 " The Secret " was written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky . The episode was written in roughly 26 hours and was the fastest episode written for the series , at the time . The idea to make the entry the " spring cleaning episode " was " throw [ n ] in at the last minute " because the writers were " desperate " . The subplot was inspired by a friend of Eisenberg 's , who suggested the story after he was forced to undergo spring cleaning at his office . 
