Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew - Home Edit: Clea and Joanna

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

Have you ever wondered how early is too early to start teaching your kids some responsibilities around the house? We have and that’s why we absolutely loved this conversation about teaching our kids how to clean up in a fun and helpful way with the world-renowned experts themselves, Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin from “The Home Edit!” Clea and Joanna recently released their newest children’s book “The Rainbow Cleanup” to show kids that cleaning can be fun! Now, as the hosts of “Extreme Makeover Home Edition,” Clea and Joanna are helping kids and adults alike stay organized and live a more simplistic, peaceful life! Parents out there- definitely give this one a listen :) Love you guys! Shawn & Andrew Get a copy of “The Rainbow Cleanup” ▶ https://a.co/d/b80bOA2 Follow along with The Home Edit ▶ https://thehomeedit.com/ Follow our podcast Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/shawnandandrewpods/ Subscribe to our newsletter ▶ https://www.familymade.com/newsletter Follow My Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/ShawnJohnson Follow My Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnjohnson Shop My LTK Page ▶ https://www.shopltk.com/explore/shawnjohnson Like the Facebook page! ▶ https://www.facebook.com/ShawnJohnson Follow Andrew’s Instagram ▶ https://www.instagram.com/AndrewDEast Andrew’s Tik Tok ▶ https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewdeast?lang=en Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a couple things, interviews. With Sean and Andrew. And Joanna and Clea from The Home Edit. I was freaking out over this episode. Tell the people about the Home Edit if they have not heard about the Home Edit. If you haven't heard about the Home Edit, then you've been living under a rock. But the Home Edit, Joanna and Clea, single-handedly created an empire around organizing homes in an aesthetically beautiful way.

They now have shows of their own. They're now doing extreme makeover, home edition. They created a business that you'll hear them talk about that is unlike anything I've ever seen. They're really fun. I think you'll like the conversation. I was really pleased that I got the question of why organization even matters. I got that question answered. And I loved the answer.

But it got kind of deep there for a second. It did. Clea and Joanna are really fun. They're great authors. They're great TV personalities. They're great organizers. and the reason we had them on is because they're coming out with a book

and it's all about how to clean your room as a teenager. So they wrote one for young kids and now they wrote one for older kids and it's called the Rainbow Cleanup It's on sale now it's a perfect next step for little ones

who read the board book that they came out with for the kids and want to hear a story that grows along with the kids about organization. And then after the Rainbow Cleanup there's another one that is for teenagers. It's great. Check out everything they're doing.

They're wonderful. human beings. We love them. We are friends with them here in Nashville and was so honored to have them on our show. Enjoy this episode with Clea and Joanna from the home edit. Okay, I think this is an assumption from just like your brand of stuff. Are you guys like best friends? Oh, yeah. Okay. That doesn't even, yeah. You know, Joanna actually famously, we were like on the Today show or something. And they were like, so what's your secret for like your, you know, your relationship and your business partnership? And Joanne goes, well, it's just that we've never been friends. And I was like, We've never what?

She was like, no, I meant that we started our business without knowing each other. Oh, really? Yeah. We literally met and that same day started the company. At frothy monkey. At frothy monkey. I saw that they were at their planning meeting at Prothy and I was like, this for Klee and I started. Yep, yeah.

Different frothy. We started our company. And but we met through a mutual friend. We were having lunch to meet each other. It's not like we bumped into each other and like the line. Although, you know, it might have been. It might have been. But yeah, we had a four-hour lunch where we just, like, got down to the basics.

We have so many similarities. Yeah, we got up from a four-hour lunch and we were like, let's do this. And I had just moved to Nashville. And honestly, I was like, you know, if it fails, who's going to know? No one knows me here, you know? So we just kind of jumped in feet first. But we became best friends in the process of starting this company. And I think Joanna's also right that we've never been friends because we're really like

siblings it's it's weirder than siblings yeah somewhere between siblings and married you know like right right whatever that is whatever that is yeah that's right like we don't even really we don't fight like siblings yeah that's right so and but it's true we've never we were never friends before so we had nothing to lose because there was nothing there right it wasn't like should I go into business with my friend yeah like we didn't know each other if it didn't work it didn't work wait how does this conversation go though because you were in PR correct and you were doing like stationary yeah well yeah That was a part of my life. But I had an organizing slash other, I called it creative projects for busy people in San Francisco.

And so when we moved to Nashville for my husband's job, I just wanted to do the organizing piece. I had just had my second baby, like just, but I was like already ready to keep working. I just love business. And so I was just starting it up. And then that's when Clea came into the picture. That's when I came into her life. Wow. But yeah, I was a publicist for a long time.

I worked in social media. She's also been everything. So if you ask her anything, she's already done that too. I've already done that job. I work. You know, I went to college in New York City. And the whole point of being in New York is to work. It's internships.

