Zooey Deschanel and Jonathan Scott Split Up Household Chores: 'He Cleans Way Better Than Me'
The actress and Merryfield co-founder tells PEOPLE building her home with the Property Brothers star has been "an ongoing project"
Having a handy partner has made running her household a whole lot easier for Zooey Deschanel.
The New Girl alum, 43, says even her family and friends benefit from her boyfriend, Property Brothers star Jonathan Scott's knack for home projects.
"He'll go over to my parents', his parents', the neighbors' and fix stuff for people," she tells PEOPLE while discussing her Merryfield app and its Learn and Earn program. "He's really nice about that. He's the best neighbor."
The mom of two says she and Scott, 44, have "a good partnership." "I mainly do cooking, and he fixes stuff," she says. "And he cleans too. He cleans way better than me."
The couple has been focusing on getting their new house in Los Angeles organized. "It's an ongoing project, but it really does make things easier," says Deschanel, who next stars in Harold and the Purple Crayon. "I'm not great at it, but we've had a lot of people helping."
Deschanel says she finds that color coding helps. "If things are in colors, then I can find them much more easily than if things are just sort of randomly put back," she says. "So I try to get everything — books and clothes — color-coded."
One chore she doesn't mind doing herself: the grocery shopping.
"I really love going to the market," the actress tells PEOPLE. "It's fun for me! If I'm not working, I'll go several times a week, probably minimum once a week."
Sometimes, she'll even bring daughter Elsie, 7, and son Charlie, 5, along.
"I love going with the kids because they're fun, but it also takes a million times longer," Deschanel says. "And then I end up with crazy stuff in my cart because they'll just go grabbing things; anything with bright colors they'll put in. So, I have to put stuff back."
Deschanel co-founded the Merryfield app to help educate people about their food and allow them to earn rewards for every purchase. Merryfield recently launched its Learn & Earn program, rolling out first at Fresh Thyme Markets, where customers can scan barcodes in the store to learn more about better-for-you products.
Deschanel calls it a "fun way of inspiring people to make better choices."
Related: Jonathan Scott Says He 'Enjoys Every Minute' of Co-Parenting Zooey Deschanel's Kids
The New Girl alum became passionate about finding ways to make healthier, good quality food accessible and affordable for everyone when she became pregnant with her first child (with ex-husband Jacob Pechenik) and realized that most families either couldn't afford these brands, or didn't know how to properly source healthier alternatives.
"When I first started really asking questions about my food, that was really inspiring to me to make better choices," Deschanel says. "Healthy eating should be a right, a basic human right. Not that you have to eat healthy, but that you can make that choice if you want to eat healthy."
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The Emmy nominee founded Lettuce Grow for a similar reason, to allow people to grow fresh food in their own homes. Deschanel refers to it as "green thumbless gardening," so even novice gardeners can do it.
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"I'm a terrible gardener," Deschanel admits. "When I started working on this, people thought, 'Oh, she's a gardener,' and kept wanting to interview me for gardening columns. I'm like, 'No, no, no. You don't understand. I'm awful at gardening. I do not have a green thumb. Everything that I grow, other than in my Farmstand, unless someone else is tending to it, I'm not good at in-ground growing.'"
Even Scott, despite his handiness, doesn't excel in the garden.
"He's not a gardener," Deschanel says. "He's great at fixing everything, but neither one of us garden."
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