The presenters of Netflix’s decluttering show like to organise books by colour, which suggests not much reading is going on
One genre that stands as a surprising survivor of the great binge-watching explosion is the tidying-up show, which has evolved from its finger-wagging “have you tried putting vinegar on it”, How Clean Is Your House? roots to become a massive industry of Marie Kondo-inspired decluttering, all elastic bands, labels and packed plastic boxes. Snooping around a messy house about to become so neat that I refuse to believe anyone could so much as make a cup of tea and keep it that way is so appealing to viewers that there is a newcomer to the game.
Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer are the founders of a company called The Home Edit, and have taken their “professional organiser” skills to Netflix for Get Organized with The Home Edit, in which they go into famous people’s houses, and some regular people’s houses, and organise them to within an inch of their lives. This most unassuming of series has stoked a debate so divisive it has the potential to split families down the middle. “Our intention is to give people the tools to make a system that’s smart, sustainable and also beautiful,” says Teplin, at the beginning of the series. And yet, they are advocates of the rainbow bookshelf.