It's working. I missed my college graduation because I had to go to work. Like, this is just the way it was. So, yes, I've been in every job. A lot of places. But I've never owned my own company. And I have for years. But you guys have this get together, first time meeting each other and you say,

this is what we're going to do? was this like a predetermined you both knew you wanted to move into this? And did it evolve or did it start out as? Start it out as purely organizing people's homes. Amazing. So what here's, when I moved from L.A. to Nashville, I had this idea. I used to work for a very big online consignment company where I edited out people's closets. And it was so fun to me to work with the clients and like really make smart decisions and like, you know, be strategic about it.

And I thought, I'd be a great organizer. And when I moved to Nashville, I took a couple months to think about it and figure it out. And I didn't know how to do it. Like if I was going to join someone else's team, I didn't really think about doing it myself. But our friend Leah, who introduced us was like, oh, my gosh, Joanna, my friend, she had an organizing business and wants to start it up again. You guys should meet. You guys should maybe do this together. And I thought, well, is this not fate?

Like, this is perfect. Anyway, it turns out Leah pitched the same thing to Joanna. And Jana was like, no, no. She was like, I actually don't, I don't want a business partner and I don't really want a friend. So I'm just, I'm A-O-K. And I had never had a business partner. Like it always seems scary to me because it's like I know what I'll put in. I'm not saying I'm the smartest person in the room at all, but I just know what I'll do.

I will do anything to make something work. And so it's like the likelihood that somebody else is going to meet you where you are is so felt impossible. So it was absolutely not of interest to me. I'm like, no. Yeah. She was a hard pass. But we, you know, we ended up on text. And I was like really trying to win her over to just go to lunch.

I was like, oh my gosh, how funny you moved from California? I moved from California. I was like, both of your kids start with M's. Mine start with S's. Like, I mean, I was like digging deep to like really make it work. So we did end up going to lunch. But so we had kind of the backstory of what we wanted to be doing in our lives. And I'm kid you not when we sat down.

It wasn't like, so tell me about like where you grew up in like your high school. It was like, what are your strengths and weaknesses? No, we like got into it. Let's talk skill sets. Yeah. And like the second I met her, I was like, oh, a thousand percent this will work. Amazing. Yeah, a thousand percent.

I just knew. Yeah. I was like, this is 100 percent. I just love that no matter what in life, Joanna was so wrong about this. And like, I'll bring it up every other day. Yeah. You know? I'll never hear the end of it.

Any chance I have. Yeah. It's true. Like I was right. You were wrong. And I mean this. the most complimentary way. So you guys didn't quite like reinvent the wheel.

Yeah. Organizing was out there. Totally. Totally. But you created an empire. Like people didn't know organization, like organization companies before you guys. I think that everybody knows who you are. I think it's kind that I thought about this a lot.

That's very nice. It's like very kind. And you're exactly right. Organizing has been around forever. I'm sure cavemen. Yeah. Like Tupperware parties like collecting rocks. Editing out rocks probably.

I don't know what the rocks. But you guys created. something where everybody's like, I need that. Well, I'll tell you, I'll tell you how and why. So I wanted to make, so again, I had like a PR in marketing background and social. Here it comes. Actually very much. Here it comes.

The long list of her jobs. Yeah. And, no, I'm just kidding. So, but I was like, Joanna, what we need to do is bring a new lens to organizing. Like, you see how interior designers use Instagram. There are no organizers, like

showcasing beautiful work. Like, making it magazine worthy, Pinterest worthy, like let's get on the map as a different kind of organizing company. Like we're not just using, you know, Tupperware containers. Like Joanna said, we're actually like elevating it all and making it like a functional stylistic part of your home that you're really proud of. So I was like, we are going to be an organizing company that's rooted in function but strives for style and aesthetics. Second, I was like, no one's in the celebrity space. So right after we started, I'm from L.A. And I know a lot of just people from living there. And I was like, let's go to. I also was mad because I was like, you don't know

George Clooney. Oh, yes. I was like listing people that we could organize for. And she's like, what about them all Clooney? And I was like, well, I'm sorry. I don't know everyone. I was like, I would die to see her closet. Yeah. I would too. Die. But I was like, anyway, so apparently to Joanna, that was strike one against me. Like we had just met. It's amazing. It's amazing. We even went into business because I knew that you didn't know them all. Yeah. Um, so we went to L.A. for a week and just did, we did projects for all these people. Our first client was Christina Applegate. And we did projects and we just asked for them to post on social. Simple, easy trade, nothing. I wasn't even asking my friends to post on my behalf. I was like, we'll do the work.

