Editor’s Choice: The Home Edit’s Guide to Organizing

I have a love-hate relationship with interior design, which comes with rarely-met high expectations, especially when it comes to organizing. For instance, instead of clothing neatly making it onto hangers each night, the chair — you all know the one — sits proudly in my room.

But as Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, the Nashville, Tennessee-based creative duo and home organizers behind The Home Edit (THE), say in their first-ever book, “The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals,” “Every single space in your house has the potential to function efficiently and look great.”

I was first introduced to Shearer and Teplin’s THE through Instagram, of course. Mandy Moore was remodeling her home and her THE-organized pantry had me drooling. At that point, I became a THE convert — every house from Rachel Zoe to Kacey Musgraves and Eva Chen has seen its touch.

So, I religiously follow along for the impeccably organized (and visually pleasing) homes, pantries and closets. But now, with their book, I can finally have the pantry of my Type A dreams.

The book — fitting the exact aesthetic that their designs reach — looks and feels clean. Sectioned into entry, laundry, bathroom, home office, play spaces, closets, kitchen and pantry, the guide has everything from inspiration to actually managing the spaces — and keeping them clean.

While everyone can benefit — there are tips littered in the inspiration pages — here are five things that I, a novice organizer, think you should know.

1. The Home Edit is not just a name, it is a method. At their core, the duo edits out everything, leaving behind the most important, most functional and most used pieces. If you do not start with an edit, you could find yourself lost in a pile of unopened cotton rounds and back supplies of toothpaste.
2. Start with a drawer (easy), move onto the bathroom (medium) and finish with closet (hard). Starting with a drawer may sound belittling, but think about it: If organizing stresses you out, start with a small space and work up to a big one. One junk drawer is a lot less intimidating than an entire closet.
3. Aesthetically pleasing spaces is a client motivator, which is why one of their signatures is to sort by color. Remember ROYGBIV? Good — live by it.
4. An organized fridge is a slightly better fridge — and a glass-front fridge sounds like a personal nightmare. Just think about the grocery shopping needed to retain a visually appealing see-through fridge (a lot). But with the book, you get your own set of THE fridge labels so you can get started organizing that produce!
5. Shearer and Teplin really love pantries — arguably the hardest room in the house to organize. Separate from the kitchen (like the seventh “Harry Potter” movie, they say the two rooms are broken up due to their equal importance), the pantry has the highest chance of being organized … in the most disorganized way. Take everything out, get rid of anything expired and, most importantly, arrange everything into groups (i.e., grains, snacks, spices, etc.). You can have your own Mandy Moore pantry.

With a little inspiration, and a lot of effort, you too can join their organizer ranks. And when you are done organizing? Drop the book on your coffee table — make it part of the organized room itself.

Ready to get started? Pick up your own copy today and start organizing!

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