In 2015, The Home Edit was created by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin. Their goal was to combine organization with style to create beautiful, aesthetic homes. You may recognize their signature look, the rainbow. They organize all items from clothing to food by color. They achieved their goal of creating beautiful-looking spaces, but should you organize your home like The Home Edit?

Despite the illusion of one perfect way of thinking portrayed online, the reality is that each person’s brain works differently, leading to unique organizational needs. While inspirational decluttering shows, like The Home Edit or Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, may showcase beautiful, uniform systems, attempting to replicate these methods often leaves you frustrated. What works seamlessly for one individual may not translate to another’s living space or thought processes.

Closets are a great example. Instead of thinking about how you want your closet to look (this often involves rainbow order), evaluate how you pick out your outfits in the morning. I worked with a client who only wore her work-branded clothing on weekdays and then regular sweaters, jeans, sweatshirts, etc. on the weekends. Because of this, we made a work section in her closet with her work-branded shirts and dress pants. We then categorized the “weekend” section by type of clothing (tank tops, t-shirts, long sleeves, sweaters, etc.).

Personally, my clothes are split into two main categories, “cute” and “comfy.” When picking out an outfit, I first think about whether I want to dress cute or comfy that day. Cute usually means jeans or jean shorts, and a nice shirt. Comfy usually means sweats, athletic shorts, or leggings, and a t-shirt or sweatshirt. Because of this, I have all of my “cute” clothes on half of my closet and my “comfy” clothes on the other half. Within those, I categorize by type of clothing, like tank tops, short-sleeves, long-sleeves, etc. since that is what my brain thinks of next. Within each category, the items are color-coded, which I find visually appealing and helps me easily locate the specific shirt I’m looking for.

Others may think about what color they want to wear that day. Maybe they are feeling neutral that day, so want to go to the black section of their closet or it’s the first day of fall, so they want to go to the orange/brown section. No organizational system is wrong, it just may not be the best for you. It is important to think about your personal way of thinking rather than just recreating what you see online.

Organization is not just about making a space look aesthetically pleasing. Its true purpose is to make your daily life easier and less stressful. An organized space should simplify tasks like picking out your outfit in the morning and putting items away to reduce the mental burden and anxiety of routine activities.

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In conclusion, organizing your home like The Home Edit is not necessarily bad. It could be the perfect system for you, but before you go and color-code everything in your house, you should think about how your brain works. You want to make your life easier not more difficult.

Stay tuned for more information on finding your personal organization style and tips for maintaining organization in my next post!