Is your home like a show home? If so, where is all your stuff?

[WorkerBee123]

So I would say I’m pretty tidy-I like it when there are no dishes on the side and the laundry is done, for example. But I live in a decent sized Victorian house with loads of books, plants and art etc (don’t mean to sound wanky). Recently went to someone’s house which was of the ‘executive home’ style-huge and virtually empty except for huge gorgeous sofas, massive island and a giant plant. I loved it! The bedroom was equipped with brand new empty drawers and bedside tables. My spare room is lovely, but there’s a full linen cupboard, drawers full of my stuff and camping gear under the bed. Even their garden was open and clear. Loved it-not my style but loved. Than I recently saw an ig post where the poster said she liked her house to look like no one lives there and that’s pretty much exactly the vibe this one had. Like I said, no judgement. I loved it. Could never achieve it in a million years. If you do, particularly if you live in an old house, how do you do it??

Re house tours… according to the very funny anthropological book “Watching the English” , this is the domain of the LOWER middle classes 🤣

I’m not crazy about that book, which I think gets far too much credit on here, but in my experience, this is true. Aspirational LMC people with a strong internal compass for price points and brands, and who love nothing better than an entirely clear work surface and a Quooker tap. When I was being given house tours by these kinds of people in around 2013-15/6, they also loved an oversized greige tile. My house visibly distressed them.

No, our aesthetic is very much "Just been burgled". Helpful in an area with relatively high crime rates.

I don't have a lot of 'stuff'. If I buy a new thing at least one thing gets sold or otherwise moved on. I go through my clothes every year minimum. I do have art and books though... never decluttered.

I hang it overnight on a clothes horse and remove it first thing in the morning.

I definitely do not have a show home. But I have a 2 friends that do, and have asked them this question.

Both of them are quite careful and planned with money and only buy something after a lot of thinking about it. No impulse buying.

Both declutter regularly.

Both genuinely feel stressed if their house isn't in order so this is a priority for them.

Both have a large cupboard of doom 😆

I am very tidy given the chance, but when I lived in a succession of rented properties (for over 20 years), the level of showhomeness varied pretty wildly from one place to the next, and the difference arose from the different amounts of space / storage. The fact is you can't fit a quart in a pint pot, and the UK has the smallest new-build properties in Europe as well as a lot of tiny flat conversions in old buildings, and even people who are far from hoarders simply do not have enough places to put things. It's amazing how many homes in the UK have halls with no space for coats and shoes etc, "double" bedrooms that don't have enough space for both a double bed and enough wardrobes for two people's clothes, etc.

I spent a long time moving quite often and not knowing where I'd be next and how big it would be and whether they'd be room for things and whether I'd be needing things again (some places came with some furniture / appliances, some not) and therefore keeping everything. And not being able to make major changes like getting built-in storage because I didn't own the place, or not being able to afford to anyway, etc. Now I own somewhere and I know I'm staying a while and I know how much space I have and so on, it's been easy to let go of some things that I hauled around the last ten homes, and get storage that works for me, and make everything fit fine, and it's all very tidy. Except for the spare room which contains a few bulky things with nowhere else to go and usually has laundry drying in it. . . but it's such a luxury to have a spare room, and shut the door on that and just be happy that everywhere else looks good. In most of the previous homes laundry had to go in a room I was actually using, and nothing makes a place look messy like laundry (try telling people from the US, and many other countries, that most UK houses don't have laundry rooms) . . . some people are just crap at knowing what they do and don't need and having systems for keeping on top of things and so on, but for a lot of people it really is just about not having enough storage.

@WorkerBee123
Because none of us need at least 50% of the stuff we have!!

everThing needs a place and purpose. Also declutter. I find things like ornaments, plants are just clutter and dust magnets. I like clean spaces. My pet peeve is stuff piled high on top of wardrobes or kitchen counters with the utensil holder and nick nacks all over

You make so many great points!

Very true

@Elsvieta
About 30 years ago my parents and I stayed in a rented two bedroom house in Orlando, Florida. The place was massive! It was bigger than the 4 bed house we lived in at the time! Both bedrooms had walk in wardrobes which were the size of our bathroom.

New builds here, use things in their show houses like 4ft beds to make people feel they can put a double or king bed in.