While some houses don’t exactly look poor from the outside, you’ll find some items on the inside that only stick around when you grew up with less money.
Where the lid still fits
Let’s start with the fridge. You’ll find an old butter tub in there that doesn’t even have butter inside it, but it’s still got a job to do. It’s a container for beans or chopped onions, maybe even for some leftovers that the owner didn’t want to throw away.
It’s all because they grew up poor and thought of old containers as more than simple trash. No, these were free storage boxes. They were holders for leftovers and, yes, sometimes mystery boxes in the fridge. You never knew what you’d find inside.
A little bit for later
Work your way over to the freezer, and you might find some leftovers. Or, at least, some food that barely counts as leftovers, like half a pork chop and maybe a couple of spoonfuls of chili. It’s not exactly enough to count as dinner, but it’s too much to ever throw away.
People who grew up poor never turned down leftovers. Instead, they saved them for another day when they could use them in soup or as a side, maybe even something just to tide them over until payday.
Still technically wearable
Be honest. Some shoes aren’t good shoes anymore, but you might still hold onto them because you don’t see the point in throwing them out. So what if the heel’s worn down? Who cares that the inside rubs?
That doesn’t mean they’re useless because you could use them as rain shoes or yard shoes. Anyone who grew up with less money learned that ugliness meant nothing, and as long as the shoes still fit, they were good enough to keep.
One more splash
There’s no such thing as an empty dish soap bottle in a poor person’s house. Why? Because they’ll add some water to the bottle when it gets low, and then a bit more, as well as giving the whole thing one final shake.
Cleaning products have to fit into the weekly budget. As long as there are enough bubbles or enough of a smell, the bottle’s not done, and there are plenty of ways to keep it going for longer.
Just in case it rains
A bucket in the closet. It says so much by doing so little, as people who grew up with little money know exactly why it’s there. It’s a sign that the bathroom ceiling leaked once, and it’s a sign that the window dripped during heavy rain.
No, they didn’t have enough cash to get stuff repaired. It doesn’t even matter now that they’ve got enough money because they still keep one in the closet, just in case it happens again.
Where the cold sneaks in
Blankets appear practically everywhere, including places that they were never meant to be, like by the front door or across the couch. It might not even be a blanket sometimes. It could just be an old towel, but it’s still there, trying to keep the draft out.
People who grew up poor know the difference between a room that’s heated and a room where you actually feel warm. They’re determined to never have to experience that again, so they’ll keep a blanket in each room to stay warm.
Nobody touch that corner
There’s one chair or drawer in the house that you’re not able to just touch. It has rules attached. For example, don’t sit on it, don’t lean on it, definitely don’t pull on it so hard. People who grew up poor are so used to having workarounds that they don’t think about it.
It’s only when guests arrive that they remember to share the rules. It makes sense, honestly, because replacing furniture costs money, while making up rules for broken items is absolutely free.
Everybody gets a seat somehow
That’s not all for chairs. You’ll probably see that the chairs don’t match in these people’s homes, and one might be from one table set, the other, the fold-up kind. That’s down to their childhood. It taught them a table was complete once every person sat down.
Matching items? They didn’t have that privilege. Even to this day, they’ll see no issue with having a bunch of chairs from all over because, really, the matching part can come later. That’s if it ever comes at all.
For one of those days
Don’t get us wrong, these kinds of people will definitely have some fun food in their house, but they’ll also have a bunch of boring stuff. You know the kind. Ramen and instant potatoes, for example, anything that’s dirt cheap and goes far.
These people keep that kind of food stocked in their house because they grew up eating those meals. They might not eat them regularly today, sure. But they won’t dare have a pantry that doesn’t have those boring foods, just in case their wallet gets tight again.
Under where nobody looks
Look under the bed. Turns out, you’ll probably see a storage system under there, made of plastic bins when things are going well, old suitcases when they’re not. It can get kind of expensive when you pay for real storage furniture.
So why not stick to what you know? It’s not like it’s going to cost you that much, anyway, and making the space under your bed a dresser works. Most of the time, at least.
Before anything moves
Some people keep candles. Some people keep stuff to keep away pests. Yes, people who grew up poor know all about dealing with roaches and mice, so they’ll make sure they never have to handle that problem again.
They might’ve lived in an older rental. They might’ve had shared walls. Whatever the cause, these aren’t the kind of people to wait around to buy pest supplies, and they’d rather be ready. They don’t care that their homes are perfectly safe now.
The square around payday
Have a closer look at their wall calendars, and you might notice something. The bills are written on there in bold colors to make sure there’s absolutely no way they forget to pay anything. It’s thanks to their childhood.
When they were younger, they grew up with their parents complaining about late fees and shutoff notices. They don’t want to go through that again. So, they’ll keep the reminders on the calendar because at least then they won’t forget. Probably not, anyway.
A little wall from nothing
Poorer families know how to get really creative with things, and that includes fabric. They’ll put a sheet over a doorway or a curtain across a corner, and voilà, they’ve got a new room. People who experienced that when they were children think it’s still normal now.
They’ll put the fabric up to separate rooms because it seemed perfectly fine before. A fake wall beats everyone seeing everything, after all, especially when space and money are both tight.
The cup cabinet lottery
Good luck finding matching sets in the kitchen cabinet. They don’t exist. It’s going to be a bunch of different items instead, including plastic sports cups and faded cups from a restaurant that closed ages ago.
These kinds of people never really saw the point in having matching sets. Why bother, when a bunch of different cups will do the job just fine? They’ll still have all those different sets even now.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.