The 1 Thing Joanna Gaines Keeps on Her Nightstand That We Should All Copy

Ever wonder what keeps major HGTV stars like Joanna Gaines up at night? POPSUGAR recently sat down with the Fixer Upper designer at an event for her Magnolia Home paint collection where we got to find out.

While her four kids with husband Chip keep her busy, they don't keep her up. "I just feel like they're still at that fun age where there's nothing pressing yet," Joanna explained, and Chip echoed her sentiment saying, "Somehow we've got a real peace about the kids and that they're in a great place."

And there's no anxiety or negativity racing through her head keeping sleep at bay, either. Joanna says that her dreamless thoughts are all "fun stuff." Could it be this positive mindset that is the key to Joanna's monumental design success? Maybe, but it's more likely that the secret to her success is what does go through her head at night: great ideas. Turns out Joanna ends up thinking up ways to make her designs and business even better right before drifting off.

She explains, "During the day, I'm definitely more business minded; I'm thinking structure, I'm thinking schedules and meeting to meeting, that kind of stuff. And at night, when I lay my head down, that's when I feel like I'm like, 'oh, so and so's living room, we can do this on their floor.' So she doesn't forget her great nighttime ideas, Joanna told us she keeps a little notebook next to her bed.

"The designs start coming when I try to go to sleep . . . because my mind's finally resting and then the inspiration comes, so I just start writing it in my journal and the next day, I kind of explore what that looks like and sometimes I'm just tired and I'm like, that was a stupidest thing ever, but I think what keeps me up is fun stuff."

And while her design breakthroughs might be keeping her awake, she's not complaining about the lack of shuteye. "It's because I just love what we do. I'm really having fun with just design and homes and just helping people, so I just feel like that's like, that's one of those fun stages where I'm not complaining that I'm not getting enough sleep."

Looks like we have one more awesome Joanna Gaines home tip to add to our list: placing a notebook on our nightstand to capture fleeting nighttime breakthroughs.

Travel and expenses for the author were provided by KILZ for the purpose of writing this story.