Like, we'll come and do the work. And, um, and everything just kind of blew up from there. And I think because we were offering two different versions or two different things in our company with like the celebrity voyeurism and also just like people were eating up these projects and the posts and the pictures and the imagery. Also it's so relatable in the sense that everyone has a mess and everyone has stuff they don't know what to do with. And no one knew that it could look beautiful. Yeah. Yes. And so I think that what we did at least in the space is clearly not invent organizing by any means. But I think that we brought this type of organizing and like this genre in like we kind of invented this space like it didn't exist before which I think about sometimes

and I'm like God like it'll be the 10 year anniversary of our company this year 10 years since that lunch and it's mind blowing to me how like we did change the landscape in that way you know so well and even speaking about social media sorry I know you're jumping in there's a whole world like a whole subworld of social media that is nothing but organizing and I truly don't believe that started until you guys oh i i know it didn't because i was like there's no one doing this no should do this i i think that it was us starting the company and as it trickled through life and ecosystem and then our netflix show spawned a hundred million organizing companies yeah so i mean i've even been on google before in different cities and i'm like people like

the home at it in chattanooga it's like you are your own empire category. It is, it is really crazy to, again, I don't feel like organizing as a whole is the category that we're in, but I think that this type of organizing and stylizing online and, right, having to be stylized. I remember one of the things I was obsessed with figuring out was every organizer just uses label makers, you know, just the straight up P-touch label maker. And I was like, we are going to define labeling. We are going to figure out a different way. And we did a bunch of different iterations oh gosh so many but ultimately we went with my handwriting which is like it's not cursive but it's like a script and it's very consistent luckily so like it always looked good in photos and everything

and i started with a sharpy paint pen a white paint pen and hand labeled every single thing we did and then as we grew and we had organizers in different cities we got clear vinyl labels that are really beautiful and seamless. Like it looks excellent. And they would send a list of labels they needed to me. I would sit at my dining room table and hand label. This was for years. Oh my gosh.

We couldn't figure out a better system. This is the best we could do. And then we'd ship. And then we'd ship them. You need to create your handwriting into a font. Well, we did. Yeah. And now you can buy label packs with my handwriting at container store and Walmart.

But it took a long time. Also, I will never forget seeing. your handwriting in Mallory's closets. I was like, this is so stunning. So stunning. But that was, I think, a piece of the aesthetic component. Like, think about Mallory's closet and then with a P touch.

Totally loses that luxe factor. But my God, I mean, when I tell you, like, so many people have now even copied my handwriting. I know, I know. It's fine. Flattery. That's right. It's flattery as I cry into my pillow at night.

So I feel kind of like the outsider in this conversation. Sorry. Sorry. We have a bunch of Taipei, well-organized people, it seems like. So just from a high level, I am curious, obviously there's been a lot of business accolades, a lot of accomplishments from that side of things. But what do you love most about what you do and what you've built? Like the work that you do, like, why is it meaningful? What are you doing for people? Please help me understand. No, that's a really, really good question. Usually when people ask, what's the most meaningful part of everything you do we always say us being together and like our friendship but we've talked about that so screw her let's talk about something else great um I think the

most meaningful thing honestly is something that comes very easily to us um it does not come easily for other people which is something that I was like shocked that what we did even made an impact because it was like I mean this feels like obvious to us but it's not obvious to other people And there are a lot of people. And we also don't have any other skills. So it's good that this work now. It's good that this is it. No, this is it.

This is it. I don't know. I've had a lot of jobs. Yeah, you have a few skills. But, you know, seeing people, like doing something for people that is transformative is the most rewarding thing. Sometimes when we show people a space, like a reveal, I mean, we're more excited than they are.

We're like, oh, my God. We're jumping up and down. Yeah. You know. And but it is so rewarding to see like some stress melt off people and some of that burden of like how do I get this room under control what do this house is taking over me and it's just it's so nice and setting up systems that people can maintain i mean that's the thing is we'll come up with the system it's just a plug and play once the system is smart anyone can do it a child can do it

that's which is why we were so excited about the book the child the children's books but you and mallory alone could keep our children's book business in like full full flourishing form yeah they have a whole team yeah yeah literally yeah a little soccer team Not to, I'm just going to double down on this. But like, why is it important in your mind to be organized? God, it changes your whole. Coming from the guy who doesn't organize. Yeah, it changed your whole life.

I know. That's what he's like asking for me. Yeah, he's like, but I'm curious. Well, first of all, it's a low barrier to entry. So, I mean, so many things take so much work to make your life easier, you know, and are hard. Organizing doesn't take that much time up front. Once you have the system in place, you can just go. It's plug and play.

