Things to do at home during isolation/quarantine – how to keep the boredom at bay

Hey everyone! No matter where you are in the world, indoors seem to be where it’s at. By that, I mean COVID-19 is getting to the stage where it’s safer for everyone to stay at home just to reduce the risk of spread and infection. South Africa is having a 21-day lockdown starting tomorrow, so I too will be spending a significant amount of time in the not-too-distant-future inside the four walls of our house. With that being said, being stuck at home can be incredibly boring. I mean after a few days, things can start to get pretty dull and without being able to escape to the entertainment of the outside world, that means one needs to start getting pretty creative to keep boredom at bay. That’s what I’m going to try and do today – help give a few suggestions for how you can pass the hours at home and not succumb to the dullness of being ‘trapped’ at home. There are quite a few suggestions here, that can be quite adaptable depending on what you enjoy, so I hope you find at least one that can help you with your time at home during this difficult time.

Stay active

Unfortunately for all those gym bunnies out there, now is not the best of times to be working on your fitness. Gyms are closed and with everyone being recommended to self-isolate and stay home, that means that running or cycling outdoors is also quite out of the question. So how on earth are we meant to combat the calories and stay fit and healthy when we can’t leave our houses? Well, just because we can’t go to the gym, doesn’t mean we can’t stay active at home. For those fortunate enough to have gym equipment at home or a large enough garden, you can still do more traditional workouts. However, that isn’t always the case and yet people still want to be able to exercise. The solution is startingly clear – online workouts or at-home HIIT. There are so many exercise programmes available online that you can do at home with no equipment. There are also great apps and youtube videos of home-dance workouts or HIIT or 30 day challenges. Staying active will be so good for your mental health, so don’t let self-isolation stop you from breaking a sweat.

Self-care

The biggest excuse for lack of self-care is that we are always too busy with work, errands and the hustle of life to take some time out for ourselves. Well, now that we are being forced to slow the pace by staying at home, we finally have enough time to practice some self-care. We all need the TLC and now we’ve been given the time so make it a priority while you have the opportunity. Start a proper skincare routine and who knows you may love it so much you never stop. Self-care doesn’t just stop at that though. Self-care can be different for everyone and it can mean sitting down for an hour you’ve never been given to read a book, having a glass of wine, journaling, or going the whole hog and treating yourself to an at-home spa day complete with foot soaks, face masks and nails. Whatever makes you feel peaceful, relaxed, refreshed and good, now is the time to do it!

Learn something new

Have you ever wanted to learn a new language? Or at least attempt a yoga class or martial art? How about learn a new skill like coding? You may be thinking to yourself, “Blondey how on earth am I meant to do any of these things if I’m stuck at home? All these classes are out in the real world and therefore, most probably cancelled.” Fear not, because we live in the digital age. You can access and learn almost anything online. You can get Duolingo and do daily lessons in whatever language you want to learn. Or, watch youtube videos to start your yoga/karate journey. Better yet, there are dozens of online classes that you can sign up for where you can do all lessons, reading and assignments in bed and at the end of the session, you’ve learnt something new all without changing out of your pyjamas. Who knows? You might come out of all this self-isolation with so many new skills you won’t know what to do with yourself.

Get cooking

I don’t know about you, but I love cooking. There is just something so soothing about pulling on my apron and turning an assortment of random ingredients into something that makes the house smell amazing and that tastes delicious. My boyfriend and I are thinking about doing a friendly version of chopped every now and then to keep things interesting in the kitchen (even though it could be terrifyingly competitive). Most of the time, people tend to be too busy or stressed out to spend hours on a meal or trying a new recipe or even cooking something beyond the standard weekly dishes. This is the chance you’ve been waiting for. If you like to cook, step into your metaphorical Jamie Oliver shoes and whip out your cookbooks because you can get as crazy and creative as you want with your recipes. Just make sure that you have enough happy volunteers to sample your creations so you aren’t left with a fridge full of leftovers that nobody wants.

Sort and organise

This is a dream come true for anybody with OCD, people who love structure and organisation or anyone Type A. Why? There is so much time available to break out your calendars and sort out next month’s diary. You can organise your books, sort out all of your cupboards, colour coordinate your tshirts and arrange your kitchen equipment by size, brand and usefulness. The list goes on and on, but the point I am trying to make is that if your house and life could do with a little organisational love and care, do it now! By the time we’ll be let free again, your house and life will be so organised you’ll feel like such a champion that can concur anything. It’s the best feeling in the world – trust me. Personally, we will be clearing out our garden shed … if there is no post on Saturday then I’ve been swallowed by the abyss of junk that gets stored in that thing.

