NATALIE MORALES IN WOMAN'S DAY FOR LATINAS

Natalie Morales



Homework! School clothes! Activities! Natalie Morales of NBC’s TODAY show speaks with the Fall 2014 issue of Woman’s Day for Latinas about the simple tricks she uses to keep her busy home humming. Her go-to time saving tricks include keeping a family calendar, instituting family “homework” time, saving hand-me-downs arranged by age for her youngest son, and decluttering her home in short 15 minute bursts.



As she smoothly delivers live TV segments ranging from breaking news to cooking lessons— often while wearing impressively high heels—TODAY news anchor and co host Natalie Morales seems to define the word organized. But the idea makes the 42-year-old chuckle. To hear her tell it, once she’s home in New Jersey with husband Joseph and sons Josh and Luke, she’s just another busy working mom.



“Josh is 10 and Luke is 5, so it’s always chaos in the house,” she says. “I try to keep things organized. But I have to work at it.” This means using the tricks she learned growing up in an orderly Air Force household, the second daughter of a Puerto Rican lieutenant colonel and a Brazilian stay-at-home mother.



“We moved every three years,” Natalie says. “You learned to think fast on your feet, and to get rid of anything you didn’t absolutely need.” These days, decluttering, scheduling and assigned chores help her family stay on track, especially during the hectic back-to-school weeks. The boys make their beds first thing in the morning; later, when homework’s done, Josh helps Mom make dinner— just as Natalie did when she was little. The routine, along with some commonsense tactics, makes life go more smoothly.



“It’s never a perfect balance,” says Natalie. “I just try to put some orderliness in the chaos.”


NATALIE'S TIPS



KEEP A FAMILY CALENDAR: “Our schedule changes constantly,” says Natalie. “It’s a real juggling act!” That’s especially true when the fall means all-new activities for the boys. She uses a big dry-erase board to keep events in full view and allow for easy changes.


MAXIMIZE YOUR MORNINGS: “In my job, you need to just get up and go—hit snooze and you’ll stay in bed all day,” says Natalie. She follows a well-established routine: laying out her clothes and putting her shoes by the front door the night before, then in the morning “religiously” making a fruit-and-veggie smoothie to go. “I know it’s probably the best time to get those good nutrients,” she says.



SYNC YOUR HOMEWORK TIME: For Natalie, to-dos include staying on top of breaking news and prepping for the next day’s show—plus helping her kids with schoolwork. “So my sons and I sit at the table and do our homework together,” she says. “I’m reading segments and writing questions while Luke and Josh are doing their fractions or history.” 



DECLUTTER IN SHORT BURSTS: Natalie doesn’t like messes creeping up on her. She jokes that she does her spring cleaning “like, every two weeks.” 



SAVE OUTGROWN SUPPLIES AND CLOTHES IN “AGE BOXES”: “When I was growing up, I always got my older sister Patricia’s hand-me-downs,” Natalie says. “There’s a five-year difference between my sons, so I keep Josh’s stuff­ for Luke, and Luke’s for friends’ kids.” She marks bins with their ages (“JOSH, AGE 8”), then puts them away.




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