Does anyone have suggestions on where to buy household and personal basics? Items like shampoo, toilet paper, towels, silverware, underwear, toothpaste, etc.

Plenty of supermarkets in Thailand sell these items

toiletries and basics = local family mart, 7/11 or any other roadside convenience

as for silverware: on my first trip to chaingmai i seem to remember a ruddy great night market / undercover night plaza where you could get hold or almost anything from a new pair of knickers to 6ft x 3ft charcoal portraits...

if you still cant find what youre looking for - grab the next person (thai/farrang) that wanders near you and ask if they know where you could find x, y & z

hope this helps

And literally thousands upon thousands of convenience stores everywhere...I live in a mostly no where village and there are three store fronts within a 15 minute bicycle ride that sell these items....in fact if you want to get away from the places that sell these articles you probably need to go to a national park.

Then there are all of the big stores scatterd around town; Lotus Tesco, Central, Robinsons, Carrefour, plus a couple of huge malls. Have I forgotten any? Where you go depends on where you live and your personal preferences. Have no fear,CM is a very large modern city. The only thing different is that on some things (not cars or most imported goods) prices will be much cheaper than back home or even BKK. Bargains abound if you know where to look.

Here is a link to Carrefour, just to give you one example: http://www.carrefour.co.th/english/location19.php

to shopping paradise

For quick shopping I like Rimping Supermarket. Good selection of grocery items and it's easy to make a fast in-and-out stop at one of the Rimping stores, unlike a trip to one of the hypermarts (Lotus, Carrefour, Big C) or the Airport Plaza.