Editor's Note: I am a bit leery to post this. All my readers know that I am a libertarian, and know that I am hitting a bit of a slump. I see no shame in temporary assistance. In fact, given the miserable nature of the current economic climate, the advantages outweigh, at this time, the disadvantages (I assure you we'll discuss that sad state eventually). I do hope to eventually find some reasonable work leveraging my talents into sufficient pay to justify the loss of benefits, thus re-establishing my anti-authoritarian Free-Market cred.
Until then, we work with what we got, eh?
Today, I "swept" my floor on my hands and knees, using an old T-shirt and vinegar soap. Two things occurred to me, as I bent and hunched over the tiles. Chiefly:
1) I need to lose weight. Seriously, I looked ridiculous and felt unhealthy, like a ponderous hippo.
2) Why can't I buy cleaning supplies with food stamps? What do people do for a broom?
I did a bit of research on the Internet to take a look. What do food stamp recipients do when they need to clean their house? After all, the absolute worst thing you can do as a poor person is look poor.
And it's a small way to feel some dignity over the less-than-stellar situation they find themselves.
The Internet is full of ideas. The best frugal cleaning information came from rich hipsters who are rediscovering the techniques of their grandparents - those whom lived through the great depression.
If you want to help the poor in your neighborhood, but feel cash is gauche or risks enabling alcoholism or drug use, I suggest the following items. Most can be bought if someone is receiving SNAP or TANF. They are not available on food stamps.
.Some of these seem counter-intuitive. I don't want to repeat this list.
1) Paper products.
Going to start off with a touchy subject. They don't provide a lot of paper products at the Food Pantry, and you can't buy them with Food Stamps. Not sure why - it's not like their are many ways to use Toilet Paper to commit crimes - unless you count it's actual use. I admit that sometimes I think my movements are criminal.
The Food Pantry offers 1 4-pack of rolls a month. Given the diet the food pantry provides, you'd think they'd be more aware of it's gastrointestinal effects and provide accordingly. TP is not something most people think to donate and it is possibly the best thing in the world.
2) Cleaning Supplies
Do you have an old plastic bucket lying about? Maybe a broom? How about some old T-shirts and a scissors? This is actually more important than cleaning chemicals - some of which can be purchased with food stamps. But all the food into cleaner recipes require lidded jars, buckets, bowls and cups, and cleaning requires sponges, rags, and brooms. Seriously, I'd give my left kidney for a broom*
3) Soap
Soap is huge as well. Laundry detergent, shampoo, body soap. dish soap. The food pantry let's you pick one. One. Shampoo or body wash or bar soap, but not all. And you can't buy this with food stamps. Fels-Naptha is a great cheap soap for laundry. Any cheap soap will do. Soap is a little expensive. Go for large scale brands like Dial or Irish Spring. It may seem nice to buy fancy goat-milk soap that smells like unicorn butts and lavender, but these expensive tend to be burned through quickly.
4) Cleaning Chemicals
I like the smell of chemicals like bleach and Windex. I'm weird. But the Food Pantry doesn't offer much by way of solutions.
What makes this so low on the list is that vinegar and baking soda do nicely for cleaning and are available on food stamps. My kitchen smells like vinegar, but it's clean, and shall remain ant-free.
5) Cooking Supplies
Many cleaning hacks require some equipment, a blender, or . Do you have a spare blender? Maybe some canning jars or some large bowls? Rather than dump these on Goodwill, give them to someone who can use them. Much can be done with a frying pan and a baking dish, but more can be done with a blender.
There you go. A list of things not normally given to the impoverished that can make their life much better.
*Thanks to type II diabetes, that's probably all it's worth anyways.
