Looking at "insta worthy" homes gets me down..

And “man cave” in a child’s bedroom 🫣😂

I like the external Christmas lights though!

But the rest looks like a furniture catalogue shoot. Weird.

Quite a lot of us live on newbuild estates and like it, you know. There are plenty of cramped, damp Victorian houses with tiny gardens overlooked by other cramped, damp Victorian houses.

Looking at "insta worthy" homes gets me down..

So get off Insta and stop looking

So stop looking. You’ll be glad you did.

On the wall. Not the way.

And “work hard play hard” on the way. Nope. Wall writing is so naff. Again, can’t work up any envy! Also, as someone who has moved loads, the pressure to have a tidy house all the time is not my cup of tea.

Just had a Quick Look at the haddon home. The picture of the kitchen island shows red brick new(ish) estate houses crammed in overlooking the garden. Nope. Not something I’d feel any envy over.

Instructive to realise not everyone thinks that house is nice? (I say that as someone who is living in a semi-renovated ruin with a view of bags of cement.)

But they don’t make you feel bad, or they don’t me or anyone I know. It’s aspirational, advertising is designed to make the product look good, so,uou want it, it isn’t to make you feel bad?

Just looked at the Haddon Home and it looks like a house that has just been tidied up for photos. Obviously not how anyone actually lives day to day. Don't let it get you down, OP💁

Money. If you have plenty of money you can have a home like these. I am not sure why you follow or look at this stuff. I don't have loads of cash so have a rather scruffy house because I can't afford to spend loads on it. It is what it is. I don't torture myself looking at what I can't have.

But this is how most marketing works - make people feel bad, like they need improvement in some way and if they buy the product then they’ll be just like that perfect woman in the advert. TV ads for face cream/shampoo etc are the most obvious examples but most ads are a version of this, just maybe not as noticeable.

I’m not sure slagging off this home really is having rhe effect folks think it is. It reads a bit oddly.

the reason it’s not having the effect is because the op thinks it’s way better than her home, and she would like these things. Whether others want it themselves or not isn’t relevant. She wants more than she has,

it’s better to encourage her to either stop looking, or start to think about how she can make positive changes to her own home if she is unhappy with it.

The vast majority of people in the world don't post lots of pictures of their houses (children, dogs, clothes, make-up, hair, dinner, garden, holidays, car etc) on Instagram because they're too busy getting on with real life. Nobody's life is Insta-perfect all the time. A few people make a living from having a part of their life on SM.

Just had a peek, that might be some people's idea of a perfect home but to me it looks sterile and odd. No character at all! Like pp has said, home to me is not like this AT ALL.

For most of these influencers it is literally their job to have their home looking nice (even if they have another job as well, by the time they get to having sufficient followers as the ones you're looking at it's a very significant second income).

So of course their homes are going to be nicer than the average. Same with fashion or cooking influencers - if you've got not only a strong interest in a particular area AND a large financial incentive then of course your house/clothes/make up/meals are going to be nicer than the average.

It's as ridiculous to compare yourself to them as to a Cardiology Surgeon and wondering 'why are they so much better at heart surgery than me, my attempts at heart surgery are rubbish!' Or a professional ballet dancer, etc.

Also as others have said you never see the whole house at one time! Pretty much anyone could make 1 single room look really good for the five minutes needed to do a video!

I know someone who’s stepmum has a perfect house that she has an Instagram account for.
It is largely as seen in the account, but it involves a lot of slinging everything out of one room to create the look for the picture of the day. It’s also entirely lacking in character - no books or art, just pleasant modern clean lined things and a few banal bits of writing in picture frames.

Why on earth would someone feel the need to ‘be kind’ to a total stranger who is putting their house on social media for profit, any more than you’d be kind about a garment you don’t like in an ad?

I agree it’s a standard-issue newbuild people-box decorated by someone with no imagination and a lot of time on her hands.

Stop following, it's not real and no-one's life is perfect. Find joy in imperfection. I am not being dismissive when I say many people have it much much worse and struggle everyday. Enjoy your precious life.

I lot sympathy when I saw you had a garage I wish I did!

No, I have both a home and a life.

Influencers lean on the pretence that they are relatable, "normal" people whose lifestyle is just within reach. All you need to do is buy an Emma mattress #ad #gifted and you can be just like them.

Cmon. Now it’s not their job to make folks feel bad, that’s ludicrous, yes it’s to advertise,sell, promote, but they are ni more trying to make folks feel bad than Dfs is when they advertise a sofa.

Good God that house is bland as fuck, & a carbon copy of all the other bland as fuck insta houses. I would really try to concentrate on stuff in your home that you can make little changes to, so you feel you're getting somewhere. It's really easy these days to feel down when there's so much out there shoved in our faces but the key is to focus inwards, I find. Easier said than done at times, I know, but comparison truly is the thief of joy.

Why do you look? That’s like some form of masochistic activity. If you’re not renovating, and don’t have a budget, why spend your time making yourself feel jealous and depressed looking at what others have and you don’t? I don’t get it?