Apparently, this is my week for rants.

The article I posted earlier this week raised some of my issues with the "lifestyle" industry. It sets up unrealistic expectations that most people can never achieve. We aren't going to throw magnificent parties that become viral sensations on Instagram (unless someone gets drunk and does something stupid — not a good thing). Very few of us can afford to throw magnificently lavish parties — even for major events like weddings and anniversaries. But ratcheting up expectations leads people to spending too much, stressing too much, or just opting out and deciding not to entertain.

At the core of the problem is that much of the lifestyle industry is really about marketing. It's designed to get you to buy more: more kitchenware, more serverware, more decorations, more supplies for crafts, more, more, more. You know that a lifestyle blogger has made it when she gets a contract with a department store for her own line of cookware or home textiles or branded food products.

The industry survives by telling us time and again that we need to buy more if we want to be truly well-organized, hospitable, and gracious. And then it offers us the products we need.

Yes, we do need to buy things in order to survive. I'm not advocating the kind of off-the-grid living where you grow your own food, build your house from scraps and render tallow from your livestock with ashes from your woodstove to make soap. But moderation in all things is your watchword. If a lifestyle blogger or magazine or television show spends more time telling you what you need to buy to make your life better than it does telling you how to use wisely what you already have, maybe it's time to take a break and step away.

I cancelled my subscription to a magazine that told me that simplifying my life required hundreds of dollars of new purchases. (Full disclosure: My current filing bin is a cardboard box repurposed from a Costco run. I may go nuts and cover it in leftover wrapping paper.)

Don't let thinly veiled advertising become the standard by which you judge your lifestyle.