Could you imagine living in a home without a dining table and chairs? You and your family would be forced to share meals on the floor! Now imagine a home without a sofa — without a dresser to store your clothes or a chair to sit on or a mattress to rest on at night. Your home wouldn’t just be bereft of its beauty, it would be completely bereft of comfort. Unfortunately, many people across Metro Atlanta have to settle for living without essential home furnishings like a mattress or dining table in order to feed their children or pay rent.
You might think that a good budget plan would be enough for them to save up for furniture, but it is not that simple.
According to the US Labor Law Center, the current minimum wage rate in Georgia is $7.25, which matches the federal minimum wage rate in the United States. The average work week in Georgia since 2022 consists of 41.5 hours a week, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. This means the average minimum wage worker in Georgia receives only about $300 a week. This money would obviously go towards paying rent and buying groceries, but let’s pretend for a moment that 100% of that income could go towards a savings fund for buying furniture. Could a minimum wage worker in Georgia afford to furnish a small one-bedroom apartment then? Let’s look at the numbers…
In 2022, HomeAdvisor reported that a one-bedroom apartment could be furnished for as low as $2,650. To reach that amount of money while working minimum wage in Georgia, one would have to work around twelve weeks. A dining room table costs around $300, some chairs to accompany that table would be around $240, a mattress around $250, a dresser would be $150, and a couch would be $400. Even if a minimum wage worker wanted to reduce their furniture needs to these bare essentials, it would cost them around $1,340 and require at least four and a half weeks of work to save up for it. And remember, that doesn’t even include the cost of groceries, rent, transportation, and any other necessities that this person needs to live.
To put it simply, people who are working minimum wage in Georgia and may be struggling with issues that affect their finances often need help to get the basic necessities of a home, like a bed or a dining table and chairs. Saving up to buy all of these essential furniture items just isn’t feasible for a lot of people, especially those experiencing financial hardships.
This is why the Furniture Bank of Metro Atlanta takes its mission to Make a House a Home for individuals and families in need so seriously. Our clients are people who have either recently transitioned out of homelessness, fled domestic violence, are low-income and living with HIV/AIDS, or low-income and recovering from a disaster like a house fire or flood. Because they struggle with circumstances that make saving up for furniture difficult, the Furniture Bank collects donated furniture items, kitchenware, and bedding and delivers these items directly to our clients.
If you’ve donated a piece of furniture to our warehouse or volunteered to build a table or dresser with us, you’ve helped transform someone’s house into a warm, furnished home. We couldn’t be more grateful for your service!
Do you have gently used furniture to donate to the Furniture Bank of Metro Atlanta? Simply complete our online donation form, and we’ll come to you to pick it up! https://furniturebankatlanta.org/furniture-pick-up/
