The Home Edit's Clea And Joanna Revealed The Weirdest Thing They’ve Ever Had To Organize
The Home Edit founders talked to Scary Mommy about back-to-school chaos and how to get kids on board with keeping a tidy home.
The Home Edit Instagram account is pure serotonin. Anyone who has ever stumbled upon the professional organization company’s perfectly, color-coded magic of a feed knows that there is just something so incredibly satisfying about a perfectly organized, rainbow-colored pantry.
From the swooping cursive labels on every clean acrylic bin to the organization methods that just make sense, The Home Edit has made a name for itself in the home & garden industry.
The Home Edit founders — Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin — are the queens of organizing messy, chaotic spaces, and for good reason — they’re damn good at it.
However, after letting Scary Mommy pick the Best Friend Energy podcasters and New York Times best selling authors brains for some of their top organizational tips, it turns out that Clea and Joanna are just moms trying to make life work as best they can (but they still know a thing or two about how to manage the mess).
Scary Mommy: How has back-to-school season been treating you both? What's your #1 tip for avoiding falling into a cluttered-chaotic mess of a home now that kids are back in school with sports and activities to boot?
The Home Edit: I think that, no matter whether you are professional organizers or not, back to school is pretty chaotic for everyone. However, we have a few tips that really help us get through:
- Create a drop zone for your kids to place their shoes, backpacks, and lunchboxes when they get home from school.
- Keep delicious and nutritious snacks and beverages like Naked Juice on hand so that THEY (key word is they, not you) can easily grab something they love and be ready for the next activity.
SM: What tactics have you used to get your kids on the organization-train? Any simple tricks to help them keep their spaces in order?
HE: Start them young! Your kids are never too young to start learning to organize and put items back where they belong. When they were in preschool, they still had to clean up after themselves, and now is no different!
Another tip is not to overcomplicate it, especially if you have younger kids. For example, try categorizing their toys by color rather than by type so they can easily put toys back.
SM: As all our kids are getting older, how do you balance being sentimental and wanting to keep everything your kid ever touched or made in art class or played with, but also not wanting so much stuff in your house?
Clea: Personally, I'm not particularly sentimental, but we respect that many parents are. For those who cherish mementos, a great strategy is to allocate a dedicated area for storage boxes, organized by year or child. This way, you can easily revisit those cherished memories, knowing they're all neatly contained in one place.
Joanna: Yes! It’s really important to have designated spots for these meaningful items. When that space starts to fill up, it's a gentle reminder that it might be time to make space for new memories.
SM: One more fun one: what's the weirdest thing you've ever had to color code?
We organized Doug the Pug’s entire wardrobe - learning how to fold dog clothes was definitely a new one for us!!
