Co-stars of Netflix’s ‘Home Edit’ get starstruck, too
The professional organizers rub shoulders with celebs while cleaning their closets.
Spending more time at home amid the pandemic might bring into focus the areas of your home that need some help.
Find yourself glaring at that corner that could use a bit more structure?
Professional organizers Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, stars of Netflix‘s “Get Organized With The Home Edit” (now streaming), might be the ticket. In an eight-episode first season, the Nashville, Tennessee-based pair (who started The Home Edit in 2015) complete projects for the famous and non-famous alike. Stars featured in the series – produced by Reese Witherspoon and Molly Sims – include Khloé Kardashian, Eva Longoria, Neil Patrick Harris, Kane Brown and the “Legally Blonde” star herself.
After working on projects with Sims, the actress brought up the idea of a TV show in 2017; around the same time, Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine also reached out, after she spotted Shearer and Teplin on Instagram.
Shearer excitedly tells her staff in the premiere episode: “For the first time in The Home Edit history, we are finally organizing Reese Witherspoon’s house!”
The “Little Fires Everywhere” actress had a strategic reason for keeping The Home Edit founders at bay.
Witherspoon “always said – literally, from the beginning – because we have been begging her to do a project the whole time, and she’s like, ‘Nope, we’re saving it to do it on TV,’ ” Shearer recalls.
The Home Edit’s task? Organizing costumes and memorabilia from Witherspoon’s
iconic roles – from the “Legally Blonde” films to “Big Little Lies” – and her notable red carpet moments that will live in a closet of Witherspoon’s Nashville home.
For Shearer and Teplin, it was an outof-body experience.
“Who on this planet doesn’t love ‘Legally Blonde’ so much? And Elle Woods?” says Teplin. “And then to be holding her pillbox hat, trying not to rip it or stain it (with) Reese telling you about the story. It was just completely unbelievable and unreal.”
“Working with Reese Witherspoon in her home, holding ‘Legally Blonde’ clothing and she looks at you and says, ‘What, like it’s hard?’ You want to die!” says Shearer. “You’re like, ‘This is the best moment of my life,’ and it’s just so surreal.”
Shearer and Teplin might’ve been starstruck, but they’re no stranger to celebs.
Shearer made famous friends growing up in Los Angeles, and suggested to Teplin in 2015 that they visit LA and organize high-profile closets in exchange for an Instagram post. Christina Applegate became a client, followed by Selma Blair. Then came Jaime King, Constance Zimmer and Rebecca Gayheart.
Kardashian, whose garage is organized in Episode 3, is a repeat Home Edit client. Shearer says they’ve worked on the reality star’s glam room, office, kitchen, and closet of daughter True Thompson.
“We pretty much have a residency at her house,” Shearer jokes. “We love her beyond words, and whenever Khloé needs us, we will be there. That is our basic rule for the company.”
“Keeping Up With the Kardashians“viewers know Khloé, the Good American clothing line co-founder, has a serious need for cleanliness and order. On “Get Organized” she says Shearer and Teplin’s presence gives her “a sense of relief ... I should marry them,” Kardashian says. “Like, what am I waiting on?”
Shearer says the trio share a certain “synergy” and their brains work very similarly.
“She would call us in to do her pantry, for instance, or her laundry room,” says Shearer, “and literally every other person on the planet, they’d be like, ‘What is there to do? It looks perfect,’ and she’s just like, ‘I need you to get whatever is the 5% left over. I want you to do that for me.’”
Shearer says stepping into every home this season felt “fun and exciting and nerve-wracking.” Organizing Harris and David Burtka’s twins’ playroom gave her “the most butterflies.” The foursome hadn’t met, and she was unsure about the couple’s level of enthusiasm.
“We don’t have a huge male following. So I was like, ‘Are they just gonna think that we’re a couple of crazy ladies?’” she says. “I was very insecure about it.”
But Shearer found Harris and Burtka to be the “loveliest, warmest (and) most friendly” people, and they got the job done – although a tight deadline added pressure.
“We were literally just sweating, running around like crazy, just all over the place, all hands on deck, like we needed to get this done,” she says. “The problem with that is because we actually finished, for every other subsequent project, (the crew would) be like, ‘No, come on. Remember Neil and David?’”