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The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin Review: A Practical, Celebrity-Tested Organizing Method
Published by Penguin Random House on March 19, 2019, The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals is a New York Times bestseller from professional home organizers Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, co-founders of The Home Edit — the organizational company known for merging conventional organization with interior design principles. The book translates their signature room-by-room system — rooted in decluttering, color-coded arrangement, labeling, and long-term maintenance — into a guide designed for home readers, drawing on the same philosophy that built the duo's celebrity clientele and their Netflix series Get Organized with The Home Edit.
LuvemBooks Verdict
Best for
Readers who want a visually rich, room-by-room system for decluttering and organising their home and are drawn to the idea that organisation can also function as interior design.
Worth it if
You want a structured, step-by-step methodology — backed by a maintenance system — that translates a celebrity-tested approach into an achievable format for everyday homes.
Skip if
Skip it if you're looking for a budget-neutral, purely functional decluttering approach or want exposure to a range of organisational philosophies beyond the Shearer-Teplin signature aesthetic.
What readers & critics say
The book became a New York Times bestseller and drew coverage across multiple outlets; Barnes & Noble's page relays blurbs from Good Morning America and Good Housekeeping praising its rainbow-colour approach and its step-by-step accessibility for celebrity and everyday homes alike. The Times of India called the authors "Instagram-sensation home experts" and noted that their signature approach to decluttering is "explained in an easy" way, with advice on grouping items to be both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
Sources: Barnes & Noble, Times of IndiaIn This Review
- What Works & What Doesn't
- What the Book Actually Is and Does
- The Shearer-Teplin Philosophy and Its Roots
- Reception and Cultural Reach
- Genuine Strengths
- Limitations and Who May Find It Less Useful
What Works & What Doesn't
What Works
- New York Times bestseller with wide critical coverage from outlets including Real Simple, Architectural Digest, and Good Morning America
- Room-by-room structure with step-by-step instructions designed to guide readers at any level of organizational experience
- Incorporates a maintenance system intended to sustain results long-term, not just produce a one-time reset
- Translates a method developed for celebrity clients into an accessible format for general home readers
- Illustrated with photographs throughout, merging organizational guidance with interior design principles
What Doesn't
- The signature aesthetic — uniform containers, color-coded arrangements, and label systems — may require a product investment that is impractical for readers with limited budgets or smaller spaces
- The book's scope is intentionally focused on the Shearer-Teplin philosophy, offering limited room for readers seeking varied or alternative organizational frameworks
This review covers the book's content, design, and documented public reception — not hands-on use, which only the reader can evaluate.
What the Book Actually Is and Does
![[By Clea Shearer] The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals (Includes Refrigerator Labels)-March 19, 2019 (Paperback) (by Clea Shearer) (Author) (Paperback) by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin front cover](https://cdn.luvembooks.com/birthdais/media/original_images/By_Clea_Shearer_The_Home_Edit_A_Guide_to_Organizing_and_Realizing_Your_Ho.webp)
[By Clea Shearer] The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals (Includes Refrigerator Labels)-March 19, 2019 (Paperback) (by Clea Shearer) (Author) (Paperback) by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin front cover
The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals is a room-by-room home organization guide by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, published by Penguin Random House on March 19, 2019. The premise is straightforward: Shearer and Teplin walk readers through paring down belongings in every room of the home, then arranging what remains in a way that is both visually cohesive and easy to navigate — think color-coded shelves, matching baskets, and labeled containers — and finally, building a maintenance system designed to prevent the need for a full reset down the line. The book is illustrated with photographs and structured around step-by-step instructions throughout. Penguin Random House describes it as covering everything from the pantry and the closet to the notoriously difficult junk drawer, with the promise that the process is achievable and, as the publisher puts it, "a lot of fun."
“live for color-coded shelves, matching baskets and labeled jars to help their A-list clients achieve organization nirvana.”
The Shearer-Teplin Philosophy and Its Roots
The organizational method at the heart of the book did not emerge from the publishing world — it was built in practice. Shearer and Teplin founded The Home Edit with an explicit goal, as Shearer has described it, of "making sure we democratize organization as much as possible." What began as hands-on work for celebrity clients — including Khloé Kardashian and Gwyneth Paltrow, as noted by Good Morning America — became a recognizable visual language: the ROYGBIV-ordered pantry, the matching storage system, the principle that organization should double as interior design. The book is the codified version of that philosophy, bringing the methodology Shearer and Teplin developed for A-list homes to a general readership. Their background is not purely editorial; Shearer attended the Parsons School of Design, and the company's approach has always situated organization within aesthetic principles rather than treating the two as separate concerns.
