The Home Edit | Honest Book Review

Props to Clea and Joanna for using their names and company to sell so many books, but in terms of organizing, this book didn’t do it for me. There are a few nuggets of information in there and I love all the organizing pictures, but if I were a newbie to organizing, I don’t think this book would help me. 

This book is a great organizing coffee table book. Like I said, Joanna and Clea make beautiful Pinterest perfect spaces. They are. I love looking at them. They are so calming, but they’re not realistic. I know what those organizing products cost and they are not cheap. It worked well that they got so many famous people to hire them because you need a large budget to get the spaces looking like their book. 

It’s not that you can’t have good looking spaces on a smaller budget, but it definitely won’t look like their spaces. Especially since those spaces were also created with many hours of work as well!

But let’s get into the meat of the book.

If we can do it, you can do it

Okay, the introduction is titled “If we can do it, you can do it.” I do agree that anyone can be organized or maintain and organizational system, but y’all know my opinions on their organization. They do talk about making sure systems are functional and beautiful, but I think they focus more on the beautiful and less on the function. Nothing wrong with this, but something to keep in mind.

One part I do like they that talk about is if you’re a good candidate for organization. They have you ask yourself these three questions.

1. Is there a tiny piece of my brain that feels calmer when things have a “place”?

2. Is there something in my mind that flicks on when I see something really organized?

3. Do I believe organizing my belongings will make my life easier? (THE pg. 19)

If you answered yes to one of these questions, then getting organized is for you! (I would assume most everyone can answer yes to at least of these questions).

The Promise

They also talk about their promise and what getting organized can do for you. They talk about a few different reasons, but I think the most important is it’s calming.

When I go to a home for a consultation, most of the time it’s because they’re overwhelmed. I love when I leave a consultation (before I’ve even started working on their home) and a client says they already feel a weight lifted or feel calmer. This is the biggest impact I think organizing has on your home. It helps relieve the stress your home is causing – sometimes without you even knowing it!

The Edit

Clea and Joanna talk a lot about the editing process. That’s the whole reason they created The Home EDIT. They talk about their process.

1. Take everything out

2. Create groupings

3. Pare down

I agree, the editing process is important. However, one thing to keep in mind, is you need to be involved in that process. In the show, many times Clea and Joanna and their team is just doing everything without the client present (I do this too, nothing wrong with it). But that means either, the client has already done the editing process or they aren’t going to do it.

Organized clutter is still clutter. The editing process is important. You need to go through your items and decide what to keep and what to get rid of. A professional organizer cannot go through your closet and make those decisions for you.

They do make clear in the book that you need to edit the space. They give lots of suggestions on what to do and questions to ask yourself. I think if you’re already pretty good at editing and decluttering, these questions and suggestions would be helpful just to give you a framework.

If you have a hard time decluttering, I don’t think these questions will help too much. Decluttering is hard work and takes a lot of mental and emotional energy if it doesn’t come naturally. This is when it makes sense to hire someone to help you. It helps to have a person next to you encouraging you to declutter. The personalized approach of a professional will help you figure out what to get rid of and what to keep.

If this is where you are and you’d like some help decluttering, reach out through the button below and we can set up a phone call to talk about what your goals are for your home.

The Spaces

The rest of the book has some tips but is mainly pretty pictures. I do love all the pictures, but typically I look through the book when I want to see something pretty, less so looking for organizing tips.

Clea and Joanna said this from the beginning though. They wanted to be different. To do that in an organizing space, you need to stand out. By focusing on how everything looks, they were able to do that. And by finding clients that could afford their style, it worked for them.

I do appreciate some of their tips. For example, when talking about the entryway and how to keep it organized, they incorporate some humor saying the only way for it to be perfect all the time is live alone and don’t own things. Then, they go on to give tips for different spaces. If you already enjoy organizing and it comes naturally to you, the tips are great and easy to incorporate. If your brain does not work that way, it will be hard to determine which tips work for your space.

As a professional organizer, I like the tips, I think they’re fun to read through and I can easily determine which spaces and homes need to incorporate each tip. That is why I have a job. That is why professional organizers exist. We can determine what tips and systems work best for your space quickly and efficiently so you can get on living your life rather than wasting time and money to come up with a less efficient system.

If you are ready to incorporate systems into your home and spend more time doing what you love, click the link below to reach out and discuss how we can help you in your home. We offer in-person and virtual sessions to create systems in your home.