Many parents are currently actively reorganizing their homes to accommodate a shift in either their child’s learning environment or their own new work-from-home setting. As parents, teachers, and students adjust to a new normal in both their classroom and home setting, the need for organization and more structured routines are necessary now more than ever. It’s no surprise that how your day starts, often determines how it ends. Moms.com recently spoke with expert home organizers Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin of The Home Edit, who recently debuted their new lifestyle Netflix series, Get Organized with The Home Edit about ways to establish healthy routines and habits, and how to organize your bathroom so that parents and their kids can have a powerful start to the day.
Clea and Joanna both agree that having an organized bathroom is the key to a strong start to the day, because it is one of the first places that everyone goes to when they wake up at the start of their day. With the busy schedules that parents have, it can be hard to keep order, which is why Clea and Joanna recommend investing in functional products.
(Moms.com): The Home Edit has been very successful. Currently, what is the most common area or need that moms have when interfacing with you as professional organizers?
(Clea Shearer): Moms need a lot more nowadays, than they did before. So, I feel like that answer has changed now. I feel like it's probably wine. No, just kidding. I think that right now moms need to create more efficiency. They need smarter systems and transferable systems. They need for every space to be a bit of a flex space for people. It's like the dining room table is also like the homeschool station, and a work-from-home station, and all of these things are moving parts. I think that, because we're home so much more, moms are just really desperate for ways to kind of improve everyone's efficiency. We have to use the house so much more. I think that we've been really focused on setting up a lot of systems more than ever to just get routines in order for everyone.
(MC): You’ve recently partnered with Philips Sonicare, and in the context of parenting, what is the connection between having a productive day and an organized bathroom?
(CS): I think when it comes to a bathroom, it's super critical. Every parent knows that getting up in the mornings for school is so hard. It's so important to have routines, and having all of your items just right there in front of you. One of our tips for that is we set up daily stations that could live in a daily drawer. It can be put underneath the bathroom sink.
You could even have a cart in the bathroom, like a three-tier cart kind of situation holding all of your supplies, whatever works, or even a countertop solution. One of the reasons why we love the Philips Sonicare toothbrush so much is, because it can actually live on the counter top. You don't need to find additional storage for it, but setting up that routine just sets everyone up for success. You're not fighting with your kids in the morning, because the space has systems and order.
(MC): For parents who are working from home and feel as if they do not necessarily have the time to keep things organized, what are a few hacks for quickly organizing a space?
(CS): I think one of the ways to identify where you should begin organizing, especially for parents and busy parents, is to look at the areas in the home that are frustrating you. If there are areas that you have piles of work, sitting on the dining room table, then that means that needs to be focused on. Like that should come first, but don't force yourself to organize something just because you saw a pretty picture. Where are the areas of you house that have the most dysfunction? Is it the entryway where your kids are just always putting their backpacks on the floor? If that's the case, don't try and fight the habit. The habit is already going to be there, but rather correct the habit by putting a basket where the backpacks are always being dropped.
(JT): So, create a 'drop zone'. If it's a work-from home situation and you don't have a lot of storage around or like an actual desk to work from, then create a cart of all the supplies that you can put it away at the end of the day. It's really about thinking through each individual person's life and their habits, and what they have going on. Then, you try to create organized systems around that. For people who are really busy, yet who still want to be organized. I would take inventory of the things that are bugging you, and start from there.
(MC): What a few bits of wisdom that you would like to share about organization?
(JT): Start small, and look for the pain points because you will feel the biggest reward from the points that you can correct. The correction may not take that much time, and even just take 10 minutes of thinking about it, ordering a basket, and then having it delivered to your house, and putting it there for the backpacks or for the masks or for whatever your main pain point is. I think starting really small and seeing a project through from beginning to end, even if it's just 20 minutes that you set up that little system, can make a big impact. I think you'll feel really accomplished.
(CS): It's nice. Like, right now we want to get people to understand that organizing can actually be a form of self care, right? Just having a little bit of order and control in your life, can feel very meditative. We want people to be excited about that, and realize that they're going to feel really good. Organizing is not just a chore. It's not just like, "Oh, I have to clean the house today." It's like an opportunity!
(JT): Getting organized is an opportunity that you can really reap the rewards from. Being organized in your fridge and your pantry, means that you don't buy so many duplicative items. You will know and actually use what you have, and you can see when you're running low, and you recognize that's when you can go to the store. Instead of just assuming that you don't have something when you're at the grocery store and you throw it in your car. There are actually really substantial ways that being organized can be really helpful. You don't waste time. There's a professional organizer joke that says, "Organizers are just too lazy to look for things", but it's true. You save time, energy, money and hopefully those things also make you feel good.