There’s a thin line between maximalist collector and hoarder, and those of us who love our stuff and have a lot of it (even if it drives us crazy sometimes), are always seeking visually appealing ways to bring order to our lives. From E!’s Clean House to Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up, we can’t get enough of organizational TV shows, and Emmy-nominated Organizing with The Home Edit on Netflix, which became a go-to during and post-pandemic, remains one of our favorites to watch and re-watch for inspiration.

The Home Edit's Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin have turned their professional organizing business into a multi-tiered global empire with best selling books, their own line at Walmart and The Container Store, a popular podcast (called "Best Friend Energy") and millions of followers on social media. The TV show was particularly enticing as it provided a peek into the homes of the pair’s famous friends and clients– they can be messy packrats just like us real folk!

The pair just embarked on their first-ever live show, which comes to L.A.'s Saban Theatre this week, and we spoke by phone to both about the events, their editing philosophy, their friendship, and more, just as they were about to get on a plane and start their "Summer of Fun Tour."

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"This was something we wanted to do for a long time," says Teplin. “We were hoping to do it actually last summer after everyone was stuck at home with COVID and couldn't get out and experience the world together. And then Clea was diagnosed with cancer. And so we had to change a lot of plans for last year and make sure we focused on her health journey. And now that she is officially cancer free, we’re able to kind of pick this back up. "

Shearer, who has shared her health concerns with her following online and the changes it led to (she had long brown hair on the Netflix show and currently rocks a cute natural grey pixie cut) says that while the pair's plans got pushed aside due to the pandemic and her treatments, in some ways, everything that's happened has made the experience now much sweeter. "Being able to actually be with people again in person, to see their faces and connect in real life," she says. "I mean,  so much of our connectivity has been online and it's just really exciting to think about all being together. It's made the experience much more special."

The twosome tout a "special guest" on each stop of the tour and they just announced Sex and the City/And Just Like That star Kristin Davis will be joining them in Los Angeles.

Originally frm L.A., Shearer moved to Nashville and started the business with Teplin in 2015.  She knew a lot of high-profile people in her hometown and started by doing organizing jobs in exchange for social media posts. Longtime friend Christina Applegate was their first client. Things snowballed quickly and soon their work got picked up by People magazine. "It's crazy, but yeah, it was the power of social media and the power of celebrity, in the best possible way," she adds.

For the live show, the ladies will also play organizing games with the audience, offer Q&A's and more interactive elements, making for "part variety show, part interview show" format. For the organizationally-challenged, everything these two is upbeat and motivating. In person (and on the phone), their bubbly personalities highlight the joy in an activity that many of us dread.

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"It's really self care and it doesn't have to be a chore," enthuses Teplin about cleaning and organizing. "All things that we do, whether that's the podcast, or the show, or anything, we make it fun, and it's also in the actual organizing.  I think reminding people of that is what we want to do with the live show.  I want people to feel emboldened, and like, lean into their personal power. And I think as long as people feel confident, and remember that this is just a step by step process, then I think they're gonna leave and feel like they can really do it.  That's my hope. I hope a lot of people leave feeling like they are now organizers."

Organizing is one thing but what about letting go of stuff in the first place? How do we do it? (This writer really needs help with this, by the way).

"First of all, it requires you to really take a look at every single item and don't make a passive judgment call on if you are going to keep it, you have to make an active judgment call, meaning you need to look at it and you need to decide, 'does it fit into the categories of needing it, using it, loving it, or having it be fundamental?' Shearer says. "If it doesn't fall into those four categories then you simply should not keep it. If someone gave you a present and you know, you're like, well, someone gave it to me. But does it really feel sentimental to you? If it does, then we can create a section for sentimental items. But if it doesn't, if you're keeping it out of guilt, for instance, which is the number one reason people keep things, then it's not serving you."

After our phone chat, we got rid of few things that we don't "need, use or love," and it felt great. Kondo's "spark joy" test didn't work for us because it was too subjective, but The Home Edit checklist is more specific, plus we love their aesthetic, which is based around clear bins for storage and a rainbow spectrum of color for placing, stacking and displaying personal and functional items. We also love their style. "If something has a rainbow or lighting bolt I wear it, and if it has heart or fruit print Joanna wears it," Shearer explains, to which Templin adds, "Don't get us wrong, we're here for an all black outfit too, but we feel like, why not bring fun and cute to what we wear? It makes us happy."

The eye-candy-like, happy approach to home decor, display and throwing/storing things away has served Shearer and Teplin very well. So much so that they just scored a huge new TV gig: catch them as hosts of the rebooted Extreme Makeover: Home Edition next year.

More on the Home Edit's tour, services, products and more at thehomeedit.com. 

Tickets to the L.A. Saban show on Thursday, July 13, HERE.    

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