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We all want it, those beautiful photos that make you stop scrolling. I love savoring the moments… the sweet times with my kids, the cuddles and tickle fights in bed, the beach strolling, the travel destinations, the good food. And yes, those moments are all VERY much a part of our life, a part of our reality. But do you know what else is? Constant laundry, toys piling up more and more underfoot even as I type this, and this morning, there is still a sink full of dishes. Here’s the thing, it’s all a part of our reality, but I choose to celebrate, to remember and to cherish the beautiful moments.

The color white has pretty much taken over Instagram as a whole, and I’m quite smitten with it as well. White walls, white sheets – the color white decorated all throughout the house. We’re currently remodeling our new home and guess what my standard go-to color pallet is? White and more white. Oh, and gray too. 😉

With that said, I also get asked quite often about my typical “overhead” shots… white cotton sheets, top-down view, light and bright, usually coffee. The questions range from “Who takes those?” and “How do you reach that high?” to “How do you get the coloring that way?” and “Are the blankets that white?”

Sharing my tips for a flawless Instagram feed in this sponsored post with Clorox and Cotton.

So today, we’re taking a look behind the scenes of those popular shots (yep, the tend to garner the most likes on Insta as well), and how to curate a killer Instagram feed, even when reality is a little less stellar (you know, aka normal).

5 Tips For Creating a Flawless Instagram Feed

1. Shoot in natural light: Light is the most important element in a photo, so make sure to always shoot in natural light, it will elevate the look of your photo! Great light means less grain and less blur, as well as better coloring throughout the photo. Sometimes you can use this light to backlight a photo giving it depth and extra dimension, but overall, shooting in a space with great natural light (think windows!) gets your photo off to a great start.

2. Stick to similar filters: If you want your photos to stay uniform and have a consistently beautiful look across your whole feed choose your favorite filters and stick with it. I know it’s hard because with each season and different type of photo (mine range from home, DIY, food, family and style), I can tend to like different looks, but keeping your feed consistent will be more visually appealing overall.

3. Get your whites looking, well, white: Those dreamy whites look inviting and peaceful on Instagram and throughout magazine spreads, but in reality, white sheets and towels don’t typically stay white. They tend to fall victim to dingy-ness, body odors, coffee spills, lipstick stains, baby messes and more. While I use filters to keep my whites looking bright in photos (the whiten feature in Facetune is my jam and I use it for sheets, backgrounds, etc!), in reality, I don’t want to sleep in dingy, odorous sheets. Just like our white cotton tees that we rotate through almost daily, I have long used Clorox® Bleach to keep my cotton bedsheets fresh and looking newer for longer. More than just fighting stains, Clorox® Regular-Bleach also fights odor and sanitizes every load of bleachable laundry – including those white cotton bedsheets. Odor build-up happens in fabric as bacteria and sweat transfer to fabrics (gross I know!), generating odor within the fabric, but Cotton tends to trap fewer odors in the first place and releases odors more easily during washing. When I’m tossing my coffee-stained or sweaty bleachable white cotton sheets into the wash, I fill the dispenser to maximum line or level with Clorox® Regular-Bleach 2 (or ½ cup of bleach per one gallon of water) to remove the stains and keep them brighter longer, but since I can be a bit clean obsessed at times, I love that it sanitizes the laundry to kill 99.9% of bacteria, which cause odor… making my real life white cotton sheets just a bit more like my Insta sheets 😉 See how it all works in this video!

4. See how the photo looks on your feed: Remember to add photos with the top 9 photos in mind. These are the first photos people see when visiting your feed and will either draw them in for more or it will be all they need to see. Whenever you post a new picture on your Instagram, you have to make sure it looks good with the photos that you have previously posted it. Apps like VSCO Cam and SneakPeek can be helpful to visualize your feed and see how a new photo looks with the rest of your feed.

5. Diversify your content:The key to an Instagram feed that keeps others interested is the balance of color, and space. Diversify. To have a flow that draws the eye through your feed, you need space. Think of it like the zoom or the lens on a camera, balancing cropped in, tight or “zoomed” photos with wide shots and blank white space to make it look most appealing. Play with the subject being up close and further away. Add in other elements; food, beauty, places… mix it up and tell the story behind it.

A solid Instagram strategy will help to grow your audience and create a feed you can be proud of… but mostly, have fun with it too! Tell your story behind it. Yes we all love a dreamy photo, and it’s okay to post them, but remember it’s because we want to savor those beautiful moments of our reality.

We’ve also partnered up with Clorox and Cotton Incorporated to help make your reality that much brighter with a giveaway! Just enter below for your chance to win a Clorox Bleach prize pack, including a gift certificate to a cotton-friendly retailer. And for extra entries share a curated photo of your favorite white, cotton bedsheets using the hashtags #CloroxCottonCombo and #FreshMommyBlog!

Clorox and Cotton Giveaway!





This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Clorox. The opinions and text are all mine.