Read/watch/listen

Oh yes. You knew this one was coming. I just thought I’d be interesting and not make it the first one on my list seeing as it is one of the more obvious ones.  That stack of books that you’ve been waiting to read? All those movies that you’ve been wanting to watch but haven’t had time for? The series you’ve been so desperate to start? Now you can finally do it all. You can read for an hour or more every day. You can have a movie marathon every three days and binge watch series as much as you want – because you finally have the time. For me, I can finally read all the books I keep buying but never have time to read. I fully intend to have a Friends and Harry Potter marathon and catch up on all the youtube videos I’ve missed out on from my favourite channel. Make the most of it – and take this down time seriously while you’ve got it.

Spring cleaning

This goes back up to what I mentioned about sorting and organising. If you’ve got the time and energy, and have an itch to do so, why stop at organising your cupboards or room? Why not take it one step further and do spring cleaning. Actually go through all your clothes and put aside what you don’t wear for donation. Clean out your fridge and give it a good scrubbing. There is so much in just one room that could benefit from a spring clean, let alone a huge house so I can tell you that my boyfriend, brothers and I are going to make our house look brand new by the end of the 21 days. It’s a great use of the time because you can really commit to doing it all properly and you can spend as long as you need on it. Just be sure to take a break between cupboards so you don’t burn out on a mad cleaning mission – there may be plenty of hours to clean but you should still take one or two of them to rest.

Start and/or finish a project

Remember that project you started ages ago? You managed to get about half of it done and then for some reason, you had to stop and now it looks more like a dusty, forgotten school assignment. Or how about that notebook page with the dozens of projects you would love to do but you never got past the planning stage because life just got too busy and in the way? It’s time to brush off the dust, break out that notebook and get those projects done. I’ll finally have the time to finish my door, and start this recycling project my boyfriend and I have had planned for months. You can complete those forgotten projects, or start and finish new ones without interruptions or lack of hours. Maybe you’ll fall in love with one project so much that you do more, and after a week or so you’re such an expert you have a youtube demonstration video or are selling your creations online. You’ll never know what you might churn out if you don’t get to it.

Build a puzzle

Building a puzzle is probably one of my favourite activities in the world. They are so amazing, I can’t understand why more people don’t do them. For me, it is such a soothing activity. All those tiny little pieces coming together to form one big picture and the steady progress of building it has such a calming effect on me. It helps me relax, and get my head in order when everything else is a whirlwind of crazy. Puzzles are a fantastic way to kill the self-isolation hours because they take time, can be lots of fun and there is a beautifully satisfying result. That is, if puzzles are something you enjoy. If you don’t like puzzles, maybe now is the time to try them out.

Start a new hobby

Much like how now is the perfect opportunity to learn a skill, the same can be said for starting a new hobby. Take up painting, or knitting or even gardening if you have the space. Small, simple hobbies can be a great way to pass the time at home, but they can also give you something interesting to do that gives your day purpose. Blogging, for example, is a hobby of mine and while it doesn’t earn me anything (even though I wish that I could turn it into an income), it gives me something fun to do during the week and elevates my other hobby – writing. The hobby you take up could lead to a small job or even give you inspiration for the future, or it could be as simple as putting a smile on your face after a stressful day. No matter what it is, hobbies give us something fun and proactive to do.

And so there you have it! I know that being stuck at home isn’t ideal and there are rough days ahead but at least it is safer and healthier for all of us at the moment to stay housebound. Afterall, no one likes getting sick, and this virus in particular is quite a concerning one. I hope that you all enjoyed reading today’s blog and that it gave you a small amount of inspiration for how to pass the hours at home. If you enjoyed, please don’t forget to hit that little like button, and subscribe so that you don’t miss out on future posts. Also, if you have any other ways to spend the time, please let me know in the comments section – maybe it will be fun for our large family to try. And, if you have any ideas for posts that you would like to see, please let me know in the comments section as well! I hope you don’t succumb to boredom everyone.

Lots of Love

Blondey on a Mission