04/24

Lipstick on the Rim: Spring Cleaning 101 with Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin of The Home Edit – Their System, Editing, Why the Cart is a Must-Have Item, and More

By Mollysims.com

Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin are very special to Molly. In fact, she met them years back as they were doing what they do best: organizing. Cut to “Get Organized with The Home Edit,” which Molly produced, and these two women have easily become the most famous (and best) organizers on the planet. Given we are fully in spring, we figured why not have them on to talk all things spring cleaning. It’s a dreaded subject for some but they offer fun tools to make the process less daunting. From the pantry to the closet to the difference between editing and separating, if you’re in need of a spruce-up, this episode is for you.

[Clea] On Negative Space

“I think when people get really overwhelmed at the concept of spring cleaning, they are thinking about the whole house, but you absolutely don’t need to do that. You need to tackle something that you can handle within one contained area and not think about the rest of the house. You can do this in phases by all means, and use the motivation and energy you get from cleaning out that one space to fuel you to move on to the next. When tackling a new space, it’s important to remember at some point, you run out of space, no matter how big it is. You also always want to have negative space. In fact, we call it the golden rule of editing. You want your space to be no more than 80 percent full. It’s kind of like eating by the 80/20 rule. You want to leave that 20 percent room for not being overly stuffed. Just like when you’re overly full, it doesn’t feel good for your body, it doesn’t feel good in your home either.”

[Joanna] On Home Organization Hacks

“Everyone must have foldable step stools throughout their house. When you have a barrier to entry, you don’t want to put things away. People are like, I don’t feel like putting things on the top shelf because I need to go get a chair to stand on or I need to go find a stool from the garage. Instead, buy a tiny foldable stepstool and sprinkle them throughout the house and voila, you are motivated to put your items away, avoiding the creation of piles. We also love a cart. I mean, we talk about carts like we invented the idea –we didn’t but we did design a great one. You guys, a cart is extra space. It’s a magic trick, too. You all of a sudden have storage that you didn’t otherwise have, and it’s cute. It’s like a little station on wheels that you can put into almost any space that allows for it.”

[Clea] On How an Organized Home is Self-Care

“We have long said that organizing is a form of self-care. It’s meditative. It is cleansing. It’s not just clearing clutter in the physical space, but it clears clutter from your mind. It brings a sense of calm and order. It’s nice to be able to just have the ability to simply know where everything is in your home. You never have to look for anything. You never have to think about where it goes. Everything has a home. You don’t have to argue with your kids or your husband or whomever about where things are. It brings such a sense of calm to walk into a space and there are no piles. Everything just has a home and is placed in it, and you can think about the one million other things you have to deal with. You don’t have to deal with it with being encumbered by your physical space, and it’s so powerful.”