Redditor Guilty666 asked, “What’s a small thing poor people notice in middle-class houses that middle-class people have no idea marks them as middle class?”
1.
“They have the good toilet paper. I grew up with a single mom who always bought the cheapest TP she could find. I still distinctly remember visiting a middle-class friend’s house and seeing triple-ply for the first time. My brain told me it was some sort of towel material, and I was super confused for a second.”
2.
“The kids have cute bedding. The couple of dollars of difference between plain sheets and blankets and the cute stuff with dinosaurs and unicorns is a giant gulf when you’re poor.”
3.
“I finally felt like I had ‘made it’ when I moved into a house and found I had a room I had no idea what to do with. It’s been months, and it’s still empty.”
4.
“They have those big pantries behind an actual door that are just full of food.”
5.
“All the kids have their own bedrooms.”
6.
“They have stuff and can acquire stuff without worrying about how to transport it in the next move or where to store it if the next place is smaller. I’ve left too many beloved items behind and avoided collecting mementos for too long.”
7.
“They have a fridge with a water and ice dispenser. I’m 45, and I still think that refrigerators with water and ice dispensers are fancy. I’ve never owned one myself!”
8.
“Name-brand snacks. I never had Handi-Snacks, Gushers, Hi-C, Lunchables, etc… as a kid. I love that I can afford them now that I’m 38.”
9.
“Growing up, I always thought my friends that had stairs (aka a two-story, single-family home) were RICH rich honey! Y’all got two whole floors?! It’s like a house on top of a house!”
10.
“So. Much. Food. I had an old friend, and whenever I went over to his house the sheer quantity of food on hand just blew my mind back in middle and high school. They had two fridges full of food and a full walk-in pantry. His dad sold cars so I knew they were fairly well off, but that alone always caught my attention most.”
11.
“Books, shelves full of books. That was what hit me as a kid going to my posher friends’ houses. My parents didn’t read much when I was young, but I was massively into books, so seeing shelves with books around my friend’s houses made me think they were super clever and mega-rich. I know, it’s not necessarily true, especially these days, but while I have never become rich myself, I guess I became middle class through education and life experiences, so my flat is filled with books I’ve read or will read one day. So, I guess I always thought that being middle class was associated with having a library of books.”
12.
“The parents have their own bathroom rather than share with the kids.”
13.
“Containers. Containers for everything. Separate ingredients for trail mix in this one home all had their very own containers. Their cereal? Not in boxes, in Tupperware. So much Tupperware.”
14.
“A family room. Like a whole separate room from the living room with a TV and huge couches.”
15.
“Growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, I will tell you what I remember most about the middle-class houses was the amount of fresh fruit and veggies they always had. Large bowl on the counter, plenty in the fridge and pantry. Not just cheap factory food.”
16.
“Food that there isn’t a plan for. Like you can eat it whenever. I remember my rich (read: middle-class) friends casually offering me a bowl of cereal or chips after school as a snack. I was floored at the luxury of this. At home, everything was rationed or spread thin enough to get us to the next paycheck or at least as close as possible. Every bit of food had a plan. We couldn’t just eat whatever, whenever, because we felt like it.”
17.
“There are no noticeable damage or repairs needed to the house like cracks/chips in walls, damage to floors or furniture, old windows, etc… Having a house and being able to afford upkeep for a house are two separate things.”
18.
“A playroom. One whole room dedicated to just toys.”
19.
“Flooring. As a kid, our apartment had very old and worn linoleum glued to the concrete floor. Slippery, hard, and so thin you could feel imperfections on the floor. Everything echoed off the hard surfaces, especially in the kitchen. Even modern vinyl floors with a built-in layer of padding feel better, even though they’re pretty similar. Going to a friend’s house who had a new padded carpet was magic. It not only felt better, but it actually made the room quiet.”
20.
“The kids are allowed to take whatever they want to eat from the refrigerator.”
21.
“A fridge containing fun drinks. As soon as I moved into the middle class as an adult, I started to spend my money on Izze, Olipop, little smoothies, protein shakes, and the like. I’m still very budget-conscious, so sometimes it feels like I’m breaking a rule by buying these things.”
22.
“Multiple types of breakfast cereal available to be enjoyed.”
23.
“Their houses are way brighter. Maybe it’s just me; it seems like they have more lights and newer, brighter ones. And not a bunch of burnt-out bulbs.”
Do you have something to add? What is something someone might have in their homes that immediately marks them as middle-class or wealthy? Tell us in the comments or in this anonymous form.
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