Organizers to The Stars, The Home Edit Visits The Neat Freaks of Texas on Summer Tour

The first shoes weren’t the right ones to wear to The Home Edit Summer of Fun Tour stop at The Eisemann Center in Richardson, so I kicked them into the closet with all the other shoes that had been kicked there yesterday or maybe last week.

Then I needed a different purse because the crossbody I’d been carrying wouldn’t hold a notebook, pen, cell phone, keys, and a couple of lipsticks. When I reached for the pink one I wanted, other purses rained down on my head.

I’ve got someplace to be, and when I get there, I will dominate this closet. I will tame this catastrophe I call my closet. Okay, honestly, it’s actually two closets, and they’re both a tangle of accessories, clothes, shoes, and a hidden present or two.

My destination? The Home Edit’s Summer of Fun Tour‘s inaugural stop. The Home Edit team, a pair of friends who’ve become famous for taming the closets of TV personalities, were taking their smarts and their banter on the road. As the tour website proclaims:

“America’s favorite organizers, Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, brought the home organizing rainbow system to life and now these best friends are bringing that organizing magic straight to you!”

Maximize Space on a Minimalist Budget at This Week’s CandysDirt.com Open Houses

Well, count me in. Everyone who knows me can attest that I am an extremely slow learner when it comes to keeping things neat and tidy. I am in need of instruction.

An Imposter at The Home Edit

Walking through the Eisemann lobby, I knew I was such an imposter. I was totally faking it. While waiting for the doors to open, I looked around and wondered if all these other women waiting with me had their purses in perfect order. Were their cell phones nestled perfectly in the inside pocket made for their phones? Were their dollar bills organized by denomination, facing the same way? Were their wallets slim and sleek, without old receipts, their vaccination records, and a few random business cards?

I wanted to learn their ways and repent my evil habits.

Before we entered, all the mostly female attendees were handed what I had wrongly assumed was a fan. The two-sided circular cardboard had a picture of Joanna on one side and Clea on the other, which was attached to the popsicle-stick handle. It looked like a very cute fan to me, very useful in the 100-million-degree heat here in July. Nope, it was a “paddle” to be used for several games the audience was to play.

We waited for the show to begin, and women all around me were talking about how much they loved Joanna and Clea. I learned that by wearing a headband in my hair, I’ve done something right as a wanna-be disciple of their teachings. Evidently, the headband is one of Joanna’s trademarks. Then before I can feel good about that achievement, I see that an old receipt has fallen out of my purse onto the floor. Please, oh please, I hope no one saw my shame as I crumpled it and looked for a trash can.

I saw women in the front who looked important, and I, always the investigative journalist, hustled to ask a question. This cute thing with beautiful skin answered my questions politely, and then I noticed a line of women forming wanting a selfie with this nice young woman named Sumner. Recognizing an opportunity to take a selfie, too, I asked, and she obliged. Turns out Sumner is a big deal in The Home Edit World. More later about that.

We waited while the music of Tina Turner and Taylor Swift blasted and a big screen flashed slides of a fridge with a color-coordinated vegetable drawer. What? No take-out boxes? A closet with zero items on its top shelf? Could I possibly put my purses there?

 Joanna and Clea entered the stage, set like a very tidy living room with white (of course, all neat freaks can live with white upholstery) furniture, the crowd erupted like groupies at a rock concert. I learned through the night that the two friends not only appeared on the Today Show to clean out Hoda’s closet but have multiple enterprises.

Organizing is Big Business

Their business has grown since its 2015 launch to include five U.S. markets; two New York Times bestselling books; organizing products sold in more than 25 countries; a podcast called Best Friend Energy; and the Emmy-nominated Netflix show, Get Organized with The Home Edit. A sign that you’ve really made it is that Hello Sunshine, a division of Candle Media, purchased The Home Edit in 2022.

The show finally began with Clea saying “This is our first show and we’re really nervous.”

They’re funny, they’re cute, and they’re likable. They have a new book coming out, and they revealed they’ll be the new hosts for the TV show “Extreme Makeover.”

That cute Sumner Canfield, director of product development for The Home Edit, was introduced, and the audience erupted. Now, I know I had spoken with an organizing world superstar. We used the fans, I mean, paddles to vote on which funny story we’ll hear from Sumner’s adventures in organizing. She is as funny as her skin is flawless.

From the stories I learned among things to remember when hiring a professional organizer, lock up your dogs so they don’t escape when the front door opens and think about whether you’re okay with the organizer viewing labor room photography.

Then four audience volunteers were selected to organize a fake pantry in three minutes, a la The Home Edit principles. We voted, using those paddles on who won, and from where I sat, both teams looked like winners to me.

What I learned, though, is the mantra “edit, categorize, contain.” Words I can edit; purses I cannot. Baskets belong on the floor where you can see into them. Color coordination, even in bags of snacks, is good.

On stage next was Catherine Lowe, a Bachelor TV show alum, who apparently “won” by marrying bachelor Sean Lowe after season 17. Since I don’t watch the show because I’m too busy making a mess of my closets, it was lost on me. I did learn she and Sean like to watch movies and order a lot of food delivered to their Dallas home. I wondered if her leftovers got color coded in her fridge.

Three Questions?

Then it was Q and A time. Great. Maybe I would get a chance to learn more about how to tame my purses. There were to be three questions.

Nope. The first question was a total waste. The chosen audience member squandered her opportunity by instructing Joanna and Clea to go to Buc-ee’s as they travel to their next show in Houston.

Second question: The audience member asks Joanna, the headband-wearing half of the duo, to sign her headband. Joanna obliges.

The third: A child asks when the next season of their show will debut. Answer: They don’t know but they’re excited about becoming the hosts of “Extreme Makeover.”

We leave, and there’s a place to deposit those paddles to be recycled. The organized people left theirs there; the rest of us who collect clutter kept ours.

Alas, my closets are no better than before. But I might be one step ahead of The Home Edit gals. I’ve been to Buc-ee’s already, and the receipt to prove it is probably still in my purse.