I have two rooms full of bathroom cabinets, tile, fixtures and the like, and understand completely about your worries. With appliances though, you always have the warranty to fall back on right?

I purchashed a Kohler master shower slide bar set-up,a built in ironing board and some other less expensive items from Lowe's for our renovation. We had delays in the projects and the items were placed in storage for more than a year. When we started again we had made changes and decided not to use these items. I had all the receipts and returned them to Lowe's with the delay explanation and they gave me store credit. The slide bar was a special order that cost $300 plus and I saw it on the sale cart the following weekend for $100 - someone got a great buy! So, save your receipts and hopefully you won't have a problem if you need to return anything.

I do have warranty on the appliances. Good news to hear about the other items. I saved every receipt.
I feel better, thanks!!

I suggest you get out your receipts and read the return policy that is usually printed on them. Most major retailers, including the big boxes, have a 90 day limit on returns, and anything after that, even with a receipt, is at the manager's discretion---and only at the lowest price that the merchandise sold for. If you bought a great facuet for $200, and waited 6 months to return it, and that faucet was now marked down to $100, that's all you would get (in store credit) even if you had a receipt--if they decided to return it at all. 90 days is all they promise. If the merchandise has a manufacturer's warranty, any service under than warranty would be through contacting the manufacturer. Some retailers have an even more limiting return policy, such as 30 days. All will impose some type of restocking fee IF they accept returns on any special order merchandise---and that would be if it was returned during the 90 days. Appliance manufacturer's warranties begin on the date of delivery and run for one year. If the installation occurs after the delivery date, some will honor that date as the beginning of the warranty period, some will not. But, the burden of proof would be on you to prove that the appliances were not installed until a later date (receipt from licensed plumber for a DW install, etc.).

Putting the "excess" merchandise on Craig's List or Ebay would be an alternative to get some of your money back should the issue arise.

I guess I was quite lucky. There were no restocking fees for my returns and even tho the ironing unit was on sale when I took it back, they honored the price on my receipt. The only thing they wouldn't do was put the money back on my charge card but gave me store credit. That was fine with me since I seem to be there every week buying something or other. I also remembered that I recently returned a sink drainer to Amazon that was over a year old. They told me there would be a restocking fee and there would be some other amount taken off because of the time until the return even tho the box had never been open. However, when I received the credit on my AmEx account they had credited the entire amount that I had paid. Maybe someone upstairs is looking out for my best interests!