Is Get Organized With The Home Edit Worth Watching?

Do you love Netflix decluttering and organizing shows? I tend to find elements I like (and some I don’t) in most of them, but I think anything that gets us talking or thinking about decluttering can be a good thing!

Last year Netflix’s new hit show was Get Organized with The Home Edit with Clea and Joanna. Their second season is expected to air soon.

There were things I enjoyed about the show, but also a few things I found to be unrelatable.

Here are my thoughts on if Get Organized with The Home Edit is worth watching.

Who is The Home Edit?

Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin are a professional organizing team named The Home Edit. They became well known through their Instagram page where they currently have well over 5 million followers.

The Home Edit signature style is organizing in ROYGBIV, which means rainbow order. They’ve attracted many celebrity clients and have written 2 books on organization.

What to expect from Get Organized with The Home Edit

Each episode features a celebrity home and an everyday people’s home. The names of the episodes are the celebrity name and the type of room they did in the everyday person’s home.

The personalities

Clea and Joanna both have a lot of personality. They clearly get very excited about organizing and the work they do. Some people may find them to be a bit over the top while others love their energy.

The process

For each space they go through they do the same process of edit, categorize, contain, maintain. The episodes tend to focus most on the contain part of the process.

The show doesn’t give much screen time to the editing portion. The homeowner may decide to get rid of a few things before leaving home and letting the organizing team get to work.

Clea and Joanna first review their goals for the space and create a plan for what will go where. They take all of the items out and sort them by category.

Then they use a large amount of mostly clear containers from The Container Store to store many of the client’s belongings. The Home Edit has a partnership with The Container Store, so expect to see it quite a bit in each episode.

They also love labels so shelves and bins all get labeled before they’re put away. They use rainbow organization when possible with things like books, clothes, art supplies, and candy.

The progress

Clea and Joanna have different strengths and work well as a team. Shortly after meeting with the client, their larger team shows up to help them get to work.

They do the spaces quickly and as expected for reality television, are always racing to the wire to get it completed on time.

There is a bit of drama here and there, but nothing different than what you’d see on most reality shows where they dramatize the challenges and the time crunch.

The finished product

The final spaces look great. Everything is perfectly organized and arranged. In many cases, it looks like around the same amount of stuff that the client started with but organized in a much more aesthetically pleasing way.

Of course, the clients always seem thrilled and expect to hear quite a bit of squealing.

Is Get Organized with The Home Edit worth watching?

My answer to whether or not Get Organized with The Home Edit is worth watching is maybe. It really depends on what you are looking for.

Some people have said that they find it motivating and others just find it entertaining.

There are also people who aren’t fans and find it overly dramatic and not practical.

Here’s my personal assessment.

What I liked about it

I have been following The Home Edit for a while. I like seeing business women doing their organizing thing and I’m happy for all of their success.

Process

The process that they do with editing, categorizing, containing, and maintaining is smart.

It’s important to edit down what you own and categorize by type to see what you have. Creating sustainable organizing systems is the end goal and opting for clear storage helps them to know what is where.

Personality of client

I also like that they work the client’s natural bent and process. They want to keep things in the place that make the most sense to them so it won’t be as challenging for them to adapt.

Final product

Their finished spaces look great. They are very pleasing to the eye and they’re great at doing their thing.

Conversation starter

I’m all for shows that focus on decluttering or organizing because it serves as a good reminder of the importance of how you feel in your space. It’s also a great starting place for discussing organizing and decluttering, which happened in my Facebook community and then sparked this post.

What I didn’t like about it

So there is a reason I don’t call myself a professional organizer anymore. I say professional declutterer because people assume I will do the same kind of thing you see in these videos. Tell me what you want, leave, and I’ll make it happen.

But that isn’t how I do things. I work closely with clients focusing the majority of our time on the editing process and letting go of items they no longer want or use.

I’ve found that many people have a too much stuff problem versus a lack of organization. When you own fewer things, the organizing piece becomes much easier.

Decluttering vs. Organizing

Get Organized with The Home Edit really focuses on the organizational aspect much more than the decluttering one. Often people interchange the words decluttering and organizing, but they are two different processes with distinctly different purposes.

I advise clients not to start with purchasing organizing containers, but to focus on decluttering first. I’ve found that in many cases, they don’t even need to buy containers because they’re able to repurpose what they already had.

Expensive

The storage solutions in Get Organized cost quite a bit of money, so it’s important to factor that in if you’re considering organizing that way.

I also question the sustainability of the solutions provided on the show. Some of the stackable storage seems like it could be cumbersome. Also decanting food constantly takes additional effort that some people would get tired of.

Excessive

The celebrity segments on the show were more of a struggle for me. I didn’t find them relatable or applicable to my life in any way, so I considered them more entertainment.

However, I was bothered by the glorification of all the stuff. It felt so excessive, particularly on the Rachel Zoe episode. While I understand that it is her line of work, it was a huge amount of very expensive designer clothes shoes, and purses and she didn’t want to part with any of it.

Trying to live more simply goes against a culture focused on consumerism and the celebrity segments highlight the excessive opulent homes and lifestyles they have.

Motivating?

So could Get Organized with The Home Edit be motivating? It could, but if that is making you run to The Container Store instead of getting rid of excess then I think the efforts could be better focused on a more long-term solution.

All in all, I found the show entertaining, but I found Tidying Up with Marie Kondo to be more practical and applicable to dealing with the core issues of clutter and organization.

Other resources for decluttering and organization:

If you’re looking for other helpful resources for decluttering your home, check out this list of the best blogs on simplifying and decluttering. Want ones more focused on organization? Check out these organization blogs.

If you’d prefer to watch shows, there are a few youtube channels I’d recommend. The Minimal Mom is a great one for decluttering and simplifying. You see how having less in her home makes everything easier to organize and maintain.

If you want to check out a more organizational channel, check out Clutterbug. Cas does a lot of decluttering, but also frugal organizing. She gets most of her containers at a dollar store in her area.

Another channel I enjoy is Natalie’s Bennett’s. She does quite a bit of decluttering and has a practical and frugal approach. She recently did a great pantry organization episode on a very low budget.

Do you have any resources you would recommend? Leave them in the comments section. I love finding new helpful sources of information.

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