Quarantine Diaries: 'Queer Eye' star Bobby Berk is landscaping at his Airbnb and building Legos
Going stir-crazy in quarantine? You’re not alone. Celebrities are cooped up in their homes across the country just like the rest of us. As we collectively navigate this uncharted territory, USA TODAY presents Quarantine Diaries, which give readers a peek into how our favorite stars are spending their time at home.
Today's diarist is "Queer Eye" star and interior designer Bobby Berk, who is hunkering down in a Texas Airbnb with his husband, Dewey Do (and their trainer Zach Morgan and his wife, Sarah) amid the coronavirus pandemic. While his interior design company has kept Berk busy, he's still made time for Instagram Live workouts for his followers and supporting Feeding America and No Kid Hungry. Here’s what a day in the life of Berk's quarantine looks like. – As told to Anika Reed
Staying Apart, Together: A newsletter about how to cope with the coronavirus pandemic
8 a.m. The first few weeks of (quarantine) I would sleep until like 10:30 a.m. or 11 a.m., like all the way back until when I was a teenager, and it was so nice. But then I was like, "I need to start getting more of a routine or when we do go back (to normal) it’s going to knock me on my a--." Now every day I get up at 8 a.m. I do a workout with my trainer Zach and we cook breakfast.
9 a.m. My normal heavy workout, I do in the mornings. I got a Total Gym machine, and that has been a lifesaver. If we're doing an Instagram Live workout, we do it at noon, me, Zach and my husband.
Zach lives here right now. When we travel out of state to film for "Queer Eye," he’s both Antoni and I’s trainer. We actually met him when we were filming in Kansas City, and I ended up bringing him and his wife back to LA with us. On Fridays we’re trying to do a live cooking thing with Zach because Zach’s not only a trainer, he’s also a chef.
11 a.m. I've been doing intermittent fasting every day, so it's usually a late breakfast. My husband and I have been doing a lot of experimental cooking. We’re not vegans, but we try to eat vegan as much as possible. He made this really cool vegan "egg breakfast": it looks just like a fried egg, but he used a squash to make the yolk. And it looks like there’s salmon avocado toast on the side but it’s actually sliced up carrots that he soaked in dill. Very good. Often I'll skip lunch unless Dewey is making something unique for dinner.
1 p.m. I’m in an Airbnb, but I’ve said to hell with it and have been planting stuff in their yard, vegetables and flowers. They’re going to come back to a completely different landscape. I rented this house because it had a pool, but in the end, I don’t even use it because the sun is so intense. As I’m getting older I’m starting to notice those brown spots popping up on my face, so now I kind of fondly look at the pool from inside.
2 p.m. We’ve been asked to create a lot of video content for publications and websites. At first, it was hard because I’m used to having a crew. I’ve had to get creative. I’ve gone online and ordered lights and microphone adapters for my iPhone. So that’s been keeping me busy because when you’re running back and forth between in front of the camera and then behind the camera, it takes a little bit longer.
How I'm organizing: Any chaos around me in my home instantly creates chaos in my head. Sometimes I drive my husband and Zach and his wife nuts because I’m always going behind them and putting things back where they were, whether they’re done with them or not. Everything for me needs to have its place. That’s how I’m keeping myself sane with that.
4 p.m. We walk a lot right now. We try to stay away from the parks and the trails because too many people are going to those and not social distancing.
6:30 p.m. I usually call my parents around dinner time, they like to prop the phone up on the counter and talk to me while they're cooking and eating. This would be so hard for the world if it wasn’t for video phones right now. Every evening on my drive home from my office I used to call my parents, but now I don’t have that daily drive by myself.
7 p.m. If we’re not eating vegan, we eat a lot of fish. We don’t eat a lot of meat, we barely eat chicken, so we're just figuring out new ways to make fish taste different. We had a great cream sauce that Zach made with cashew milk: he made a roux and added chopped up celery and peas in it over a white fish. We’ve also been trying to order out and keep supporting the local restaurants around us. There’s a really great taco place in the neighborhood, so we’ve been ordering from them a lot.
8:45 p.m. I was a Lego freak when I was a little kid, that’s all I played with. So I went online and ordered tons of Legos from Target and every night my husband and I sit there. I actually also ordered a guitar, I’ve always wanted to learn to play. Singing is a huge passion of mine. I took piano lessons for a bit when I was little.
Midnight My bedtime kind of depends on whether I’m really into a show or now. I started watching “Taken at Birth” on TLC. It’s this documentary about the Hicks babies. The documentary follows all of them trying to figure out where they come from and their birth parents. Myself being adopted, it was even more captivating to me. It is so good and heart wrenching and happy and sad.
On a personal level, I’m honestly enjoying a bit of time off, but then I also get a bit of anxiety in the evening thinking of everyone else who isn’t enjoying this time as much as I am. I know for a lot of people, having this time off isn’t a great thing. But I’m getting a little antsy now. We’re lucky enough that we can work from home, but a lot of people aren’t that lucky.
Read more Quarantine Diaries:
A day in the life of my quarantine: Read Jimmy Fallon's diary
A day in the life of my quarantine: Read Naomi Campbell's diary
A day in the life of my quarantine: Read Jameela Jamil's diary
A day in the life of my quarantine: Read LeAnn Rime's diary
A day in the life of my quarantine: Read Hasan Minhaj's diary
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: How 'Queer Eye' star Bobby Berk spends his quarantine