In January, Julia Fox went viral for showing the world that despite being a star, she lived in a pretty normal and disorganized apartment — like millions of other single working moms. Now, another single mom who loves to keep it real, Drew Barrymore, is showing that no matter how much money you make or how much time you have, living spaces get messy. And that’s okay.
On Wednesday, the Drew Barrymore Show host recorded a makeup-free Instagram reel in which she showed a before-and-after cleaning video of her bedroom and bathroom.
In the beginning of the video, we see Barrymore in a simple sweatshirt with her hair down, walking the camera through her bedroom.
“Show me your room before and after you clean it….I’ll go first,” the caption says as she walks through a surprising amount of clutter and chaos. Viewers see books and magazines piled up, shoe boxes and clothes over every surface — not to mention a desk covered in odds and ends. Drew’s eyes get wide as she pans to her dresser (most doors open and overflowing) and bed (unmade, with a crowded bedside table).
The bathroom next door isn’t better — it looks a little like a pharmacy exploded. But even though it’s not tidy, it’s relatable for millions of moms who are juggling too much or who simply don’t want to spend the time and energy keeping their home looking spotless at all times.
The second half of the video is captioned, “Ahhh, much better!” and shows Drew in a different shirt, post-cleaning. She walks her audience first to her closet, which looks lovely, and then back into the bedroom, where everything is much more picked up and put away (although not perfect). She mimes a kiss and is visibly giddy as we see the made bed, the cleared floor, and a bathroom that looks much easier to navigate.
Everyone knows that wonderful feeling!
People in the comments were quick to relate to Barrymore’s struggle to keep things picked up and glad she was normalizing what real homes look like.
“If Queen Drew’s room can look like this sometimes, then it’s okay if mine does too,” one person wrote. Thank you for your authenticity. This is a major struggle of mine and it’s good to see that even those we look up to deal with this as well.”
“I love you for Always being authentically you!! No façades here you make it a lot easier for the rest of us to be human,” another wrote.
“Tired of all these celebrities that have homes that look like nobody lives in them,” another said.
Others pointed out that it was obvious the mess was the result of hard work.
“I just kept wondering what was beautifully being created in that chaos,” wrote one reader. “That looks like a quality brainstorming session if I’ve ever seen one.”
This is far from the first time the E.T. star has admitted that she doesn’t mind that life can be a mess sometimes — or the first time she’s been real with her fans. In 2022, she admitted on her show that she has “bed picnics” with her kids, to the horror of her guests. Hey — if you want to live life to its fullest, things can’t be tidy all the time.
