Whether you can’t go out because of Covid-19 lockdowns, a bad flare, or an injury, here is a list of some fun ideas to spice up your life at home. I started this list earlier in the year when I was injured and wanted to still enjoy some fun activities, but had limited mobility, and I decided to continue and expand the list as Lockdown 2.0 has commenced in many parts of the world.
These activities would be great for lockdown, the winter season, or when you are homebound due to a flare. Hopefully, this post offers you some inspiration to spice up your life and have more to look forward to. I encourage you to save this list and come back to it when you need a little inspiration for some fun. These ideas can be modified to be family fun activities, date nights, or fun-for-one, so take them as inspiration and make them your own.
I broke these activities up into things to do…
- when you want to relax/chill
- when you want to move
- when you want some healthy competition
- when you want to be creative and
- when you want to reflect and connect
When You Want to Chill…
1. Picnic In The Living Room
This is a fun idea to do especially in the winter months. Grab some of your favorite foods and assemble a picnic basket for your living room picnic. Lay out a blanket, grab some drinks, and enjoy some time watching a film or engaging with one another. This would be a fun time to play a board game or go through some fun and thought-provoking questions.
2. Build a Fort
Building a fort goes along the same vein as the picnic, but this takes it one step further. Grab tons of pillows, blankets, and get creative with how you will assemble your fort. Be sure to grab some snacks and drinks to enjoy in the fort too. With your fort assembled, you can play a board game, watch a movie, read a book, or really anything, the ideas are endless.
3. Do a Puzzle
When is the last time you sat down to complete a full puzzle? Puzzles are an engaging and relaxing task that encourage teamwork so it is a win-win.
4. Themed Night
There are many ways that you can theme your evening to spice up your average night-in. Think of your favorite movie, country, book, etc. and design an evening around that. This can be done as a date night idea or as a family affair. A really great resource to get some ideas and free printables based on themed events is The Dating Divas.
Theme the evening and get creative with the food, activities, and/or movie you watch. You can plan a country-themed evening like Italian, German, Greek, French, Chinese, etc. You can also find tons of fun themed nights around popular movies and TV series like Friends, The Office, The Great Gatsby, Jurassic Park, and more. The fun thing about this idea is that you can use it multiple times in new and exciting ways.
When You Want to Move Around…
1. Do A New Workout Style or Yoga Class Together
If you want to get your body moving, head over to Youtube and find a new workout video style you have never tried. You can do things like HIIT, dance classes, boxing, yoga, and so much more. I personally really like these videos by EMK FIT. She does themed dance HIIT classes that are really fun and often Disney themed.
2. Play Tourist In Your Town/City
Pull up Google Maps and look around your area. Is there a neighborhood that you have not explored or haven’t gone to in a while? This is a great idea to get outside, explore, and check out some areas around you that you probably take for granted.
3. Practice Self-Defense At Home
This is a fun and practical idea to do alone, as a couple, as a family, or with friends. Go on Youtube and search up some self-defense videos. This not only is very helpful for you to learn some moves for your own safety, but it is also fun to do with others to make sure you and your loved ones are protected in case of an emergency.
When You Want Some Competition…
1. Baking/Cooking Competition
There is nothing like some healthy competition, especially when it yields some yummy food as the outcome. There are a few different ways you can go about this kind of competition.
- Using A list of Ingredients: Provide a list of specific ingredients and make a dish out of those ingredients only
- Surprise Ingredient: Include one or a few special ingredients that must be included in the dish
- Who Made It Best: Battle off making the same dish and have friends or your kids as the food critics in the end to judge who made it best
This is a great idea especially if you and your friends/family/partner like to cook. If there are multiple people you can even break off into teams!
2. Blind Taste Test Challenge
This is a fun idea to do with your partner, friends, or kids. This can be done in a few ways.
- Pick The Best: Order a bunch of your favorite pizzas, burgers, or any food you love from different companies and do a blind taste test. You can rank these from 1-10 and in the end see if your favorite won your blind taste test
- Favorite or Hate It: Ask each person involved to make a list in advance of food they love, don’t mind, and hate. Have one person head out and grab some groceries (or better yet order online) and then take turns individually taste testing foods while blindfolded
3. Play A Game
Bust out the board games or turn on your gaming console and play something new. If you want to go the extra mile, buy a new video game or board game you have been eyeing.
4. Make a Bracket
We all have our favourite foods, candies, chips, movies, Christmas classics, songs, artists, tv shows, sports teams, etc. So why not take part in a bit of a debate by making a bracket for the all-time best ______. You can do this by starting with a pen and paper, or a template. Or you can take it a step further and make a bracket online and have family and friends vote on your final picks. Check out this website to make a bracket.
When You Want to Get Creative…
1. Paint Night
Even if you don’t consider yourself an artist, you can still bust out the paints and pencils and get creative. Grab some supplies from your local Dollar store, craft store, or you may even have some stuff around the house to use too. Pick a photo of a painting online and try to recreate it. If painting is not your thing, print off an adult coloring page, paint some pottery, or make a craft.
If you don’t work in a creative field our creative muscles often go dormant for a long time. So tap into your inner artist and have some fun.
2. Tackle a DIY Project
We all have a DIY project around the house that we have been putting off. So, take an evening or a day to tackle that project. If you don’t have anything requiring repairs or DIY magic, head to Pinterest and come up with a DIY you can make. You can use items you already own, or head to a thrift store to upcycle something.
3. Make or Continue a Memory Book
A memory book or scrapbook is a great keepsake for you to have for years to come. You can make a memory book for your kids, your family, a recent vacation, the story of how you met your partner, your university experience, your friendship with others, really the list is endless. Take the time to print out some photos, grab some glue, stickers, markers, or any other supplies you would like, and get creative. If you don’t know where to start, head over to Pinterest to get some inspiration for how you want your book to look.
When You Want to Reflect & Connect…
1. Goal Planning and Vision Board Session
It is important to plan and set goals for the future at least once a year. So, sit down with yourself, your friend, and/or your partner and reflect on your year so far. This is a great idea to do especially at the end of the year or as you enter into a new season of life (starting a new job, finishing school, getting married, having kids, etc). Take some time to do some reflection, set goals, and even make a vision board for your next year or chapter.
Here is a COMPLETE GOAL SETTING GUIDE to get you started. This post includes a step-by-step guide with reflection questions, goal setting methods, and activities to keep you on track with your goals. You can also read this post on VISION BOARDING to give you some insight on HOW to make a good vision board.
2. Make a Bucket List
Sit down and make a big bucket list of activities you want to accomplish and places you want to see. You can do this as an individual list, as a list for you and your partner/family/friend to do together, or you can make a themed bucket list for each season/holiday.
If you want, you can take this one step further and budget out for the new adventures you want to take in the future. For example, say you want to go to Paris. Price out how much everything will cost including the flights, hotel, transportation, attractions, food, any special activities, etc. That way you can start to bring your dreams into reality. This also gives you a really good reason to add money to your savings account every paycheck.
3. Go Through a List of Reflection/Get-To-Know-You Questions
If you are looking to have some deep and meaningful conversations with a friend or your partner, go through some questions to get to know each other better. If it is your best friend or life partner it may seem a little silly to try to get to know each other better. But, these questions are great to spark worthwhile discussions and connect a little deeper. Some questions can be found here.
Overall, these are some ideas on activities to help you beat boredom when you are stuck at home! I hope these help you to jazz up your life if you are spending a little more time at home lately.
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