Keeping your sanity intact while sticking to social distancing
At the beginning of the week, it was just the children who needed to stay home, but now a lot of adults need to stay home too. The Record has 10 cures for your boredom.
Social distancing and precautionary measures have meant a lot of people are at home for a while. While some people can work from home and others have children to look after, a lot of people actually have nothing to do and are sitting around waiting for something to happen.
Earlier this week, the Record made a list of what the children can do when they have nothing to do, but now it is the adults’ turn.
https://roodepoortrecord.co.za/2020/03/17/what-to-do-when-the-kids-have-nothing-to-do/
Here is a list of 10 activities and ideas that adults can do while they are at home.
• Movie marathon for one – Movie marathons are always a fun idea, but we usually do it with someone else and make a day or night of it. This often means sharing snacks, needing to agree on movie choices, and sometimes a little less than average personal space. But now, we can be by ourselves without being moaned at for being antisocial. Grab your favourite movies or series, hog the whole bed or couch by yourself, get as many and whatever snacks you want, and enjoy. The best part is, you can laugh, cry, or shout at stupid decisions the characters make without anyone judging you.
• Start a new book – This is your chance to catch up, or start, with that list of books you have been dying to read but have never gotten around to. If you have read everything in your house, you can go to charity book stores to find hidden gems, you can go to normal book stores and find a brand-new book, and if you don’t want to go outside, audio books and digital books can be downloaded easily.
• Time for a change – Change is as good as a holiday, and seeing as we can’t go on holiday, we might as well change something. Redecorate your bedroom, lounge, or kitchen; change things around, move your furniture, hang pictures, make decorations, and spring-clean while you’re at it to add a fresh feel to the room.
• Make a custom photo book – The best thing about being creative is that no one can tell you if it is right or wrong. A photo book is a great way to be creative while making a memorable keepsake that you can look back on with a smile. Grab a photo album, a book, a file, or anything that you would like to keep your photos in, then practice your creative skills with scrapbooking things, stickers, or paper and decorate the pages you want your photos on. Add little notes and memories to make it even more special. If you are a bit of a perfectionist and want something a little bit more ‘polished’ there are several services online to help you make a perfect photo book.
• DIY for the win – Why spend all of your money buying something that you can easily make? DIY is the perfect way to stay busy, and create unique, personal, and organisational items for your home. You can make desk organisers, drawer and cupboard organisers, decorative pictures, ornaments, or anything you can think of. Pinterest, YouTube and Google are your best friends when it comes to DIY. Something as simple as a recycled cardboard tube organiser can make a beautiful addition to your home and it is simple to make (https://akailochiclife.com/2019/08/diy-recycled-cardboard-tube-wall-organizer.html).
• Try out new recipes – In the hustle and bustle that comes with being alive today, we don’t often get time to try new things. It seems a lot easier to stick to what we know and what we are good at, especially when it comes to food, but now we have time to experiment. This is the perfect time to grab a recipe for something that sounds absolutely delicious, and cook or bake to your heart’s content.
• Get a bit more knowledge under your belt – Learn a new skill through YouTube or other online tutorials, start learning a new language or take an online class; do something to expand your mind.
• Make a movie – We all know how to use our phone camera, and if we’re lucky we may even have an actual camera. Why not take some photos, make some videos, or even go through your gallery for existing ones and make a movie. There are several movie-making apps for computers and cellphones that are free and easy to use.
• Fashion show – A lot of people, women in particular, have more clothes than they know what to do with, and half the time they don’t even know what fits. Well now we can go through our cupboards and try on all our clothes, see what fits, what doesn’t, what we like, and what we don’t. We can either have a fashion show for ourselves, or get our significant others, friends, and/ or children to be judges and take turns walking down the makeshift runway.
• Try the children’s ideas – If you are young at heart and are looking for something to do, try the ideas that the Record gave to keep the children busy.
How are you staying sane with all the time at home? Let us know by emailing amys@caxton.co.za.
