Issue Date: March 30, 2008
Mr. Clean
Toothpaste in the sink? Not in Matt Lauer's bathroom! The "Today" show co-anchor reveals his obsession with all things orderly.
Most people would see a week at home without the spouse and kids as a chance to relax, unwind, let the dishes and laundry pile up -- maybe kick back and watch TV.
Matt Lauer is not most people. So when wife Annette takes their three young kids -- Jack, 6, Romy, 4, and Thijs, 1 -- to visit family in Amsterdam, the "Today" show co-anchor doesn't regress to bachelorhood. Instead?
"Do you know what I get excited about? I think, 'It gives me time.' I can go clean out my drawers, my closets. I can organize my office at home. Something about it is incredibly pleasing to me," he says, as he sits in an office at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York just after finishing a morning broadcast. "I like getting rid of things. I really do. I like it when things are where they're supposed to be."
Lauer, 50, holds to a "one in, one out" rule. "If I buy something new -- a piece of clothing, a tie, a shirt, a suit -- something old has to go," he explains. "That's the way I avoid clutter, crammed closets and drawers. It keeps things in balance, and it really works."
The "out" pile goes to a group that helps the needy prepare for job interviews. Says Lauer: "It does me good mentally, and it possibly does someone else good, as well."
Lauer attacks grime as well as clutter. Take his bathroom, for example. "I never let the sink get to the point where there's caked toothpaste. If I use the sink to brush my teeth or to shave, I wipe out the basin when I'm finished. If I take a shower, I don't leave the towel on the floor," he says. "I like to walk out of the bathroom and not leave it a mess."
That clean-as-you-go philosophy extends to Lauer's bedroom. "I know people who come home every day, take off what they're wearing and put it on the floor or on a chair. By the end of the week, the chair is piled this high," he says, miming a mini-mountain of discarded duds. "Walking into a room and seeing all of that would make me uncomfortable. So every day, if I take off a suit, I hang it up or put it in the hamper or send it to the cleaner.I walk out and everything is still in order."
When asked if he's had closet organizers come in and makeover his house, he laughs. "No, that's me. I could, after this job, open up that business," he says, only half-joking. "I love it. I love to do it for other people. If they would let me throw things out and organize, I would do it."
And the thought of a trip to The Container Store? "I love going to places like that," he says, wistfully. "That is like nirvana for me."
-- Michele Hatty
|