Reception and Cultural Reach
The book became a New York Times bestseller and generated coverage across a range of outlets. Real Simple noted that it is "illustrated with beautiful photos and providing clear steps to get it done," calling it a resource that "could help you tackle those organizing resolutions." Architectural Digest described the book as "a room-by-room guide" to a "streamlined philosophy that's often delivered with some hilarious punch lines." Today characterized Shearer and Teplin as experts who "live for color-coded shelves, matching baskets and labeled jars to help their A-list clients achieve organization nirvana." The book's success fed — and was amplified by — the Netflix series Get Organized with The Home Edit, which debuted in 2020 and ran to a second season in 2022, bringing the same approach to a screen audience and reinforcing the book's profile.
Genuine Strengths
The book's core strengths, as reflected in published coverage, are its accessibility and its dual identity as both a practical guide and a visually driven object. The step-by-step structure is designed to make the methodology replicable without professional help, and the room-by-room organization means readers can engage with the sections most relevant to their own homes rather than having to work through the book linearly. Good Housekeeping noted that Shearer and Teplin bring "tried-and-true decluttering methods straight from their celeb clients' closets into your home, along with step-by-step tips to help even the most organizationally-challenged among us implement and maintain" the system — a point that speaks to the guide's intended breadth of audience. The maintenance focus, built into the book's structure, addresses a genuine gap in the organizing genre: the difference between a one-time declutter and a system that holds over time.
Limitations and Who May Find It Less Useful
The aesthetic emphasis that defines the book's appeal is also the source of its primary limitation for some readers. The Home Edit method is visually ambitious — uniform containers, color-sorting, and label systems — and replicating the full look requires an investment in organizing products that not every household will find practical or budget-friendly. Some readers seeking a purely functional, low-cost approach to decluttering may find the aspirational visual framework more suited to large, well-resourced spaces than to smaller or more constrained homes. The book is also firmly a guide, not a flexible reference manual; readers looking for deep customization or varied organizational philosophies beyond the Shearer-Teplin signature system will find the scope intentionally focused. For those already converted to the method, that focus is a feature; for those evaluating whether the approach fits their situation, it is worth knowing before buying.
Frequently Asked Questions
is [By Clea Shearer] The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin worth buying
It depends on what you're looking for. If you want a visually driven, step-by-step system that doubles as interior design — think color-coded shelves, matching baskets, and labeled containers — Real Simple noted it offers 'beautiful photos and clear steps to get it done.' But if you're after a budget-friendly or purely functional declutter guide, the aspirational aesthetic may feel better suited to large, well-resourced spaces than to smaller or more constrained homes.
What is this book actually about
It's a room-by-room home organization guide by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, co-founders of The Home Edit, that walks readers through decluttering every space — from the pantry and closet to the junk drawer — then arranging what's left in a visually cohesive way, and finally building a maintenance system so you don't need a full reset later. The method grew out of their hands-on work for celebrity clients like Khloé Kardashian and Gwyneth Paltrow, and the book brings that same philosophy to a general readership.
Does this book actually work for people who aren't naturally organized
The guide is explicitly designed for that audience — Good Housekeeping noted that Shearer and Teplin bring 'tried-and-true decluttering methods straight from their celeb clients' closets into your home, along with step-by-step tips to help even the most organizationally-challenged among us implement and maintain' the system. The maintenance focus built into the book's structure also addresses a real gap: the difference between a one-time tidy-up and a system that holds over time.
Is this book similar to the konmari method
Both are popular, philosophy-driven organizing guides aimed at a general audience, but The Home Edit has a distinctly different identity. Where KonMari focuses on sparking joy as a decision-making principle, Shearer and Teplin's approach — as Architectural Digest described it — is a 'streamlined philosophy' that merges organization with interior design, prioritizing aesthetics like ROYGBIV color-ordering and uniform storage products alongside the decluttering process.
Is this book good if you have a small home or tight budget
This is the book's key caveat: replicating the full Home Edit look requires an investment in organizing products — uniform containers, label systems, matching baskets — that not every household will find practical or affordable. The review notes that some readers seeking a low-cost approach may find the aspirational visual framework more suited to larger, well-resourced spaces, so it's worth considering before purchasing.
Do you have to read this book cover to cover
No — the room-by-room structure means you can go straight to the sections most relevant to your own home without reading linearly. That flexibility is one of the strengths noted in coverage of the book, making it easy to tackle, say, just the pantry or just the closet without wading through the entire guide first.
Is this book connected to the netflix show
Yes — the book is directly tied to the Netflix series Get Organized with The Home Edit, which debuted in 2020 and ran to a second season in 2022, bringing the same Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin methodology to a screen audience. The book came first (published March 19, 2019) and the show reinforced its profile, so fans of one will find the other covers familiar ground with the same visual, color-coded philosophy.
Sources & Further Reading
The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.
- Cited in this review
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en.wikipedia.org
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- Further reading
- 4
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5minutebooksummary.com
- 6
econogal.com
- 7
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