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Get Organised: Netflix’s new show sparks debate over rainbow sorting method

Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin are famous thanks to their home organisation tips – but a detail in this bookshelf has seen the pair labelled as “savages”.

Hannah PaineHannah Paine
3 min read
September 17, 2020 - 12:27AM
Get Organized with The Home Edit - Official Trailer

Move over Marie Kondo – it’s time to embrace the rainbow.

Netflix’s new series Get Organised With The Home Edit premiered on the streaming service earlier this month and it’s the antithesis to the minimalist KonMari method.

Americans Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin are home organisation gurus who spend their days making over the homes of celebrities like Khloe Kardashian, Eva Longoria and Reese Witherspoon.

Their show, produced by Witherspoon, sees Clea and Joanna declutter A-listers’ spaces as well as making over the homes of well-deserving everyday people.

Even if you haven’t seen Get Organised yet you’ve probably seen photos of their makeovers on social media – but their decluttering style isn’t without its critics.

The, ahem, colourful way they organise things has divided viewers online, who have called it everything from “soothing” to absolutely terrifying.

Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin started The Home Edit in 2015. Picture: Instagram
Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin started The Home Edit in 2015. Picture: Instagram

WHAT IS THE HOME EDIT?

Like Marie, Clea and Joanna had a loyal following prior to their Netflix series.

The two friends from Nashville, Tennessee, started their home organisation service in 2015 but gained a cult Instagram following after securing high-profile celebrity clients.

Clea, who grew up in Los Angeles, suggested the pair contact some of her now-famous childhood friends and offer to organise their wardrobes for free in exchange for an Instagram post, USA Today reports.

Soon Clea and Joanna had clients like Christina Applegate and Selma Blair under their belt and their popularity on social media exploded.

Today the pair have more than 2.9 million followers on Instagram, a line of clear plastic containers (a staple in their makeovers) and two best-selling books, The Home Edit Life: The No-Guilt Guide To Owning What You Want And Organising Everything and The Home Edit: A Guide To Organising And Realising Your House Goals.

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Their Netflix show is produced by Reese Witherspoon, who also features in the first episode.
Their Netflix show is produced by Reese Witherspoon, who also features in the first episode.

HOW DO THEY ORGANISE?

Clea and Joanna organise in four steps – edit, categorise, contain and maintain.

The edit phase will be familiar to Marie Kondo fans: It’s when you throw out or give away things you don’t need.

Joanna told Apartment Therapy sentimental items were usually the biggest clutter culprit and it was important to revisit anything you held on to for emotional reasons.

“If things are super sentimental, it’s just as important to go through and make sure that each of those items still have the same weight in your mind, because maybe something that was sentimental five years ago doesn’t feel the same way anymore,” she said.

“It’s still important to revisit those items and decide, then re-decide what to store and what to get rid of. They might feel differently.”

The next step was to categorise items into manageable groups and then to put everything into clear plastic containers.

Unlike the KonMari method which is all about minimalism, The Home Edit’s final step, maintain, is all about labelling and organising items by colour.

For Clea and Joanna labelling is key as it “holds everybody accountable” – and there is no such thing as too much storage.

“People assume that they’re out of storage, but you can always add to it,” Clea said. “(For example) over the door hangers — if you don’t have a great door to put it on, you can put (command hooks) right onto the wall. Cabinet doors, closet doors.”

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The Home Edit sees items, including books, organised by colour – and you’ll either love or hate it.
The Home Edit sees items, including books, organised by colour – and you’ll either love or hate it.

BUT … RAINBOW BOOKS?

This is where things get controversial (well, as controversial as two home organisation gurus friends with Reese Witherspoon get).

People have very strong feelings about Clea and Joanna’s penchant for organising things by colour, in particular books.

The strongest critics say that if you’re ordering books using anything other than alphabetical order or the Dewey Decimal System you might as well just burn all libraries to the ground:

But, on the other hand, it’s hard not to admit that there’s something just so satisfying about seeing items organised by rainbow colour:

Wherever you stand on organising books, probably the best bit about Get Organised is getting to snoop inside celebrity homes.

Clea and Joanna’s jobs on the show include decluttering Khloe Kardashian’s garage, organising Reese Witherspoon’s famous movie costumes (there’s lots of Elle Woods memorabilia) and – probably the most rich-person request ever – sorting out the wardrobe of Eva Longoria’s two-year-old son Santiago.

Get Organised With The Home Edit is available to stream now on Netflix

Read related topics:Netflix
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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/home/get-organised-netflixs-new-show-sparks-debate-over-rainbow-sorting-method/news-story/85a0ae3d9f4bf0669976efb7c9909c46