Furniture Poverty
Here at Furniture Plus, one of the key charitable works which we carry out involves helping families who find themselves in furniture poverty. We recognize furniture poverty as the inability to access, afford or maintain the basic furniture items that build a socially acceptable standard of living. Furniture poverty hides behind many more front doors than most people realize these days and there are very real harmful physical, emotional, social, and financial consequences to furniture poverty. It’s a problem that goes deeper than simple material need.
The effects of living in furniture poverty can be devastating. Take a moment to consider how you would cope without a bed to sleep on, how would that affect your ability function at work or while studying? Not having a cooker to prepare meals with or a fridge to store food for the rest of the week, how would that affect your ability to manage a healthy balanced diet? You could easily find yourself relying on unhealthy and expensive takeaway meals. Think how not having a sofa or a comfortable place to sit would affect you. Not only would you feel physically uncomfortable, but you would likely be less willing to invite friends or support workers into your home, providing a barrier to support and socialising in your home.
This is where Furniture Plus comes in
Helping members of our local community is at the heart of what we do at Furniture Plus. To this end, our Goodwill scheme was set up to help those who are on a low income or are facing extraordinary circumstances due to furniture poverty. Above all, the scheme’s primary goal is to help those in need set up their home or continue to live independently within our community. Through this scheme we can supply essential furniture and household goods to people in need across Fife. We’ve helped families in many circumstances throughout the years, but we can only supply the items that we actually have in stock, and as of late we are often finding ourselves with no beds, mattresses or white goods in stock.
Over recent months we have seen a dramatic increase in requests for beds, mattresses and household white goods. This increase in demand has put serious strain on our ability to support families referred to our goodwill scheme.
You can Help us!
If you or someone you know are replacing a bed that’s still got some life left in it, or perhaps you have a new kitchen going in and need to get rid of a washing machine or electric cooker that’s still in working order, please consider donating your old one to us at Furniture Plus. Donations are the biggest source of goods we have, and we heavily rely on these kind donations not only to continue operating but also to fulfil our Goodwill orders. By donating your goods to us you are actively aiding us in combatting furniture poverty across Fife, allowing people in need to live a more dignified and safe life within our community.
In order to make a donation you can arrange for us to collect your goods from your home free of charge by booking a collection here on our website. Or if it is more convenient for you to drop off your donated items at a time that suits you, please visit one of our stores during our opening hours and we can accept your donation that way instead. For information on where our stores are based, have a look at our Contact Us page.
Don’t need our collection service right now but would still like to contribute to Furniture Plus? You can support us via the Paypal Giving Fund which allows you to make a cash donation directly to Furniture Plus. 100% of the money you donate will go to sustaining our project and helping those in need within our community.
We would like to take this opportunity to give a huge thank you to all of you who have already or will in the future donate to us. It simply would be impossible to do our work without your kind support.
