Let me in the house!

January 27, 2020 5:49 AM

I am fascinated by pictures and descriptions of what people have in their house. I loved the UCLA study and book and the pictures of people outside their house with all of their stuff. Can you send me more like that?

All countries welcome. I am particularly interested in ordinary people who are not either hoarders or in the process of Marie Kondo-ing all of their possession (though I do love Tidying Up).

I can find plenty of home design interiors and white wall minimalism from people who clearly spend a lot of time thinking about their space. I'd like to read about/ see material from and about people who are just living their lives.

posted by oryelle to Society & Culture (13 answers total)

Best answer: Not sure if these are what you are looking for, but Gabriele Galimberti did a series of kids with their most prized toys around the world, posing in their bedrooms. National Geographic peppers their instagram feeds with these every few weeks, so it still feels like an ongoing project.
posted by larthegreat at 5:58 AM on January 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Material World is a great book. It features families all over the world, photographed outside their homes with all their possessions. It is from the 90's, and I think the American family featured probably has way less stuff than their contemporary counterparts. But these are ordinary people (not a design book).
posted by Shazbot at 6:02 AM on January 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

Philadelphia Dumpster Divers is a photo series showing the houses, studios and gardens of the members of Philly area art collective.
posted by zamboni at 6:03 AM on January 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

You will LOVE The Comfort of Things by anthropologist Daniel Miller.

It is a beautiful book. Based on an ethnography of a street in London, each chapter is a portrait of the people living in one of 30 houses, told through their stuff. Its beautiful and fascinating.

Extra points for being deliberately written with non-academic readers in mind.
posted by EllaEm at 6:17 AM on January 27, 2020 [5 favorites]

Material World is almost certainly what OP is referring to when she describes "the pictures of people outside their house with all of their stuff."

This sort of thing is also extremely my shit, and there's not enough of it out there. Hungry Planet is the follow up to Material World, focusing on what the families are eating rather than their possessions.

The LA study didn't seem to have any follow ups or precursors that I could find, but I'm not an anthropologist.

Will be following with interest to see if there is more of this kind of thing out there.
posted by jeoc at 6:21 AM on January 27, 2020

In a more specific vein, Toronto Life magazine has been featuring the contents of chefs' fridges.
posted by wellred at 6:44 AM on January 27, 2020

The New York Times had a story called "What Do You Eat for Dinner on a Typical Weeknight?" It featured 18 different families with photos of their homes, dinner table, etc. Right up your alley - and mine.
posted by XtineHutch at 6:47 AM on January 27, 2020

There is a little book called Tokyo: A Certain Style that is full of untouched interiors of apartments and houses in Tokyo in the 90s - it's the total opposite kind of book than architecture/interiors type books where everything is styled to the extreme.
posted by niicholas at 6:50 AM on January 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I really enjoyed these two articles:

How Different People Live In Identical Flats

and

This Is What Millennial Bedrooms Look Like Around The World
posted by gt2 at 6:51 AM on January 27, 2020 [7 favorites]

Realtor listings can be good for this. While most of them are staged, multi-unit rentals often are not.
posted by metasarah at 10:12 AM on January 27, 2020

Best answer: Autostraddle's "Queer IRL" photo galleries TOTALLY scratch this itch for me. The ones I think would appeal to you most based on your question are kitchen, bedroom, and bookshelves, but they are all absolutely wonderful reading.
posted by anderjen at 10:30 AM on January 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Dollar Street, TONS to dig into. Pictures of 264 family's homes and stuff from around the world at different income levels. Very well organized and searchable in case you're wondering about something specific like, plates from households in Africa or what hairbrushes people in the Americas use.
posted by CarolynG at 12:03 PM on January 27, 2020 [5 favorites]

I came across this a while ago and these may be close to what you are looking for.
posted by Crystal Fox at 2:48 PM on January 27, 2020