What's the first thing you do when you get
home? Put on sweatpants, take off my bra, literally,
take off my bra. It's the first thing on my mind. I mean, is there any better feeling than taking
off your bra the minute you get home? Hi! I'm Reese Witherspoon, and these are some
tips for a happy home. What are some of the first things you do in
the morning? I know you're a morning person. The first things I do in the morning is brush
my teeth and drink coffee, and then I drink some more coffee, and then I wake up my kids
and check the news, Instagram, and then I make sure everybody gets to school and everybody
has all their papers, books; everything they need for school: golf clubs, tennis rackets,
lunchbox, and then I go exercise. What kind of coffee makes for a really good
day? Oh, I drink really strong coffee with coconut
milk. Very particular about my whole process. And it has to be in a mug that says something
funny because it makes my day. I have all these funny mugs, I should take
pictures of my mugs. People don't know that I have funny mugs. Um, I have one that has a picture of me in
funny glasses—says, "I'm the boss" that my assistant made for me. I have some cute ones that say like, "hello sugar,"
"you look you cute," things like that. So what are your around-the-house clothes
then? Oddly, I always wear a striped T-shirt with
long sleeves and sweatpants. Where do you put your keys to make sure you'll
never lose them? I always put my keys in a dish beside the
front door so I don't lose them. Unfortunately, I lose my phone 17 times a
day. I would like to set a goal that I wouldn't
lose my phone or shout to everybody: Has anybody seen my phone? Can somebody call me? You have kids in the house, but it's important
to have your "me" time. What are some rules to having some "me" time
in your house? What do you like to do? Well once I get the toddler to bed, I take
a bath, and everybody knows I have to take a bath, and everybody has to leave me alone
for 30 minutes because I read a book in the bath. And then I'll go from each kid's room, and
I sit on their bed and talk to them for, like, 30 minutes, and then I watch TV with my husband,
then I go to bed. And the other day I started watching The Sinner
with Jessica Biel, which is terrifying. And what else do we watch? We watch some documentaries. We watched the Defiant Ones with Jimmy Iovine
and Dr. Dre. It was awesome! Basically he's Jimmy Iovine and I'm Dr. Dre,
you know, the business and the creative. You have a few houseguests in home again… Yeah. What are some rules to being an exceptional
hostess? I like to think about the comfort of people
coming to my house. I want everybody to feel welcome. I like to offer people a drink when they come
in and also the Wi-Fi code immediately because, I mean, don't people want to know the Wi-Fi
code immediately? I just like to invite guests who feel friendly
with each other. Always invite someone who can talk to a brick
wall for at least three hours because I know they'll talk to the one sort of shy person
at the party or my mother. Speaking of conversation, do you have any
go-to dinner party conversation starters that you use? I like to ask people things like, what was
your first job? Or if you can move anywhere in the world,
where would you move to? Or what is your secret escape plan, like,
if you left your life immediately, where would you go to and what would you do? What are the three essentials for a great
guest room? The three essentials for a really great guest
room, probably, first of all, amazing sheets. it's important people feel comfortable. A really good mattress—I like a Sealy Posturepedic
just so you know, with a pillow top and nice, fresh white towels. I think that's great. And also, you know, it's important to have
products because everybody forgets their toothbrush and their toothpaste and their shampoo and
conditioner, and it's nice that it's just there, and they don't even have to ask. If you have guests arriving in 10 minutes,
what do you do? Panic. No. Change my clothes usually, out of my sweatpants,
and I put on a bra. I just, uh, I always have something in the
fridge that I can serve like cheese and crackers or nuts or fruit or something like that so
that nobody's hungry. How do you keep the family chill, when there
are guests in town? I give a lot of warnings like, "In two days
we're gonna have houseguest for a week." "In one day, we're gonna have houseguest for
a week," and, I mean, that's all. Everybody usually who stays in my house really
blends easily with the family, but I will say, if you are a houseguest, it's probably
not nice to stay more than three days. So you have two teenagers… what's the rule
to a happy home when you have teenagers? As much as you possibly can, have family dinner
together. Even if it has to shift later because they're
doing soccer practice, or golf, or whatever they're doing, it's important for them to
be able to feel good at a table and share their day and also invite their friends. Let them invite their friends over! You want all the kids at your house, and usually
you're like a fly on the wall, you can hear what they're talking about because they talk
loudly in front of you, and they don't realize they're supposed to be more secretive, so
those are my spying techniques. What do you serve for a family dinner any
go to crowd-pleasers? I like to serve turkey lasagna and salad if
I have a lot of time to prep. If I don't, I do something like chicken and
rice. Do you have any technology rules in your house? I get my kids to put the phone to plug in
the phone outside their room at nine o'clock at night because there's really no good conversations
that are happening between teenagers post 10 o'clock at night. Do you have any family game nights or other
entertaining? For family games we we play Rummikub a lot. It's pretty competitive at our house, with
the little tiles and everything. Everybody likes that game in my house. Do you have any favorite movies that you watch
as a family? We watch a lot of movies as a family, and
lately, I've been thinking it might be nice to have a classic movie night because my kids,
there's so many movies they haven't seen, and I feel like I need to show them Tootsie
and Private Benjamin and Broadcast News—movies that I grew up loving. What do you do when nobody is watching in
your house? Any secret behaviors? I sing a lot. I'm a really good singer around the house,
I think? I dance a lot. I talk to the dogs in strange voices. Mainly, I have a very deep, passionate relationship
with one of my dogs. I get on the floor and lay in the bed with
the dog. What is the one thing you need to do at home
in order to be successful outside of the house? I feel better outside the house when I feel
like I'm really connected to everything that's going on with my kids, and when they're happy,
I'm happy, and I just like to say goodnight to them every night. It's really important to me to tell them how
much I love them. What's the last thing you do before you go
to bed at night? The last thing I do before I go to bed at
night: I read a book. What books are on your nightstand right now? I'm reading this book by Delia Efron called
Siracusa, about two couples that go to an Italian, uh, a small town in Italy, and what happens,
and they're just really interesting characters, and it's really well-written. You're gonna finish the statement for me. Home is where the blank is… Home is where my kids are and my dogs and
my husband, and home is where I'm most like myself.