Yeah. Like, imagine waking up and not knowing where your keys are and just starting your day that versus knowing exactly that your keys are exactly where you hung them because they're always there every single day. And you can just get in your car. I mean, just the just the barrier to entering and the weight that being organized takes off is just, it just changes everything. Organizing is not just decluttering things. It really declutters your mind. And it's amazing how just small, simple things, like if you pay attention to them, you'll actually find them very satisfying to have like you open up a drawer and everything, you know, you go to get your pen and it's like everything's laid out.

it's not messy, it's not, because I think a lot of people, if they go to open that same drawer and it's a disaster, I think that they for one second get like, like stressed about it and think I, this is a mess. I have to deal with this someday or whatever. And I think that they look at something as like, or it's impossible and I'll never get to it. And this is just the way I live. But I think that there's an element, even if it's subconscious of just like a flicker of real frustration when something is an absolute mess and you feel like it's beyond you to like, make it better. And we see that all the time. You feel bad. As opposed to opening a drawer, you know, in your bathroom. And it's like anything you need, your toothbrush, your deodorant, your night cream, whatever it is, it's all there in a daily drawer. I mean, the difference between that and like bumbling around, is this empty? Is this half empty? Do I have one? Do I have an extra one? Should I go ask the kids? Like just also getting dressed. Having an organized closet is such a game changer for people who have a lot of clothes and who actually like have outfits and care about, you know, getting dressed and stuff. My husband wears like the same pairs of like three black

jeans and like, so it's like, you know, he's not the candidate. But, you know, I have a 13 year old daughter and her being able to get dressed because everything is categorized, color-coded, you know, she doesn't end up with a pile of clothes on the floor from just searching for things. And, you know, that is. And you save money because you don't keep buying the same thing over and over. You're like, oh, wait, do I have that, you know, do I already have that kind of soup? I'm going to buy four more. And then you get home and you're like, oh I did have it you know I'm just trying to sort through is this like a specific to a certain demographic or is it widely universally applied like this the psychological relief you get when

something's organized I think it's very wildly universal I was going to say I have to I have to interject because you're you are missing a huge part about Andrew calls himself like unorganized he doesn't care about that kind of stuff but strikes me as odd you seem like you would be I know it's false because with with material items say like within our household uh huh it doesn't matter things go on a shelf things can go in a drawer he doesn't care where they where they go in his mind he knows where they are but in your digital life you are more organized than anybody i've ever met in my entire life the amount of spreadsheets alphabetized dated wow every single thought is in some sort of spreadsheet with analytics like zero text zero emails red not that at all no it is like i need to know where i can find all the information but it doesn't translate to the material things at all zero if you can't find a pair of pants doesn't matter you. Zero. But I think there is universal application. I'm thinking there's this old ancient concept of, I believe it's Tohu va vohoo. It's like this bringing order. It's bringing

order to chaos. And it's like that's pretty much what all work is. Well, that's our entire mantra. And you know what in a different language? Is that what it is? Is that what it is? That's what it is. That's what it is. Bringing order to chaos. Yeah. But like any productivity, every aspect of like our economy, even from the grand scale of that, it's like you bring order to chaos. If you are able to bring clarity to information on someone's analytics from a business standpoint, it's like that's a business. It's like, it's all kind of that.

So anyway, I do think it's universally applied. And now I feel good about it. It really is, I think, a universal concept. But not everyone knows how good it feels. Like I guarantee you, if we were to come. and organize your closet you might think that you don't care where things go but you would have such a moment of zen if everything was done for you and there's no way you wouldn't be able to put your pants back in the pants and you would be motivated because it's already the work's been done

and so now it's just plug and play do you do a lot of maintenance like upkeep once something's been organized do you have to do the it depends we do a lot of upkeep that is for sure um but it's usually people who have as you guys know kids birthday celebrations now all of a lot of changing things coming in and out right like different life stages someone moves you know like there's a lot of that kind of stuff but i am very proud of pretty much every well literally every time joanna and i are in a home that we've already organized we like push someone past the front door and just run around the house let us see that space like i want to see everything and people do a really good job they do i mean is it instagram ready no but is it totally organized the way that we set up

the systems? Yes. Like, I think that a lot of people, like, if you were to walk into their spaces that had been organized by us, you would still be like, oh, the home edit did this. Like, it still looks good. I mean, it just does. And the systems make sense. It's intuitive. Yeah, which, which is, that's kind of the best testimonial could have. It's like, hey, we set this up and organized it. And then it was so well organized. Yeah. You kept it that way. And it takes maintenance. I mean, it's like anything. It's like exercise. It's like dyeing your hair. It's like anything. takes maintenance. It's not like you just never have to touch it again. You have to maintain it, but the main system is there. You know what to do. We always talk about the fact that organizing

should not be a snapshot in time. It should be something that can flex and move and grow with you in certain ways. And that's why we really try and think about like long-term sustainable systems, not just like, oh, well, it seems like they have a lot of mac and cheese. Let's make a mac and cheese bin. And, you know, like, let's think about things in a little bit more of a holistic, you know, umbrella. And it's just like about respecting your space and reminding people, they're paying for the space. And sometimes, you know, they spent so much money having building their house or living in this house or expensive apartment, whatever it is. And then it's like you're just going to shove sweatshirts on the chair all the time. Like, let's respect your space.

