The #1 Tip for Organization, According to ‘The Home Edit'
Have you ever wanted to organize your home, but feel like you could never ever maintain it? Fear not—The Home Edit has you covered.
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As organizing gurus Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer gear up to release their newest book, Stay Organized: The Ultimate Guide to Making Systems Stick, they're offering us a sneak peek at some of their most valuable pieces of advice for making your organization systems work for the long haul.
And even though they've got a plethora of tips and tricks for keeping up with organization around your home, there's one key factor that they think is the most important—but it may not be what you think.
The Home Edit's #1 First Step to Getting Organized
We sat down with Clea and Joanna to learn about their tricks of the trade, and they shared with us the one factor that is of the utmost importance: your mindset.
"The biggest challenge is people just assume it's not possible so they don't really try, they don't really put in the effort," Shearer, 41, tells us.
Noting that some people think of organization as a "one and done thing," The Home Edit gurus reveal it's actually much more than that. "It's a maintenance program," Shearer adds.
To put it in perspective, the women compared organizing your home to cleaning your home, explaining, "You can't just do it one time, and then expect it to stay clean forever—you have to keep it going."
"If you develop smart systems on the front end, it's really easy to maintain those systems. It should be just plug and play, putting things back where you already designated a home for them," they add.
"It's just a matter of understanding it and accepting it," Tepin chimes in, adding that "even if the system falls apart, it doesn't mean that you can't be an organized person going forward."
Related: These 155 Instagram Expert-Approved Organizing Tips Will Help You Tidy Your Entire Home
The Home Edit
According to Shearer and Teplin, once you've got the mindset down, the rest of the process should come easy, but they definitely have some tricks to help make the process even more seamless for you.
Tips for Staying Organized Long-Term, According to The Home Edit's Clea and Joanna
Among some of their most important pieces of advice is: labeling.
Calling labels the "key to long-term maintenance," The Home Edit founders insist that keeping things labeled is pivotal in organization, especially when sharing a space with other members of your household.
"You might organize your pantry one way, but if you have other members of your household, they might not know the way you did it in your head," they explain. "So having a label on something just really helps set those guidelines and parameters for everyone to follow."
"Those small systems can make a big difference," Teplin emphasizes.
The Home Edit
Another key piece of staying organized is having the right product—which means utilizing bins and other containment options.
"Having the right product is huge," Shearer says, noting that "one of the biggest ways to stay organized is 'through containment measures.'"
"If you have things just kind of neatly arranged on shelves, that isn't actually a system. You're living in a neat and tidy way, which is great, but the actual system comes down to containment."
"The containers matter a lot," Shearer insists.
Related: 27 Genius Kitchen Storage Ideas on Amazon
The Home Edit
Plus, as an added tip, the gurus suggest measuring your space BEFORE heading to the stores or ordering storage containers online to ensure that your product fits the space you are organizing.
"Be creative too," they advise. "If you're looking for things for the kitchen, you can shop the whole store. There's plenty of baskets and bins all over."
The Home Edit
There's still plenty more wisdom to learn from these two organizing experts, and you can read all about staying organized in their brand new book.
Stay Organized: The Ultimate Guide to Making Systems Stick hits bookshelves on Tuesday, Sept. 19, and is currently available for preorder on Amazon.
