What Jesse Tyler Ferguson Can’t Live Without

I have been using this for almost 16 years. I like it because I have history with it. Buying a new one every year sort of resets the year for me. It also acts as a diary. I constantly refer to it. I could tell you what day I had a call back from “Modern Family;” I made notes in my Moleskine diary about how it went. I have memories from that day because I know I went to a workout class before I went to that audition. I really use it not only as a planner, but a diary as well, and I keep notes in it. As I’ve gotten busier, when my schedule gets away from me, I get really stressed out, so I like to be able to see everything written in front of me. I like to see a full month view in front of me. The calendar has several different places where you can map out your days and your months and your years. It’s sort of an all-in-one calendar for me.

I’m doingTwelfth Nightthis summer at the Delacorte Theater atShakespeare in the Parkwith Lupita Nyong’o, Peter Dinklage, Sandra Oh, and Daphne Rubin-Vega. I think this is my seventh production of Shakespeare in the Park. I need help with Shakespeare, as many people do. I found these No Fear Shakespeare books, which, on one side of the page is the Shakespearean text, and on the other side it’s translated into everyday vernacular, so you can really see what you’re saying. I tend to not bring my No Fear Shakespeare book into rehearsal because I don’t want people to think that I’m getting extra help. But one day when I was rehearsingThe Merchant of Venicewith Al Pacino, I noticed that he was working from his No Fear Shakespeare version ofThe Merchant of Venice. Since then, I have no shame.

I am constantly losing my wallet. During the pandemic, it just started happening because I wasn’t leaving the house a lot. I just wasn’t leaving the home with my keys and my wallet or my phone. The door was always unlocked. That year and a half of not really needing to know where my wallet was really deprogrammed me. This wallet is magnetic. It attaches to the back of my phone. It has a built-in GPS and chimes when I need to find it. I recently just left it in Toronto by accident while I was shooting something and production was able to find it and send it back to me. It’s helping me reprogram myself to not lose my wallet every day. It also acts as a stand. If my kids Beckett and Sullivan want to watch something on the phone on an airplane, they can just stand it up. It’s great.

Beckett’s very into Legos. He’s 4-and-a-half, but we’re buying Legos that are like 9-plus for him. You can sit down and really conquer a full set of Legos, but you always make mistakes. You always find bricks on the wrong pieces. This is just a simple little wedge that pries Legos off of itself. Beckett’s always trying to put the Legos in his mouth. We’re constantly saying, Don’t do that. You’re going to choke. I’m hearing the voices of my parents in my head. This little tool helps you take the Legos off and keeps your nails nice. I think I have about six or seven of them scattered throughout the house. They’re like a dollar each.

Summer Fridays is a brand that I recently discovered. I think it’s been very popular for a long time, but I had Jonathan Van Ness on my podcast and they were talking about Summer Fridays. Then I went to a night-before-the-Emmys party and there were Summer Fridays products in my goodie bag. I tried them for the first time and I was like, Oh! Usually, those things that are in those bags, you think, I’m never going to eat this chocolate bark again, or whatever they put in there. But I was like, Oh, these Summer Friday products are really good. I’ve really leaned into buying a lot of their products, and this cleanser is really good. It’s really light. It’s not super scented. I can put it on before bedtime and not feel like I smell like a flower. I hate falling asleep, just, like, smelling my cleanser.

This was a present from my husband, Justin, for Christmas this year. I’m actually wearing it right now. I lost my watch, again, to keep on theme about how I just can’t keep track of things. I lost my really nice watch about a year and a half ago. I left it in a locker at the gym, and it was gone the next time I went to go look for it. I really hesitated to buy myself another nice watch because I thought I didn’t deserve it. So when Justin bought it for me for Christmas, it made me feel like, okay, I’ve been trusted to have this again. I missed having a watch on my wrist. My kids are learning how to tell time, so they like to look at my watch and try and figure out what time it is with the hands and the second hands and all that stuff.

I have one in New York and in Los Angeles. My podcasts are all recorded at restaurants, but I do all of my introductions and I record my ads from home. It’s really lightweight. I can throw it in a suitcase if I’m traveling. My producer’s always sending me copy to record. It hooks up really easily to my laptop, and I now use it for when I do remote podcasts at home for other people. I feel super professional. It’s great. It was a gift, actually, from my producer Joanna so that she wouldn’t have to keep coming to my house with hers to record all this extra stuff. Then I bought one for myself here and in New York as well. I use this in restaurants, too, but Joanna has a whole series of fancier things with dials and numbers that flash. I don’t even know what it is. I don’t know about that stuff.

This was also a gift from my husband. For one of our anniversaries, the anniversary gift was steel and that’s what he bought me. We like to give gifts that correspond to the traditional anniversary gifts, and sometimes we have to be super creative. I love it. It has a nice wooden sleeve that it fits inside, and I’ve actually packed it in my bag and taken it to an Airbnb if we’re driving down to Palm Springs or something. Because anytime you go to an Airbnb or a rental, the knives are butter knives and are just not sharp enough. And if there’s one thing I need to have, if I’m going to feel like I can do anything in the kitchen, it’s a sharp knife. It’s really good quality. It keeps its edge beautifully. It’s my special knife in the kitchen. I have a set of other knives from Cuisinart, but this is the one that I know is always ready to go and is always sharp, and it’s the one I’ll take to the farmer’s market and keep ready to go.

[Editor’s note: This knife is out of stock but you can sign up to be notified when it is available.]

My friend Ellen Bennettis the founder of Hedley Bennett Aprons, and I’ve been friends with her for almost 15 years now. I became friends with her because I was a fan of her apron. She made me my very first apron and embroidered my name on it. She’s given me aprons for my kids. If you go to any fancy restaurants and they’re wearing nice aprons, it’s usually from her company. I always feel like when I put on an apron in the kitchen, I’m ready to really double down and get to work. I have a huge collection of aprons, so anytime I have friends come over, I will have an apron for them. Sometimes I even let them take it home with them. I truly have more aprons than I need, but I love them and I love supporting her, and they just look really fashionable and really cute. You feel like a real pro when you’re wearing them. Cooking wise, recently I’ve been doing a lot of healthier stuff. My kids really like salmon, so I’ve just been doing salmon a few ways. I’ll put a really nice sriracha lime sauce on for Justin and me, and then do a cleaner version for my kids. And I have a garden that’s been producing a lot, so I do kind of really super elaborate salads. I love cooking Mexican food. I grew up in New Mexico, so I do a lot of green chili chicken enchiladas. I have a pretty versatile palette.