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

[JackSpratski]

I try so hard to keep my house nice.. but it's just, not. I don't have a hallway, just a tiny porch. No big bifold doors, no kitchen island. Walls that the plaster crumbles just by looking at it. A garage you can barely walk in as we have no storage space.

Looking at all these insta houses (the one I'm looking at at the moment is the haddon home.. they're usually working mums too.. and their houses are immaculate. I don't know how they do it.
Anyone else feel this way?

I honestly think the best way out of a funk about your own house is to improve it in small inexpensive ways. Ruthlessly declutter. Rearrange your furniture, fix the little niggly faults that annoy you but don't cost loads of money to repair. This is what I did with my house - it's still a work in progress and it still needs some quite spendy things doing to it, but I've painted walls and put up fairy lights and bought some nice pictures and slowly working my way through the little bits of DIY that I can do.
It honestly does make you feel much better about all those perfect instagram houses, when you give attention to the little things you can do at home, which massively improves your space.

Re the 'be kind stuff - if people are earning money from their instagram accounts, they are inviting comment, positive and negative. It's okay to not like what they've done, everyone's taste is different.

as everyone else says, turn off instagram.
i love interiors and stopped looking - when I was younger one or two books were really inspirational and I learnt a lot.. now I can scroll forever. Depressing! Mind numbing! Why bother! No sense of achievement because you don’t have to work it out for yourself.
chuck everything of any individuality, paint everything grey and start an insta page. Dye your hair blonde and film yourself sweeping an immaculate kitchen 🙄 you too might get a free mattress to crack eggs onto.
like a previous p, a friend takes pics of herself on the one sunny day, with big sunglasses in a thin dress on the freezing beach, pretends she’s in California or some such. it. is. staged. And boring af.
as pp says get some nice bits that you like and chill. After taking pictures of yourself shopping, unwrapping, arranging the things. Similarly as baileybros above says,murder partner, don’t forget to take pics!

My instagram search feed is 70% images of Harry Styles 😂- and I don't even follow those accounts!!

I don't know how and I pressume the algorithm decided he's the one for me. The more you look the more they send. I'm in some kind of Harry Styles rabbit hole.

I've got no complaints to be honest.

Try manipulating your algorithms to see if you can get more of Harry Style's smile in your life... but don't go comparing him to you real life partner whatever you do.

It’s not real life though. Enjoy your mess one day the mess (and the kids) will be off making mess in their own homes and yours will be tidy and clean but you’ll be wondering if you’ve gone deaf it’s so quiet

She looks like she’s moved into the furniture display at the nearest Next

I’d rather have my own home, even with crap everywhere and crumbling plaster, than renting at £1375 pm and paying my landlord’s mortgage.

What you have sounds like a dream that is out of reach to me.

Appreciate what you have.

No, I don't feel like that. I'm not keen on bifold doors or kitchen islands.

My kitchen has old style french windows and no island, just glorious space to move about in. I hate feeling cramped.

At the moment, it's a mess because I'm making jam. Later today it will be tidy but not Instagrammable. It's my home, not a showroom. The cupboard doors have faded in the sun. Maybe I'll get around to having them painted at some point, but it doesn't stop it being a comfortable welcoming working kitchen, full of light and designed to suit our household.

Why worry about what others think?

Dont look. Its usually bollocks.

Insta is not something I usually bother with but I've just looked at the Haddon Home - it's horrible. All that dreary grey and no signs of actually having a personality. Or a life. No signs of any fun at all.

When was the last time she made jam, or had the family round for a roast? Where are the mucky trainers her ds has dumped when he came in from running or the half bottle of red wine from last night? Does she allow anyone to sit on those cushions or are you just supposed to admire them? When was the last time she sent her dcs to PGL, and had a week of eating cheese, bread & olives while binging on box sets?

Grim. Just grim

Actually your judgement is what’s grim.

I don't have Instagram but I thought everyone knew that these carefully curated homes were all part of the influences job. Keeping an immaculate home is literally how they earn money. I bet the videos have loads of links to their Amazon store or similar.

If you don't see houses like that in real life it's because they don't exist in real life.

Stop looking at these particular accounts. There are plenty of influencers showing a more realistic picture of their homes and lives, they will also be making money but won't cause you to feel bad about what you have.

Social media influencer is a job just like your paid employment is, if you were rubbish at your job you would get the sack and lose your income, they may not get the sack because they are self employed but they would lose their income if they don't deliver popular content.

Alot of these instagram home accounts have a lot of their stuff paid for by brands so they dont actually spend their own money, and you following them and clicking on links gives them more interaction so they take that to these brands who pay them to advertise or send products which continue the lifestyle. Its an ugly cycle

don’t follow any account that makes you feel bad about your life. There is also someone out there who will be wishing for exactly what you have OP.

That garden is awful.

Comparison is the thief of joy, OP.

Honestly, I find between juggling work, kids, pets etc it's impossible to keep a house 'insta-worthy'. Not to mention the fact that it often takes a lot of disposable income to upgrade a house. I'm still living with the previous owners wallpaper and carpets. I could let myself get really down about it or shrug it off and remind myself I'm able to feed my family and keep them safe and warm, so I'm doing a lot better than many people....

I like Instagram (follow loads of home accounts) and sometimes feel like this too. Each to their own, I've just had a look at that account and it's not my thing at all. I'm much more interested in people who can create a beautiful home on bugger all budget/time - really creative design solutions etc float my boat more than everything looking the same as the next account. For me that's more inspiring as I can relate to them, but clearly those identikit accounts have tons of followers, so good luck to them.

I do stop myself looking sometimes when I start to feel pissed off with my house being unfinished and messy despite all my efforts. It doesn't take much for comparison to stop being inspiring and start being depressing. There's always someone with "more" than us, however we define "more", and always plenty with "less". I have to make a concerted effort to focus on the positives and keep it as inspiration rather than a stick to beat myself over the head with, but I definitely know what you mean.