r/malelivingspace: rules, karma requirements and posting culture

Who posts here

Most posters are furnishing a place for the first time or starting again after a breakup, and they say they have no idea where to begin. Nobody is expected to know design language. Replies are short and practical: add a lamp, hang art above the couch, get curtains. The only way to pitch too low is to post an empty room with no question, which the rules say will be deleted.

• Men in their twenties and thirties showing a first solo apartment and asking what to add.
• Men in their thirties and forties starting over after a separation or divorce, posting the new place.
• Students and teenagers with a bedroom or dorm room.
• People with a finished, well-lit place who want it rated.
• Partners and friends asking for help with a man cave or shared room.

Karma and account requirements

What it takes to get a post through in r/malelivingspace.

What you can post

What happens to a new post

Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 400.

• Stayed up92%
• Removed by Reddit's filters1%
• Held by AutoModerator2%
• Removed by moderators4%
• Deleted by the author2%

Reddit counts a removal by the subreddit's own AutoModerator rules as a moderator removal, so that share is not all human. Held by AutoModerator means the post is waiting in the mod queue.

What happened when we posted here

We have posted here ourselves. This is how our own posts and comments fared.

Stayed up

91%

Removed by Reddit's filters

9%

Removed by moderators

0%

Period

June 2026 to August 2026

The rules, in the mods' words

1. 1

   Advertising

   Absolutely no advertising without prior permission from a moderator.

2. 2

   Low-Effort posts

   NO shitposting. Any post relying primarily on a joke, meme, or general low effort content will be removed.

3. 3

   URL Shorteners

   NO URL SHORTENERS Any comment or post containing bit.ly, goo.gl, amzn.to, pin.it, a.co, or any other url shortener will be auto-tagged as spam by reddit.

4. 4

   Constructive Feedback

   Be constructive with any feedback. Name calling, harassment, or mean-spirited comments will be removed, and the User may be banned.

5. 5

   No Renders

   Image renders, or mock-ups of living spaces are not allowed.

6. 6

   No Battlestations (PC Setups)

   No gaming PC setups allowed, please post to r/battlestations.

7. 7

   Posts should be open to suggestions

   Posts that are just a blank or nearly empty room for the sake of posting an empty room will be deleted

These are the rules as archived in January 2025. Rules change. Check the sidebar before you post.

The culture

r/malelivingspace has just over 3 million members and around 44 posts a day. About 85% of posts are images. Titles are the shortest you will see anywhere, around five words, and a common format is simply age, sex and city. The body, if there is one, is a line or two. The photos carry the post.

Two kinds of post dominate. One is the showcase: a place that has come together, posted for a rating. The other is the fresh start: a first apartment, or the first place alone after a long relationship. These get real warmth. The typical post draws 14 comments, which is high, and the top posts get hundreds.

The comment section mixes kind practical advice with banter, including a running game of guessing the poster's job from the decor. It can turn on a single object in a photo. A flag on a wall can pull a thread into a political argument that has nothing to do with the room. The submit page also asks people to drop one overused style of joke title because it has gone stale.

What lands

• An upgrade story told in a few words, like moving from a studio to a one bedroom, with good photos.
• A first place of your own, posted with your age. The First Time flair exists for this.
• A room with considered lighting, posted for a rating. Lighting is something this crowd cares about.
• A fresh start after a breakup or a hard stretch, even when the room is still bare, as long as you ask for ideas.
• A specific layout question with a photo, such as where else the TV could go.

What gets removed or ignored

• Anything that looks like advertising: a shop promotion, a product pitch dressed up as a decor question, a group buy.
• Low effort and joke posts. The rules ban posts that rely mainly on a joke or meme.
• Bare advice posts with a vague title and little to look at. Several removed posts in our sample were short Advice flair posts asking what was missing.
• Empty or nearly empty rooms posted for the sake of it, plus renders and gaming PC setups.
• Posts that are not about a living space at all.

The unwritten rules

• Put your age in the title. It is not a rule, but most people do it and it frames the feedback.
• Expect comments on TV height, plants and overhead lighting. There are flairs that joke about the first two.
• People will ask what you pay in rent and guess what you do for work. It is friendly.
• Keep feedback constructive. Mean comments get removed and can get you banned, and the room sides with the poster.
• Product links in comments are rare, under 3% of comments. If someone asks where an item is from, answer with the full link, not a shortened one.

Self-promotion

The rule is one line: absolutely no advertising without prior permission from a moderator. In practice it is enforced. The moderator removals in our sample include a store promotion, a link post selling a furniture category, and a group buy pitch for a decor item along with the softer what do you think post that preceded it. Posting a product as if you were an ordinary member asking for opinions does not get round it. If you sell something relevant, the only stated route is to ask the moderators first.

How people write here

Typical post length

44 words

Typical title length

5 words

Titles phrased as a question

20%

Typical comment length

12 words

Comments that include a link

3%

Posts that carry a flair

43%

The regulars

The accounts that showed up most in our sample. Worth reading before you post: they set the tone, and they are usually the first to reply.

Top keywords

The words and phrases that show up far more often here than in other communities, from recent posts in r/malelivingspace.

• room 104 posts
• living 81 posts
• apartment 53 posts
• space 67 posts
• bedroom 36 posts
• moved 46 posts
• living room 31 posts
• wall 37 posts
• layout 25 posts
• couch 23 posts
• bed 28 posts
• ideas 38 posts
• living alone 12 posts
• furniture 21 posts
• corner 20 posts
• lighting 16 posts
• plants 13 posts
• desk 18 posts
• decor 13 posts
• place 36 posts
• suggestions 29 posts
• living space 9 posts
• floor 18 posts
• office 21 posts
• walls 14 posts
• cozy 11 posts
• kitchen 16 posts
• spaces 10 posts
• curtains 10 posts
• rug 12 posts
• closet 9 posts
• basement 11 posts
• shelf 9 posts
• chair 9 posts
• studio 12 posts
• storage 13 posts
• shelves 7 posts
• home office 6 posts
• dorm 6 posts
• dining table 6 posts

Recurring topics: room, living, bedroom, living room, advice, living alone, space, moving, bed, wall.

Posts that did well

• M34, from a studio to a one bedroom1.7k upvotes · 58 comments
• Rate my lighting1k upvotes · 303 comments
• On my own at 29736 upvotes · 221 comments · First Time
• First Appartment! (29)693 upvotes · 69 comments · First Time
• Going on 10 months here and everything is still coming together but I love it.201 upvotes · 17 comments
• I’m a diffused ambience kinda guy91 upvotes · 16 comments · TV Too high
• Where else can TV go?67 upvotes · 33 comments · Question
• How did I do on the living room61 upvotes · 9 comments

Growth

1. 201213k
2. 201326k
3. 201445k
4. 201563k
5. 201695k
6. 2017193k
7. 2018319k
8. 2019450k
9. 2020667k
10. 20211.1M
11. 20231.8M
12. 20242.2M
13. 20252.8M
14. 20263M

Related subreddits

• r/MaleSurvivingSpace
• r/ApartmentHacks
• r/DesignMyRoom
• r/InteriorDesignHacks

Common questions