Yes. Yeah. That is exactly what he plans to do. Yeah. But, I mean, you know, you're paying for that space. Let's use it. Let's utilize it. Interesting.

So you wrote a several. children's books yeah which is phenomenal yeah you can start them young well they can take after Sean yeah I hope so I color code in our house yeah I mean so do they little little kids do it they love it actually our color yeah it's a game our daughter is very me type A she likes her closet put back she like organizes her dolls they're all like in a row yeah but you think it's possible to kind of spread the the organizational thinking through the family. Yeah, absolutely.

And the earlier you start, it's a language. The kids' books are really for kids and husbands. No, I'm just kidding. How is, but the thing about the kids' books is the principles are the exact same as we would tell you as an adult. It's just really making them very, very simple for a child. Like, don't make it intricate. Don't make it complicated.

And I would say that for anyone that struggles with organizing, too. Yeah. You know, I think that we're people, the organizing rails fall off, going back to like the mac and cheese example. is when things are just too tightly microed. Like you really want to just think macro, think big picture. And honestly, we ebb and flow depending on what the family needs. If someone is like very type A and very finicky, sure, we will do like a canister for everything.

If the family is a little bit more like, I'm busy, I want this done, but I don't need it to be, I don't want anything complicated. You know what? Have a din labeled dinner. Have a bin labeled dinner. And like, you know, that way, you know. Right. You're still organized, but you're not going to come home from the grocery store and dump in or borrow rice into like each jar or whatever it is, you know?

Right. So, okay, so asking for a friend, say, say one person likes organization around the home. Yeah, and the other. Yeah, maybe it doesn't value it as much. Okay. And they stress out about like, hey, you're, you're trying to have this pristine living situation versus it being functional. Okay. What's your answer?

you have to decide whether it's a you problem or it's a we problem. So for example, I'm not pointing any fingers here. But everyone needs to decide what's appropriate for the family that's living together. So you have to decide what's reasonable. So I'll use my house as an example. It's reasonable that the kids need to make their beds, right? They are part of this family. They need to keep their rooms up. They should be able to make their beds. I don't like how they make the beds. So I need to go and remake the beds myself. And I do this every day. Yeah, because that's a me problem. I don't like how she made the bed. You know, she's 10 and I don't think she does a very good job. But she did do the job. So that's a me problem. So that's what you, somebody has to figure out.

I would say in my house, the living there and just being a functional member of the family, do not come in into the mudroom and dump your shoes on the floor. You have cubbies for that. You have bins for that. Now, if they go and just dump it in the bin, that is. is they're doing their job. So that's a me problem. If I want them lined up looking nice and orderly, that's a me problem. They did their job. That's right. So you kind of have to meet people where they are. Right. You have to have reasonable expectations as like what's a reasonable member of the family should be, they should be able to do versus I don't like that you didn't line up the

shoes the way that I want them in my head. I need to go then line up the shoes. Yeah. And I guess coming from the chaos side of things, the me problem in that situation would be, no, it is reasonable for our kids to make a bed or for us to have our bed made or for this living room to be clean so that we can I don't know we're big on like family values and it's like togetherness and playfulness and if we can't play in the living room because there's toys right right because that undermines yeah but so because this is I think really crucial you're saying there should be a line of like organized expectations yeah but if but it can move so you're like if if it's not a specific 10 for each meal that you're going to have. It could just be a dinner bin.

That's right. Absolutely. Make it easy. We always say that it's hard. A full pantry can be organized in six categories if you really just want it to be such. It's breakfast, dinner, snacks, baking, baking, cooking, and sweets. That's it. And that's, that's it. So if there's big issues within the home of this feels too organized for one person, but not enough organized for the other. It's maybe like, hey, let's, let's come together. Yeah. What's reasonable. And then I will tweak. I will remake the bed. Okay. You know, that kind of. And, you know, some people like families, I mean, depending on how old your kids are, of course, can be like, look, like we're having a family meeting. This is, this is how we're going to do it. And we're going to see how it goes. And,

you know, we're all going to follow along. And it doesn't have to be perfect. The beds don't have to be made perfectly. I, like, Stella, if her, this is the best example I can give, because my daughter, my sweet, sweet daughter doesn't know how to fold a thing. So, like, she literally is like, okay, here, you know, and, but you know what, if it makes it into her drawer,

if it's not on the floor, like, again, that's a me problem if I want things perfectly folded. She's not a good folder, and that's okay. I feel better about this. This feels very practical. It is, it's practical. We should have you guys on more. The thing is, here's what I want to say,

And the goal, like, even for myself, the goal is that everything has a home. Yeah. And that way, you know where to find it. You know where to put it back. You don't have to really think about it. You don't have to be searching, which, did I put it in a cabinet? Did I put it in a drawer? It just has a home.

