50+ Productive Things To Do While Staying At Home (Social Distancing/Quarantine Ideas!)
Welcome back to the blog! Our family is currently on day number 20 of the lockdown here in Italy and we have compiled a list of 50+ things you can do while staying at home to keep yourself and others safe! It was extremely helpful to jot these down in my journal and check them off one by one these past 3 weeks when boredom struck and I was tempted to grab the phone or the remote once again (I’m not a big screen fan and too much screen time really has a negative effect on me!).
If you are in need of some practical, simple, fun, mindful, and productive things to do while at home, try these out!
1. Become Your Own Repair Man/Woman!
2. Turn old/ragged clothes into makeshift cloth wipes, handkerchiefs, headscarves, or even a makeshift quilt?!
3. Look for an old appliance (usually stored somewhere in the garage or attic) and attempt to fix it! Take it apart, go crazy. Teach your kids how things work. Teach yourself how things work. Nearly every appliance has a youtube series!
4. Go through your closet and check for any clothes with snags, holes, buttons missing….we all have something to repair! Try your hand mending the clothes. I promise, the more you do it, the better you will get at it!
5. Unclog all of your drains. Yuck. I know. But better now than a year from now when you have a huge bill. You can also youtube how to do this at home too!
6. Think about all the times you have called someone to come fix/repair something. Now, I want you to learn the basics of that skill. For us, we found that we always called our friends to come to help us with simple drilling/nailing/fixer-uppers. After just 4 days of youtube videos, Martin and I became pros! Now we are running around trying to revamp everything in the house haha.
Create Your Own Cleaning Supplies!
50+ Productive Things To Do While Staying At Home
8. Stock up on some castile soap, baking soda, distilled white vinegar, and even essential oils to become the master of DIY cleaning!
9. Just use a few drops of castile soap and clean your dishes in no time!
10. For a household cleaning spray, fill a spray bottle with a quarter of vinegar, fill nearly all the way with water and then squirt some castile soap inside. Add a few drops of essential oils (like lemon) if you wish. Shake up and spray away!!
11. Clean your tub: Mix together 1 part castile soap with 2 parts water. Shake up. Sprinkle baking soda around the rim of the tub and then spray and wipe clean! I use this every time!
12. Infuse your distilled white vinegar (to kill that smell) with lemon peels, orange peels, rosemary, lavender, grapefruit peels, or whatever else you wish! A few drops of essential oils are also great too. Let sit in a cool and dark place for 6 weeks and then be amazed at the amazing smell! Dilute with water before spraying.
Re-Organize those Messy Zones
14. Completely clear out the pantry and start from scratch. Recycle, sort, and organize nice and slow with intention. Every single thing in your pantry can be organized in a few different ways. I like to sort by beans/lentils, flour/oats, spices/herbs, condiments, sweets/baking supplies, and the bottom I use for plant-based milk and randoms (random but organized in my own way).
15. Clean out the junk drawers! Recycle, sort, organize, etc each item. I noticed that a lot of items in the junk drawers were just items that were displaced from their proper space in our home. Lighters belong with the candles, broth bouillons belong with the spices and herbs, random jar tops belong in their cloth bag that hangs in the pantry, etc. Give each item its proper place.
16. Check underneath the beds. What’s going on under there? If completely empty, you may be able to store extra sheets/blankets underneath in a small bin and make room for other items in your closet space. If full, start organizing and clearing the dust.
17. Other obvious places: Storage room, attic, garage. I mean….these could go on forever haha. Pace yourself and just do a little at a time.
Get Set for the New Season
19. If you have ever been interested in a capsule wardrobe, now is the time! You can check out my full blog post on it here.
20. When an item no longer works for your closet, take the time to find it a new home. We have plenty of time now to ask our friends and family if they would like the piece of clothing (I love to give my old clothes to my god-daughter!) or you can even throw it up on Facebook marketplace! You can list it for free as first come first serve if you do not want to deal with all of the back and forths too!
21. Get to know some new local, slow, sustainable and mindful brands around your home! You will be surprised at how many amazing local shops there are around the world. I have had the pleasure of working with so many and would never go back to the department stores.
22. Second-hand online shopping: no need to shell out major cash for items that you need. You can easily shop at the many second-hand online shops and have a ball!
All Of Those Forgotten Things
24. Register your appliances! And all that other stuff you bought 🙂
25. Go through your e-mail inbox and unsubscribe from anything that does not serve you.
26. Check your paper mail and ask to longer receive paper bills to help our amazing tree friends.
27. Sort out all of your receipts from the previous year for taxes. Maybe you can make up a new system!
28. Create a new budget for the rest of the year. You now know that you can live without SO many items, get to saving!
Create Your Own Skin Care Line!
30. Make one of the millions of DIY beauty recipes online! Face masks, face washes, oils, serums, etc. The lists never end.
31. I love to combine castile soap, distilled water, and a mixture of essential oils for an amazing face wash.
32. Mixing together bentonite clay and apple cider vinegar makes a brilliant mask that I use weekly!
33. You can also add some bentonite clay to your next bath for an amazing detox.
34. Coconut oil can work wonders for certain types of hair and skin. Try it out (I would start with a little at first) to see if you are one of the lucky ones! I love to use it on my legs.
35. Add sweet almond oil and a few drops of lavender essential oil to your next bath to wind down and relax from all of your hard work!
Clean Up the Forgotten Items
37. For the makeup brushes, I like to use 1 part castile soap and 2 parts water. Wash the brushes, bristles down, until the water runs clear and then lay flat on a towel to dry.
38. Gather up all the toys around the house and give a good wash with 1 part distilled white vinegar and 2 parts water. You could also use the Castile soap mixture for this too!
39. Grab a chair and get to the top of your kitchen shelves. Do a quick rinse on all of those forgotten glasses/vases/random odds and ends.
40. Using a 1 part vinegar and 2 part water spray, do a quick clean of all of your framed photos. They will look like new!
Organize All The Libraries
42. After you have sorted through your hardcover books, take a dabble at your digital library. I found books that I purchased over 8 years ago!
43. Be sure to go through the music and movie library as well. I had an absolute blast finding old iTunes music that I purchased when it first came out. It was full of Jewel, Alanis, and smashing pumpkins. Best day ever! haha
44. Create a new wishlist of books, movies, and music. I’m big on not impulse buying and instead, sitting on the things that I want for a while. I also love to look for the items in second-hand shops or some other way. For digital goods, I usually just use a service like Spotify or pandora.
45. For any physical goods that you no longer want, you can add them to free public outdoor libraries or simply place them in a box with a sign saying “FREE BOOKS!”. I only do this when I can keep an eye on the box. We don’t want them to get accidentally thrown away!
46. Lastly, go through your photo libraries. This could take you years! haha
Organize All The Libraries
48. Cooking classes online are great for anyone to learn some new skills. You can learn how to glaze, saute, and whip like a pro!
49. If you have any musical instruments in the house (forgotten guitar, harmonica, etc), learn how to tune and play the instrument all from the comfort of your living room!
50. Dancing classes (ballet, jazz, tap) are all available online and SO MUCH FUN!!
51. You can take a language class (or use an app like Duolingo) and impress on your next vacation.
52. Anything your heart desires, take that class. Sewing, knitting, felting, crochet, ballet, yoga, hip hop, handstands, hair styling, make up tutorials, movie making, code writing….it’s all there and you can learn! Have a blast!
If you liked these mindful and slow living ideas, try these other blog posts out!
Zero Waste Deodorant that Actually Works
Our Real Life Imperfect Zero Waste Home
7 Ways Parents Can Save the Earth From Home
What A Zero Waste Home Actually Looks Like
