Am I being unreasonable to think Instagram perfect houses don’t exist ?

[ScarlettnotOHara]

I am a neat freak and like to think I have a good flair for interior design but I constantly struggle to keep the house tidy !! AIbu to think that nobody unless you have full time staff or ocd cleaning have these Instagram perfect houses/lifestyle? Just laughing at the video I just watched of an immaculately dressed lady arranging her hydrangeas and lighting her Jo Malone candles whilst her croissants bake in the oven 😂

It’s only possible if every living creature in your house that can make mess also tidies up after themselves.

In my house, this rules out at least 1 adult, 2 children, a dog and a cat. Add in the spiders and it’s clear I’m on the wrong side of this equation…

Just gotta learn to live with reality, I guess.

My favourite details are vases of flowers on the cooker

And yeah - WTF is that all about?

I've been to visit someone today who lives in exactly the type of house you see on instagram! He has a full time housekeeper, she keeps it absolutely immaculate!

I used to follow an Instagram account of someone with a Pinteresty vintage home. The couple got divorced and the man of the couple posted a picture at some point of their storage locker rammed with stuff and made a comment along the lines of “apparently this is all necessary to make the perfect vintage sustainable home to photograph” or something like that. Can tell that was an acrimonious divorce. From their now individual accounts I get the impression she is a bit of a nightmare though 😬

Mine is when it's not the school holidays, I love a clean and tidy home.

I'm staying at my parents whilst they are away for the summer & Im having building work done. It's a big 6 bedroom house (only 2 floors), yes there's rooms to shut off but tidying & cleaning after the dc is exhausting. I'm doing shit loads of steps before I leave the house! Its put me off wanting a similar size house.

My old next door neighbours house was like this. You could go round at any time day or night and it would look perfect. They spent a fortune continually decorating / redressing the place.

No they definitely don’t.

I have a relative that wants their home to be show home perfect all the time and wants it to look like no one actually lives there.

Relative doesn’t work and cleans all day, every day. Has one child.

Obsessed with Instagram and all the show homes on there.

Relative still can’t keep on top of things all the time. Probably because on Instagram all the time! 😂

Sorry but I just almost spat my tea out laughing at Tibetan unicorn curry @MissDollyMix 😂😂😂

My home is like this but;
My children are all at nursery & school during the day
I have a cleaner once a week
I don’t work so lots of time to keep on top of things and love having everything tidy
The children have a huge playroom where everything has a place and I have quite orderly children who like things to be put in their correct places
My husband is very tidy
We have quite a good sized home so plenty of space for everything and I’m not a huge fan of “stuff” so there’s no clutter

I think my house is a lived-in version of this.

I’m not a naturally tidy person so it does take some effort but the things that help are:

No children.
One very mucky dog who does not have free reign of the house.
Large house with lots of storage, and we don’t use many of the rooms.
A fantastic cleaner.
Husband who does more than his fair share.
Being a minimalist. Absolutely hate clutter and knick-knacks.

So it’s always clean and tidy, but the idea of having glass jars full of Persil Capsules on display on the utility room counter leaves me cold, so it’s not Insta-style.

I have a friend with a house that is always Instagram ready She doesn't use Instagram. It's just because she likes it that way. She always has done. Her children are now young adults, but even when she had three under 5s it always looked tidy (admittedly she was a SAHM at that point, which helped).

Unlike me, she is not sentimental about stuff and is ruthless about getting rid of things that are no longer needed - using Freecycle, eBay etc.

It’s definitely possible, it just takes a bit of discipline. Having a place for everything and putting things away when not in use. Not having a lot of clutter so cleaning is easier. Appliances like a cordless Dyson that’s easy to run over the floor. Making your bed every day. I even fluff up the couch cushions and chop the throw pillows before I go to bed.

i don’t have children, but my mother was the same. When I grew up we put our toys/books away when we were finished playing with them.

We bought a house within the last 12 months and the housebuilder has a HUGE instagram following and subsequent people who post hundreds of posts with these picture perfect houses. My nextdoor neighbour does it.

The reality is, compared to our house hers is an empty box. We get compliments every time someone visits about how clean and tidy our house is, but not at the price of being a home.

It would take me 10mins to turn ours into one of these instagram houses (We have all the stuff that ticks the boxes), but the reality is the things that are 'hanging' around are the things that make the house lived in.

I suppose its a way of showing pride in your house but for me it just shouts "I have no personality and i fill my life with pointless shit because i havent got much else to do"

Is an insta house like a Mrs Hinch house with lots of grey, sparkling clean & nothing on display?

@Plumtreebob who is it??? I’m dying to know this is the kind of stuff I live for (vintage cottagecore, not divorce)

My sister's neighbour is an influencer - not a huge one but 10k followers and makes a fair bit of cash out of promoting certain items. I follow her online but also know her a bit from the connection with my sister as their kids are the same age and go to the same school.

Her house is lovely in parts but a "normal house" mess in others and completely undecorated in some; there is a reason why you only ever see certain corners in her posts!

Also, three or four times, I've witnessed enormous screaming rows between the influencer and her partner and / or their kids when I've been over to visit my sister; it sounds a long from the harmonious domestic life presented on screen!

@Maunderingdrunkenly - it’s gone now and I don’t really want to say after I called her a nightmare 😬

It wasn’t cottage core though, I would almost describe it as “light academia” if that’s a thing (in opposition to dark academia. Lots of bare white painted floorboards and miserable looking children’s toys from the 1950s scattered few and far between. Minimalism meets 1950s meets Instagram sort of vibe.

I actually have OCD and have panic attacks when things are not correctly organised and in their proper places. We live a minimalist lifestyle to try and accommodate this. It's a little harder with a toddler but we just keep a chest with his toys in the living room so they're out of sight by the end of the day :)

Only one room of the house is 'Instagram perfect' though and that's the guest bathroom which never gets used 😂

My sister has one. It's a large 4 bed with just her and BIL, no pets, no children, he has diagnosed OCD, they've never used the oven, only the hob and microwave, they never walk across a room, only around the edges and if we visit we have to stay in a B&B close by, not in one of their spare bedrooms.

Extreme due to his OCD, but still makes for an incredible home. I'd rather live in my house, which is nice but not instagrammable.

they never walk across a room, only around the edges

why?

@bollygu - to stop the carpet wearing out/getting dirty I would guess.

I know three women with houses that could be called instagram ready. One has never had any children and has a cleaner a few time a week.

The other two are lifelong friends, I shared a house with one when we were very young free and single. If you stand up and a cushion is not as you have sat down and it’s moved they will tidy it immediately. Both of them have adult children who suffer with anxiety. Neither of them are diagnosed with anything at all but they have issues.

WTF people put flowers on a stove top?!!!!

I get that it's not lit, but WHY?

@Plumtreebob fucking nuts!

@bollygu - the posters BIL has diagnosed OCD so it won’t be rational.