And you know what? If it just makes it back to that home, doesn't have to be perfect. Yeah. Just make it back. Reasonable expectations. To get the maximum amount of time spent the way that you want to spend it. And so that the house helps you enjoy it instead of is in your way. Yeah.

So it's not the home at it. It's the life at it. You guys are almost counselors. You know, it's funny because on our new show, which I'm sure we'll get to, but on our new show, we, there's a lot of, like, unintentional counseling that we have to do. We like to say that we're not licensed, but we are experienced. Yeah. But not experienced, but not experienced.

Yeah. Not licensed. Because there is a lot of psychology with organizing and there is a lot of, like, motivation and trying to get people to feel confident in not just doing the work, but in keeping it up. because I think most people don't start to get organized because they don't think that it's going to last. Like they just are like, why bother, you know? So it's really about like coaching through that.

Like not just the physicality, but like the mental block do. I was going to say one of my favorite things about the kids books is we're just now getting into the schooling process. So like applying for schools and getting your kids in schools. Sorry. Worse than building a house. It is. Honestly, it makes building the house feel like walking the park.

Campaigning for presidency. Yeah. Oh, please. It's like handing up flyers. I'm like, no, it is the worst. I will serve lunch. Yeah. I don't know.

But something that schools are really working on and they're like waiting within like the grading system and like the development of kids is executive functioning. And it's the concept of like, are you able to organize your time, your life, your homework, your day? And I do think being able to teach the general, like basic foundational skills to kids at a very young age helps them succeed in life. That's right. And giving them ownership. I mean, ownership of their functioning, honestly. And for them to feel confident that they can do this themselves, they're proud. Yeah. You know, it's really true. And I think that, again, it's not just about color coding crayons and markers. You know, like there's a lot of big lessons to extrapolate from that. And I think that it's not just teaching the kids young. It's getting them to enjoy it. Because once it's enjoyable, I remember my mom and I were laughing about it, I dedicate my education in the book is to my mother, who would never allow me to have, like, a messy room. But I grew up that way. It's the way my brain now works. I need things to be like that in order to feel, like, calm and good. And I mean, I even in my hotel room, like,

I need to have everything unpacked, laid out, like suitcases put in the closet, put away. I just, it's the way I have always grown up. And I think that if you start kids young, they will be more organized in school they will you know really take care of their space and take care of themselves and I think it's really and the earlier you start the better it is mm-hmm it is a language I mean really so if you can start them young do it yeah there's that commencement speech that went viral a couple years ago about always make your bed every day or start your day by making your bed and it's like we firmly believe that yeah I think I think that's a really good principle if you've done nothing else in your day you did that yeah you started off

with an accomplishment that's right yeah yeah that's good i mean that's and you get into a bed and it's made yes which joanna on the occasion that like i might be leaving early first of all my husband dear john love him more than anything does not know how to make a bed he has he has my 10 year old son's skills at bed making same with jeremy and of course as you can imagine our bed is like a little bit complicated to put together like it you know it has to look a certain way and um john i'm like oh my god like you can't you can't pull the sheet up correctly. So, but if he's, like, still asleep when I leave or something and I come back and if the bed's not made, I don't care if it's 5 p.m.

I will make it so that I can get in to a made bed. It could be 8 p.m. And I'm still making it. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Does it ever get, like, unhealthy that amount of, like. I'm sure.

I'm sure. But doesn't it feel so much better to get into a bed that's made? It does. Well, here's what doesn't feel good is when there's 90 throw pillows on the bed. And it's like, all right, now I have to. It's like six. it is definitely more than six I know anyway

there's no it's and there's a certain way that the comforter has to be folded yeah it's a lot of work you also don't want to get tangled in like messy sheets yeah oh it's the worst when they're all scrubbed that's my daughter is like she sleeps like a sprinkler system like it's just like everything is just twisted

in her bed I'm like what do what are you doing no they're like yeah and then they put it back in bunch down and mixed up like an egg beater I don't understand. Okay. So the casual little show you were alluded to is not casual at all.

You guys are on Extreme Makeover. It's like taking it over. It's a crazy, it's a crazy life and experience like this show is. And it just premiered and I'm so excited that people are loving it as much as we do or and did while filming. I think, you know, we don't even know really and what the whole episode is going to look like until it's like on TV. you know we see cuts here and there but um i'm just i'm really really really proud of the show and i feel like joanna and i completely disassociate from the fact that we're on yes we're like those people did a great job you know like it's like it doesn't feel like oh pat ourselves on the back

it was like no the the whole crew the team we had such an amazing group of people that behind the show are yon and wendell are designers on the show um the entire design team that you don't see on the show I mean, everyone. Yeah, it's really, we were so lucky. It was such an incredible group of people. It was an incredible experience. And I think that the show, I think they put together a really good show. Again, it's like we didn't put it together.

