The Best of Martha—Tips and Wisdom From the Lifestyle Icon

Martha Stewart needs no introduction. Whether you are acquainted with her from her television shows, magazines, books (all 100 of them!), her business empire, or her friendship with Snoop—we all know who Martha is.

Starting with the publication of her first book, Entertaining, in 1982, Martha has been showing us mere mortals how to live—how to find beauty in things large and small and elevate the everyday. And beyond teaching us how to clean grout or bake the perfect cake or set a pretty table, she has shown us what it looks like to live a life based on one’s own terms. Through hard work and unflinching style, Martha became the first self-made female billionaire in the United States—and became a cultural icon along the way.

While we don’t see much of Martha folding fitted sheets these days, in celebration of the Netflix documentary Martha, we’re showcasing some of Martha’s best tips and bits of wisdom gleaned over the decades. From business advice and baking tips to learning how to garden, we hope you enjoy these Martha moments. They are very good things.

A Brain for Business

Martha Stewart built her business empire by combining her expertise in cooking, decorating, and entertaining with her visionary business acumen. Starting with a catering business in the 1970s, she expanded her lifestyle brand into a media powerhouse, launching Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in 1997 to oversee all the components of her business. In 1999, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO) went public on the New York Stock Exchange—and made Martha the country’s first female billionaire.

“The more you adapt, the more interesting you are,” Martha once said. And indeed in her case, the more successful as well. Another overarching tenet Martha lives by is the importance of always learning—and, in turn, teaching.

“As one gets older, and we were getting older the minute we’re born, right away I think it’s terribly, terribly important that we learn something new every day,” she once said in a conversation with Maria Shriver. “It really is about constantly enlarging your body of knowledge so that you can have interesting conversations, you can actually teach other people new things.”

The Icing on the Cake

If you boil it all down, at the heart of Martha’s success is that aptitude for teaching. We might call her an influencer in contemporary parlance, but Martha has always shown us how things are done—and we learn! Take baking.

Sure, some people learn to bake from a parent—but how many of us learned to bake from Martha?

From masterpiece pies to showstopping cakes and everything in between, Martha’s contributions to the baking arts have been nothing short of voluminous. What did Martha teach you how to bake?

The Art of Entertaining

The book that launched the juggernaut that is Martha’s career, Entertaining, was published in 1982 and unleashed a first-of-its-kind tome for hosting gatherings large and small.

“I’ve been throwing holiday parties since about 1980, when I was living in Westport, Connecticut, and writing my first book, Entertaining,” says Martha. “It’s a great way to see a lot of people in a friendly atmosphere.”

Nowadays, social media shows us creative hosting tips and tricks, but back in the day, Martha owned the space—there’s a reason so many influencers are referred to as modern-day Marthas. Her take on entertaining, like her take on most things, was (and remains) fully ahead of the curve.

Around the House

At the center of all things Martha is the home. While some people may see their abode as simply a place to exist, Martha has encouraged us to see the home as the heart of a beautifully lived life—and really, an expression of ourselves. “A home is much more than just a place to live; it reflects who you are,” she says.

She has also shown us that one can be the ultimate homemaker while maintaining other pursuits. “It’s a big job taking care of one’s home, and one’s family, and one’s kids—and then do everything else,” Martha says. “And that’s what I was trying to do with writing the first book—and then I kept writing books. Finding my voice in terms of the home just made me very happy.”

From inspiring us with her trendsetting takes on interior design to somehow making housework more enjoyable, Martha has given us decades of inspiration for making our homes our havens.

In the Garden

As the story goes, Martha was just four years old when her father gave her a screwdriver and showed her how to use it between the pavers of a path to dig out a weed. Within a few hours, she’d cleared the whole path—and a lifelong passion for gardening took root.

Her first serious foray into a garden of her own was at Turkey Hill in Westport, Connecticut—where she started with two acres and gradually expanded to six. It gave her what she calls a “college education” in gardening. She would go on to create endless acres of landscaping at her various properties, from Lily Pond in East Hampton to the massive acreage of her Bedford, New York, estate to the landscaped haven of Skylands, her summer home on Mount Desert Island in Maine.

“My advice to new gardeners is to go to nurseries and find something you love, and just start digging and planting,” Martha says. “You’re bound to make mistakes—I make lots—but you’ll learn from them, and you can always dig up a plant and try again.”

What’s Cooking

Martha credits the purchase of her home Turkey Hill with being the spark that made her who she is today, and cooking beautiful, homemade food was very much part of that trajectory. She learned to cook from her mother and expanded upon that knowledge to start her catering company in the 1970s. In a way, it all began with cooking—and as evidenced by the thousands of recipes we have on this very website, it is an enduring legacy.

Martha’s cooking style has inspired millions; her approach emphasizes freshness, quality ingredients, and a blend of classic and innovative approaches to creating food. It is marked by curiosity and an appetite for learning as well as an appetite for delicious creations!