I could shop the Lightning Deals section to pick up a few cheap favors. Anything from your essential cleaning toolkit would be perfect.

How can you tell if you've found a good deal at Amazon?

Download a price tracking tool

Shop like an eCommerce Editor and use a price tracking tool, which gives you access to the price history of a particular product. That way, you can work out from context whether you're actually getting a good deal, or if you'd be better off waiting for prices to fall further in the next holiday sales.

For Amazon, I recommend CamelCamelCamel. Here's how it works: paste the Amazon link or ASIN into CamelCamelCamel's search bar, and you'll see the product's lowest recorded price, as well as its average price, and when that price tends to fluctuate.

These figures form 'humps' on a line graph, like the back of a camel, hence the name.

Use comparison sites

This could be as easy as clicking the Google 'Shopping' tab at the top of your search engine results page. You might find that the best deal isn't on Amazon at all, but Target, Wayfair, QVC or somewhere else entirely.

Only buy the items you actually need

Throughout the year, I keep a wish list of the items and appliances I want to buy. Sometimes, I add the item to my cart before the sale begins, so that I can buy it right away when the deal drops.

When the sales start, I'm strict with myself –I only let myself shop from my wish list. That way, I get the dopamine hit from bargain-hunting, but I don't fall victim to overspending.

FAQs

Do you have to be a Prime member to access Amazon deals?

Technically, no. Every day, Amazon drops hundreds of deals, many of which are open to the public. With that said, if you want to access the deepest discounts and the widest range of deals with fast delivery, you should sign up for Amazon Prime.

Here's a workaround if you want access to deals over a holiday weekend, but you don't want to pay for Prime all year. Simply sign up for the one-month free Amazon Prime trial right before you want to shop.

For that month, you'll get free one-day delivery, plus access to Amazon's Prime Video streaming service. As long as you cancel before the 30-day cut-off, you won't be charged. If you forget to cancel your payment, you'll be charged $14.99 a month.

Can I get alerts for Amazon deals?

Yes. Download the Amazon Shopping app at Google or Apple and subscribe to deal notifications on items on your wish list.

Amazon is an enormous website, with hundreds of product launches and new deals every day.

To save you from feeling overwhelmed, we wrote a guide that teaches you how to shop Amazon like a style editor. That way, you can save time and money and sort through to find the good stuff.