PR.com (Allison Kugel): I absolutely loved your book and found it very helpful, but you must be an alien, because no human is that organized in every aspect of their life!

Maria Menounos: Not at all, and by the way, I was a complete slob before, so I’ve come a long way.

PR.com: In your past life?

Maria Menounos: No, up until a few years ago! That’s why I ended up writing this. I’ve learned so much on my journey that’s helped me to get to the place that I’m at now and I wanted to make sure I shared all of that. I didn’t have an organized office [before]. I met this editor from Seventeen Magazine and she had an organized office, and I said, “Oh my Gosh, I’ve got to copy this!” Little by little I’ve learned and applied and gotten to this place. The key to it is maintaining it, and being disciplined so that every day when you get back home from work you put everything away where it’s got to go. Then you can be happy because everything is maintained.

PR.com: Did you have to re-vamp your entire life or were there really just one or two things that needed some self-improvement?

Maria Menounos: Oh no, it was everything. My car was a mess, my room was a mess, my office was a mess… it was a complete overhaul. The way I suggest it to people who are reading my book is to put a sticky note [in the pages] for everything that you want to do, change or apply, and then attack it little by little. I take precious vacation days and precious holidays to attack these problems. Over Christmas break every year I take most of my time to organize my house and set it up for the New Year. I’ve also taken vacation days to organize my house. I suggest to people who have to do a big overhaul, take a Thursday and Friday off so you have a four day weekend. You don’t want to be going to IKEA on a Saturday afternoon (laughs). But if you do have to go on a Saturday, go in the morning, go with a plan and have your list and your measurements.

PR.com: Did you intend for The EveryGirl’s Guide to Life to be a reference manual? This isn’t the kind of book that you read once and put away in a book shelf. For me, I have it by my bedside table and I’ll continue to refer to it as I need it.

Maria Menounos: There was never any sole intention for that, it’s just kind of how it happened. It is definitely kind of a reference guide, but it’s also a docu-journal. I definitely tell my story along the way, but I wanted people to be able to make these changes. Originally there were not supposed to be any photos, but I was like, “How do I tell these things without showing them?” So I had my friend, who is a photographer, come in and shoot the photos and I’m able to show you exactly how I do it in my home.

click to read interview with Maria Menounos