No, absolutely. We just showed up. We also have to disassociate for like, you know, when all of a sudden you have like three chins or something. And you're like, that person, though, you only have three. I have like six. They're crushing it. Yeah. Episode two, which is about to come out.

Thursdays on ABC, 8 p.m. 7 Central. is we get stuck in a hurricane in Florida so my hair looks yeah no actually even worse it's like matted on one side it's really gross it's like so bad but I mean there's something you could do you're just you're just wet I just hope people watch more than two episodes because they're going to think I'm really rough to look at it's it's not good it wasn't because it's one and two this show is literally like America's sweetheart for so long so being able to like revamp this and bring you guys into it and like truly show and even more like in depth behind the scenes of how it works I think is incredible everyone's going to watch every season like every episode

I'll tell you I'll tell you what if people were fans of the original extreme makeover home edition um they have we have everything that was great about the first iteration all the all the moving the buses and the emotional stories and the families the tears the laughter like all of that comes with us the volunteers the builders um but we add a really different element to the show um we have something called the edit zone and you know on the last iteration of the show the family goes on vacation yeah while the house they might have are now they would probably prefer to be on the original season where they go on vacations i'm not saying it's for them yeah i'm sure they'd rather be at disney world yeah like you know here we are and so we have them we put them to work and we basically

the edit zone is a huge space like a warehouse or a big church or something that's like that community center where we take every single thing from their previous home, every content that was in their house and set it up room by room in this space. And our organizers are incredible. And they, I mean, you know, took such great care. There's like the bed from the bedroom and all the folded clothes. Which is made, by the way, Andrew. But I mean, they really set up the rooms. And that way we can walk the family through and make really important decisions about what we're bringing into the new home, what we're keeping, what we're not keeping. And honestly, like in episode one, there was a hospital bag.

The mother, the mother of the children, lost her husband to serious COVID, like, 2020 COVID. Not that it's not all serious, but like early, early COVID, like died on a ventilator kind of situation. And she had never touched a thing that was in their home that belonged to Fred. And there was a hospital bag with Fred's clothes the last time. she saw him, you know, these were the clothes he was wearing. And she couldn't bear to get rid of the hospital bag.

It sat in her bedroom. And when we walked through, when we got to that hospital bag, I asked her, do you think that you're ready to get rid of this? And she was like, I don't ever want to see it again. So I took away the hospital bag and she had a, I'm not joking, you don't see this on the episode. You see part of it. Maybe a 20-minute full breakdown, like an exorcism, honestly, just. hysterical and shoulder shaking and we all kind of huddled around her and hugged her and just like let her

have her moment you could hear a pin drop other than gail's uh just wailing and um it was so incredible to see someone's life actually change before our eyes i'm telling you from that moment on we just facetimed her this week she's a different person it was a lighter person even after that moment like she got up as a different person she really did and she said that and she actually called it the life edit she goes all this time it was that bag that's been holding me back that bag and the thing is if there wasn't an edit zone if we weren't going through their things she would move into a new house and have the new house but she would have the same baggage literally so it's very interesting to see how a person's physical surroundings or how they organize things is a like extension of their

internal condition or a reflection of it and it's like yeah that's that's pretty amazing what you guys get to do there well i'll tell you after that scene with the hospital bag joanna and i we left there we were like crying kind of trembly honestly like it was something i've never seen anything like it was like a really like a profound experience and we called our husbands and we were like you and the kids you need to get on a plane tomorrow and you need to fly out here and witness this situation and meet this family and see what is happening because this is changing our lives too. And I can't have that happen if you're not here to like witness that. Like this is like the single most incredible moment I've ever been a part of. I can't think of a single pivotal moment in my life

that I can point to and be like, wow, I just, I witnessed a human being's life change like in an instant. It was insane. But the show is like that. And there everything is extreme. Everything. There are moments like that in every episode. Nothing will ever be that moment to me because that was the first thing that we filmed for this show. But this show evokes that. There's so many emotional landmines too, especially in edit zone. Remember, the family never touched their things in the last version of the show. And so this really gives them a chance to, to you, first of all, the audience gets really connected to the family members because they're like seeing, you know, them have these moments and experiences and you really do get connected to them not just the house build

which I think is it's great and of course we have the most amazing house reveals so there's that too the show is a little something for everyone well I do feel like the difference between like the show that we remember it was it was so aesthetic driven of like let's just see the house yeah and I feel like we live in a time now where people are truly trying to like make better their lives yeah so being able to see how you guys actually like impact that and like do that and affect their lives, I think is what the show was missing all of them, like humanizing it and showing like the reality of the situation. You know, Sean was on the, Sean was on the first show.

