Maybe you’re tired of coming back to your dorm only to find your jewelry in a messy pile or just feel that there are not enough hours in the day to actually have fun instead of working all day. Whatever your struggle, Brit Morin is here to help! We spoke with the queen of DIY herself to get her best tips on organization and homemaking for college women.
Name: Brit Morin
Job Title: CEO of Brit + Co
College: The University of Texas at Austin
Website: www.brit.co
Instagram Handle: @brit
Twitter Handle: @brit
What does homemaking in the 21st century mean to you?
Brit Morin: This is a great question because I think that people feel like the word “homemaker” is so old school, but I think that “homemaker” is ripe to be reinvented. Most women today are working women! They are trying to multitask; they’re connected all the time. It’s a blend of wanting to be creative in their homes––throwing dinner parties and decorating in really cute ways, while also living more efficiently, because we don’t have a ton of time to spend at home. All those tricks, tips, shortcuts and hacks mean a lot to us right now.
What are a few tips that can help busy college 20-somethings get organized around their home?
BM: There are a few problematic zones in the house, especially when space is at a minimum. A lot of women face this whether they’re in a dorm room or small studio apartment, when the bathrooms and kitchens are so tiny and it’s hard to maximize space for all their stuff. I know a couple tips for organizing your stuff around your house or apartment while still having stylish storage! A fun DIY project is to find decorative plates and bowls, then glue them together with candle votive sticks to create towers of organization where you can toss keys, jewelry, sunglasses and other odds and ends. You can leave them in your entryway so that you always have those things ready to go whenever you need them.
Another tip is to use drawer inserts. I’ve been there, where I’ve piled up everything in a drawer and won’t be able to find a pen or something tiny at the back of it, so I always love to use drawer inserts for my jewelry or home office. They come in all shapes and sizes with all types of compartments, and it makes it so easy to remember where everything is at all times.
Your book, Homemakers: A Domestic Handbook for the Digital Generation, is filled with so many innovative ideas and creative how-tos, and the way you’ve turned your hobby into your career is inspiring. Do you have any tips for college women who struggle to find the time to embrace their creative side every day?
BM: I think in general it’s about finding areas where they can save time so that they can make time, which happens in a variety of ways. There are smarter ways you can organize your email and smarter ways you can save time at home, too. An example, which is kind of silly, is changing toilet paper rolls or hanging up your towels in the bathroom––that takes a lot of time when you have bras on bars and those springy things in your toilet paper. If you can find little solutions like using a rod for your toilet paper instead of the springy thing, that time adds up.
For me I find that shopping for household goods can take a lot of time, so I like using a Cottonelle Mega Roll, which is four rolls in one, so you have to go to the store way less to get supplies like that, and it saves a lot of hassle. I’m here on behalf of them sharing these tips, but it’s literally the product I’ve used most in my house. Especially when I have guests come over, that’s the last thing I want to be worried about is, “Did I put extra toilet paper in the bathroom?” So finding little things like that to save time is the way you can make time for creative work.
What’s your favorite fall DIY project?
BM: If you consider Halloween the DIY season, then yes. Every costume idea you can imagine is on Brit + Co, like group costumes, couples’ costumes, kids’ costumes and pop culture costumes. Suicide Squad has been really big this year, and we just did a really fun tutorial on that. We also did a tutorial on Snapchat filters as your costume, which is super fun, so there’s all kinds of great DIY ideas for the holiday season that I’m excited about.
Where can we get more ideas?
BM: All the ideas from Brit + Co, you can find on all our social networks—we’re just “britandco”—or on our website brit.co. As far as the home organization stuff, we’re sharing a ton of ideas through the Cottonelle Facebook page. You can follow us there!
What is the best part of your job?
BM: My job is crazy because it’s evolved so much—when you start a company and it’s just you to having over a hundred employees. What’s great is I’ve gotten to do every job, and that’s sort of what I like the most about it. I never get bored––I’m always doing something different. Sometimes I’m in front of a camera, and sometimes I’m looking at our financial spreadsheets or working on a new website redesign and negotiating a big partnership with Pinterest or Snapchat. It’s never boring, but it does get a little exhausting. I’m always making sure that I’m saving a bit of my own time to be more creative at home, too.
What has been the most surreal moment of your career thus far?
BM: Everything has been happening so incrementally over the last five years or so, and then I’ll step back and look at the big picture like, “Wow, we’re reaching a lot of people in this country,” and I have over a hundred employees now and I can see how we’ve been able to impact people’s lives. Just the idea that I’m so caught up in the day-to-day, being the founder and CEO, but when I look back on all we’ve accomplished and how true to the mission we’ve stayed, I get really excited about where we’re headed and how great of a team we’ve built. It’s cool to have those moments every now and then to reflect.