Instagram. Love it or hate it?

Joining Instagram back in 2017 was mostly for a bit of personal entertainment but I very quickly got sucked in – it was like a huge vortex of beautiful interiors. After a while I linked it to my Facebook and Twitter accounts and sometime after that I realised that most of my friends and family were probably sick of looking at endless pictures of my sofa and, if you weren’t partaking of an everyday challenge, starting every post with “#day 3 #begins with S”   probably looked a bit weird to the world outside of Instagram – yes, such a place does exist!

If I’m totally honest, I can’t actually work out Instagram. If I have lots of likes on an individual post, my number of followers seems to decrease. On the other hand, should my followers increase, each post is less popular.

It really is a complete mystery to me but I like the daily challenges – they keep me on my toes from a housekeeping point of view and I have recently worked out that many (ok, most) of the more successful posts are not actually “real life” so the daily challenges actually help keep the house tidy. Bonus! I mostly try to follow @myhousethismonth and @storyofmyhome plus I recently added @mygardenthismonth too and I love that! I’ve had a few regrams and mentions and that always makes me smile.

Some say a full room shot is more popular and while I have experienced that, my pictures of smaller details can do equally well. Personally I find garden and animal pictures are probably my most popular.

I am also confused if Insta is actually about the pictures (to a long sighted girl, this slant makes it the perfect social media) or about the words (not so good, give me a moment, need to find my specs… !). For me it’s mostly pictures mixed with a nice, but most importantly a positive comment. There is one particular account, geographically speaking, quite close to me. This account has tens of thousands of followers last time I checked but, in my very humble opinion, all the photos look basically the same as a heavy filter is obviously used and old pictures are often recycled but worse than that, every description is a moan about how awful life is/ how busy life is/how tired the writer is/how difficult having several small children can be… Blimey, it really brings you down!

If you look at my account ( @ceinioghome ) I would really hope you would find it uplifting or at the very worst, mostly positive. While many of my photos end up black and white – not because I use a filter but because I love a bit of monochrome and that’s how the house actually looks – I would hope they are still bright and cheery and I aim for the words to be the same. I use my account for sharing great bargains, showing the world how colourful a home can be or displaying how easy it is to do a little bit of crafting at home. Generally, I like being positive and I really hope that shines through.

I have a few insta favourties and I thought I’d share them with you:

For the gardener in you take a look @hels_home or @joanner3  – her garden is an absolute beauty, the sort of garden I can only aspire to!

For quirky interiors, take a look @gems_shiny_new_account_  and @comfymarmalade

For an amazing combination of style and thrifty, @thehousethatblackbuilt  ( I’d love to believe she copied my black conservatory but it’s not true)

For a beautiful home, have a look @premejames or @pevensey_house_ – they are both totally uncluttered and show exactly how I would live if all my clutter didn’t get in the way!

Finally, for an award winner, take a look @miffyshaw  Miffy lives in the same town as me but unfortunately we are not all this creative. She recently won the @besthousetv series and I’m sure there are many more trophies heading Miffy’s way!

So Instagram – love it or hate it? Personally, I love it! You?

Thanks again for reading and I hope you like all the photos. If you did, please give me a like or leave me a message. See you next week…!