Why Jill Biden has a passion for Post-its

Jill Biden is professing a passion for Post-it notes.

The first lady says she uses the sticky notes for virtually everything, but developed a Post-it system especially for family functions.

“It started because the Bidens are a big family, and we have a lot of gatherings. And they would all say, ‘What can I do to help?’ And by the time you’ve explained, ‘You get the salad bowl out, it’s in this cupboard, here are the utensils, etc.’ I thought, ‘There’s got to be an easier way,’ ” Biden told Real Simple magazine, in an interview published Tuesday for its September issue.

“I know my meal and what I’m going to serve, so I do Post-it notes, like ‘Fill the glasses with ice,’ ‘Light the candles,’ and I put them on the cabinet above my kitchen counter. Then I put out the salad bowl with the tomatoes or the lemons or whatever needs to be cut, and everything is set up so when somebody comes in, they do what they want to do,” Biden explained.

Her family members, Biden said, appreciate her Post-it management style “because they’re helping, but they’re doing what they chose to do.”

The Post-its don’t just apply to hosting duties — the community college professor also utilizes them at work.

“They’re telling me what to do,” she said.

Biden said she’s even stuck Post-its into her personal life with the president.

“And if I want to get a message to Joe, I put one on his mirror. It may be a nice ‘I missed you’ or ‘’I hope you get whatever it is you’re working on.’ ”

A rep for 3M, the manufacturer behind Post-its — which were introduced in the 1970’s — didn’t immediately return ITK’s request for comment about Biden’s canary yellow-colored obsession.

Biden also detailed other aspects of her life beyond note-filled organization, saying “people were a little skeptical” about her ability to continue teaching at Northern Virginia Community College after her husband won the 2020 White House race.

“Could I truly do it, since I was the first one to try it? But I knew I wanted to teach. And so I said, ‘This is what I want to do. We have to figure it out.’ I knew I could do both,” Biden said.

“I’d done it as second lady, and at that time my staff said, ‘There’s no way you can do this,’ and then they saw that I could. I saw it work then, and I knew we could figure out how to do it now,” Biden told the magazine.

Biden acknowledged the “tough time in history” that Americans are facing, noting sky-rocketing gas prices, the pandemic and other challenges.

“These problems are coming so fast and furious, and certainly a lot of it is dark, like you said,” Biden told Real Simple Editor-in-Chief Lauren Iannotti.

“But I wish people could see more of what Joe has accomplished and how hard he’s working,” Biden added.

Opening up about her 45-year relationship since tying the knot with the then-senator in 1977, Biden said, “You have to work in any relationship, but especially in marriage. It’s not always 50/50.”

“Sometimes you lean on him, sometimes he leans on you. Sometimes he’s super busy and I have to pick up a lot of it, or vice versa,” she said. “The goal is that we’re not in the same place at the same time, so we can count on one another when we need to.”

“We always have dinner together most nights; I would say almost every night. I think that’s the time that we have together,” Biden, 71, said.

“We always have flowers and candles and just sit there and put the phones away and the televisions off,” Biden said.

“And just spend time with one another, and like I said, when we don’t have that time, I put the Post-it note up like, ‘Hey! Whatever it is.’ ”

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