With so many of us hunkering down at home these days, who couldn’t use home organizers extraordinaire Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin to come organize our homes?

Of course, Shearer and Teplin–the dynamic co-founders of the popular home organizing company, The Home Edit–may not be able to physically come to our homes.

But women in the Chicago Jewish community and beyond will have a chance for the next best thing: to learn home organizing tips from The Home Edit duo when they headline the JUF Women’s Board and Women’s City Council Grand Event–virtual this year–on Thursday, Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m.

Shearer and Teplin, who have organized the homes of such stars as Mandy Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Reese Witherspoon, exploded in popularity in 2020.

They published their New York Times bestseller called The Home Edit Life: The No-Guilt Guide to Owning What You Want and Organizing Everything, a guide to systematizing one’s home and containing the chaos.

Plus, they released the wildly popular Netflix TV series, Get Organized with the Home Edit , where they invite viewers into the homes of their clients as The Home Edit team transforms their spaces–fairy godmother-style–from cluttered messes to tidy perfection.

In advance of their JUF appearance in February, Shearer and Teplin conducted an email interview with JUF News.

Q. As we continue to navigate the pandemic from home, what’s your biggest piece of advice to make our homes both more organized and Zen during these anxious times? 

A. Now that we’re in our spaces more than ever before, something that you might have written off like “whatever, I’ll get to it later” can really start to bother you. Creating functional systems that also look beautiful gives you a chance to feel calmer and more in control-which is what we are all looking for.

What are your three biggest secrets in how to successfully organize one’s space? 

1. Start every project with an edit. This means removing every item from the space, grouping them into categories, and purging what you no longer want or need. Only then can you decide on a functional system that best fits your space and the items that live there. 

2. Contain items within designated zones. This not only makes items easier to find, but it also holds you accountable when you start exceeding the space. 

3. Label your categories, or sort by color, which is a labeling system in itself! Labels provide a user-friendly roadmap to where items are found and where they belong. 

What do you see trending in home organization in 2021? 

Functional systems that streamline our new realities, a.k.a. working from home and virtual learning. Even though this was already “trending” in 2020, we definitely see people finding the systems that work best for them. 

Do you believe that organizing our exterior space has the power to change us on the inside? 

Absolutely, 100%. An organized space allows you to take a sigh of relief. There are no messy drawers tugging at the back of your mind, or brooms falling on your head as you reach for the mop. There’s so much unnecessary frustration that can be avoided.  

The JUF Women’s Board and Women’s City Council Grand Event will be held virtually on Thursday, Feb. 11, at 7:30 p.m. Women who make an individual gift of $1,000 or more to the 2021 JUF Annual Campaign are invited to attend. Register at .juf.org/GrandEvent .. For more information, call (312) 357-4862 or email  [email protected] .