It all started when TikToker and mom Stephanie Murphy gave a tour of her average, middle-class house. She was tired of seeing gigantic, perfectly manicured homes every time she opened social media, and she wanted to help normalize having an average, lived-in, slightly messy living space. And boy was it relatable! From the fridge covered in kids artwork to the dish drying rack on the counter, to the not one, but two junk drawers.
Over a million people watched Stephanie's tour video. Thousands of comments rolled in from people who were so appreciate of the dose of realness, people who loved seeing their own lives and homes reflected back at them in Stephanie's tour. And then, something really cool happened. More people started posting tours of their own non-aesthetic, totally average homes.
Hashtag normal house became the hottest trend on social media.
In one video, creator Kellie Chandler showed off her outdated bathroom, 90's kitchen cabinets, and piles of junk stuffed on top of the refrigerator.
"I love seeing the new, million dollar homes but it’s also nice to see relatable, lived in, smaller homes too," she wrote.
@kelliechandler2 I love seeing the new, millon dollar homes but it’s also nice to see relatable, lived in, smaller homes too. #underconsumption #smallhomes #relatablemom #relatablecontent #momtok #fyp #trending
Sarah Bonds, a mom from Pennsylvania, proudly displayed her vacuum cleaner casually chilling in the corner of the living room, her mismatched bathroom towels, scuff marks on the hallway walls, and her (gasp) visible trash can.
"Normal, non-aesthetic home tour for a family of 4," she wrote in the caption.
@sarahbondsofficial Normal, non-aesthetic home tour for a family of 4. #normalhouse #regularmom #housetour #homedecor #homedecorideas
Bethany showed us how her dogs food, toys, beds, and crates have completely taken over her home. Ariel's tour featured a living room overrun with baby furniture, an ancient refrigerator, and a washer/dryer right in the middle of the most visible part of the house. Ashley flaunted her outdated light fixtures, rusty door knobs, and warped wooden floors. Moriah proudly showed us around what she affectionately calls her "ugly, small kitchen."
The honest is so refreshing, and it does actually make me feel better about my own house!
Over the past year, hundreds of videos just like these have been flooding social media feeds. Is it enough to drown out the impossibly aesthetic influencer posts? Probably not. But it's definitely making a sizable dent, with millions and millions of cumulative views.
One commenter on a normal house tour video wrote: "I love this because it looks like a HOME."
It's easy to forget that all of us (well, almost all) have walls with scuff marks, baseboards that need repainting, storage rooms that have become catch-all junk piles, holes we've been meaning to patch, and more. We all wish we had a little more space, or that our house or apartment was configured a little differently. We carry a tremendous amount of guilt over the projects left unfinished, the messes uncleaned.
Almost no one actually lives in a place like this.
Photo by Minh Pham on Unsplash
Spending too much time on social media will convince you that these things are not normal and need to be fixed. In reality, these are the things that turn a house into a home! If our houses aren't super aesthetic, who cares? They have a job to do. They're filled with love and memories and stories. Even the things we don't love about them are part of what makes them unique.
Normal house tours remind us that we're all in this together and nobody's perfect. They also remind us to be grateful for wherever it is that we live. Having a roof over our heads at all is a win, and we should be thanking our homes for their service — don't be afraid to show them off, warts and all!