You were? I'm trying to find it. If you guys know the people. No. I was on one episode with a little girl who was a huge gymnastics fan. Oh my God. But I got to see the bus move. Oh my God.

Exciting when the bus moves. It's exciting. And I remember being in like a hurricane. That's amazing. Must be in Florida. It was in Florida. It's always in Florida. Yeah.

We're the dummies who decided to him. Very long time. I need to go back and find that. I was like a kid. I don't, yeah, I don't think I ever watched it. Oh,

I will find it by 5 p.m. today. So I will let you know. But yeah, I mean, you know, another thing about these homes is, first of all, the craftsmanship is,

you guys, it is insane. It is so good. They are such beautiful houses. Are, like, you would, you would want to move into them. They are fabulous.

Wow. And they're beautiful. Beautiful. And they, for these families, they're a really manageable size. You know, I think that, I think the old iteration, you know, I think the houses might have been too big for some of these families. And not all of them, but I definitely think that it might have been too much of an undertaking. Yeah. So having a more manageable house, I think they'll feel really secure in living there and owning it. We also have something this season or this reboot that we're really, really excited about. It's called the Home Fund. Each family. gets a really generous home fund to cover like real estate taxes. Amazing. Unexpected costs. So that, you know, and it's really exciting because the families don't know that. So like after this huge house reveal, we get to be like, there's one more thing. It's really, it's really amazing. It was my favorite thing like every single time in the reveal. Just, you know, again, like to watch someone's life just change. It's a special show. Amazing. It's a really special show. Okay. Last question.

because we're already keeping them too long um another season oh we hope so fingers crossed i mean everyone watch thursdays at eight ebc or our hulu the next day right you can also stream on we'll just stream it on on repeat that's right yeah like leave it on for your dog whatever you want um yeah i mean we hope so it takes obviously a few weeks i'm sure for networks to kind of um but we're hoping but yeah we had such a great season one or episode it's been it's been incredible Yeah, we got the ratings yesterday. We were so excited. We didn't just win the 8 p.m. time slot.

We won the entire night. Oh, my gosh. I know. I know. Congratulations. We were really, really excited. It was really exciting. That's awesome.

And hopefully we get full Hulu number soon, too. But even just the reporting that we've seen, Hulu was huge for us, too. So it's just, it's really exciting. I just, I, you know, as you guys know, because you're people in the world who have internet presence and social and all that, people love to be like complain about something you know there are just haters everywhere like there's always going to be a naysayer or someone who I was fully expecting you know people the comments are crazy and I was fully expecting them would be like love the show your voice really irritates me or like you know what I mean it's like something like that like people love

to tell you things like unsolicited and we've just gotten such overwhelming responses so yeah I hope people love it I know you deserve it we're so excited we're so I'm excited. Thank you. We love you guys. Oh, we love you guys. I know. We could just do this every week. I know. It's so much fun. We'll get Andrew organized. Real quick. So obviously, we've talked about the benefits of organizing. You said the earlier the better. Talk about who these books are for for parents with kids out there. One is for right out of the womb. So it's like they come out in the hospital and you hand them the book. Yeah.

Very simple words. And the picture book is more for like ages like four to eight. Perfect. So let's put that away. would be the zero to three age range and then the rainbow cleanup would be like four to eight. Also, I forget, since we're in like the full age range, I'm like, what do you mean? Who's it for? Like, all of our kids. Right, right.

You're in that four. It was really funny. When our first board book came out, we did a reading in New York. It's so cute. I think it's called Union Square Play. Something like that. And so it's like all these kids, it's like, you know, New York City. So there's, unless you're at a park, like you have to go somewhere, you know.

And so they have activities. and all sorts of things. It was a very cute play center that we would never have in pretty much any other city. And so it's like all the kids on the floor with either their parents or their caregiver or something. And we're reading the book. And it's always like, it's like, where do the crayons go? And the answer is like, you know, in the cup or in the whatever. And but the first one was like in the basket.

And so this little girl in the front, she must have been like two. Every time I was like, where do the towels go? She goes, in the basket. And then the little sister would go, go. Basket. It was so. After every single one, it was so cute. It was so funny.

But, you know, even a clock's, a broken clock's right twice a day. So this child, finally we got to it in the basket, she was like, I knew it. It was so cute. It was really, really cute. Yeah, it was fun. Well, for those listening, they want to check out the home edit, the books they have, their socials. We'll link it all down below. Clea, Joanna.

Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having us. This is so fun. I know, it's so much fun.