Feel ashamed of my house

I bet you could clean some of the dirt off the walls. We had a massive clean up last year for estate agents photos and it was just hard graft that made the difference. Cleaned all the skirting boards, edged the lawn, cleaned the decking, cleaned the window frames, made it look really lovely. I think day to day with kids it can be hard work to keep it looking lovely.

Could you clean the walls, rather than repaint?
People always recommend sugar soap, although I've never tried it.

How can it need decorating if it was one during covid? That's not long ago. I don't decorate that frequently. Or is it kids/pets messing it up.

Who is going to see it ? It's up to you who you let in and quite frankly if they are going to judge you by the contents of your house then that's on them.

You could always declutter, if there is clutter, everything looks better when there's less of it. Then it's easier to paint and clean as well.

Paint is cheap (ish) and transformative. Honestly, start in a small space and give it a go.

Second hand furniture - I furnished a lot of our house with Face book bargains. We live in a place where people often move here for work for a couple of years and often can't take furniture with them when they go. Some nice things.

Interest free credit for sofas.

If time is a problem - it is for me because I'd rather be out walking the dog than decorating - you'll have to be a bit disciplined. But think how nice it will be when done.

And @Catza makes some very good points. They want to see you.

No offence but I've seen people do up their place and its trashed within days, months or soon after

We have white walls everywhere bar kitchen and bathrooms - with dark mahagony flooring, looks great, oain is years old and some people that come to give quotes etc think its only a few years old just like the kitchen

need to look after it, tidy up.

As another FM stated, pain is cheap as is a roller - but be aware if you pain a room, if you have older carpets/furniture, it will look older

As I said we have white and wood almost everywhere - 4 seater sofas x 3, large tives, and a few items and those blueshi grey floor to ceiling wardrobes - hardly a pics on wall few massive mirrors - less is more - add large, floor to ceiling windows really adds to any place especially if not overlooked as no blinds etc needed, de don't even close the curtains inn the nighttime as we are not overseen in lounge etc

look our for sales on engineered flooring, darker type, 3 for 4 etc - relatively cheap to do up a room is budget/time is limited.

start off in the bedrooms and be ruthless.

if it doesn’t fit, if it’s broken or just not you anymore, either bin, charity or eBay.

i always think hallways/stairs make a place look more untidy than it actually is, so look at the walls and flooring on that at the beginning too.

once that’s done enjoy it, then do dining room, living room leaving kitchen til last.

if you have little cupboards under the stairs, paint them up and put shelves in, and the downstairs loo will be very quick and easy to do too.

List jobs in priority order.
Work out what you can do yourself then put aside time in the calendar.
Work out which jobs need a tradesman in and price up and start saving.
We decorate one room a year (January because not much happens then).

I would start by changing your attitude. People don't care about the state of your house. They come to see you. Children care even less so no need to avoid inviting your kid's friends over. Furniture doesn't need replacing after 14 years - this seems like an instagram-related issue.
I am only just getting quotes for replacing a kitchen from 1989. We have people over all the time and nobody mentioned our outdated kitchen yet, I just feel like it is at odds with the rest of the house. However, I am only doing it because I can afford it right now and if I couldn't, I would quite happily live with it for 5-10 more years. It's in perfect condition, just very dated.
Have people over, nobody cares.

How much do you spend on your holidays? Give one of them up and spend money on your house? It's cheap to repaint.

I feel your pain. We moved 4 years ago to a lovely village but we massively compromised on internal and external storage. My husband still hasn’t bothered to sort out his crap, which fills the kitchen and one of the reception rooms. Unfortunately, you have to walk through said reception room to get to all of the other rooms downstairs. My poor DS can’t have friends over to play because the house is a fucking disgrace. There’s always some excuse for my husband not to sort it out.

Go onto Instagram and follow Orjenise. She's really sensible and realistic and will give you achievable goals. She's not stealthily trying to sell you discounted cleaning products either.