Things to Do at Home during Coronavirus

If you’re trying to be a good member of society and physically distance yourself, you may find yourself thinking a lot more than usual about what you do when you’re at home. My boyfriend and I have discussed the irony that a lot of us probably spend a lot of time at home and/or alone on a regular basis, but now that we have to do that, it can suddenly seem really hard and boring.

So! If you need ideas for what to do during your own physical distancing, here are 15 ideas from what I’m doing/plan to do.

1. Use technology to connect with people.

a. Even before coronavirus hit, I had a goal this winter to reconnect with old friends by actually calling and talking to them on the phone. I made a list of people I used to talk to a lot but don't anymore because one of us had moved, changed jobs, or otherwise left our orbit of interaction. I then reached out to those people to see if they wanted to catch up. It’s been really awesome to talk to old friends! I've also established a regular time to call a friend each week, which is really enjoyable. You could also do this with family, of course.

b. If you need more flexibility in catching up with people, Marco Polo is a great app that lets you leave video messages for each other. Much more personal than texting. I’ve had some great conversations with people over Marco Polo.

2. Read. I just finished reading Sky Without Stars by Jessica Brody and Joanne Rendell, and now I’m onto Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. I use the BYU library, which is open for now, but if you don’t have access to a library, you can get audiobooks and ebooks. There’s Overdrive, Libby, Scribd and more to borrow or read books for free. Audible is apparently doing free audiobooks right now, so take advantage of that. If you need a book recommendation, I’m happy to give one!

3. Catch up on your movies or TV shows. (Come on, we all spend a decent amount of time doing this anyway). I’m watching Scrubs and Burn Notice, and one of these days, I’ll get around to finishing Lie to Me and starting Clone Wars. If you need a recommendation, ones I've loved are Avatar: The Last Airbender, Psych, Once Upon A Time, and The Mandalorian.

4. Find a fun channel on YouTube to watch. I recommend Pitch Meetings and How It Should Have Ended if you want something purely entertaining.

5. Go outside if you can. Unless you’re quarantined or under a stay-at-home order, you can still partake of the fresh air. Even if the weather is crummy, that’s what warm clothes are for. And since the official first day of spring was yesterday, it's getting warmer! I’ve taken a lot of walks and gone hiking recently. Recommend both. Just be careful to physically distance if there are other people around.

6. Clean your house. Not very fun but yes, my bathroom needs to be cleaned and I guess I should mop the kitchen floor. Man, I could even dust my blinds, and maybe I should handwash my handwash-only clothes? So many things.

7. Check in with hobbies you forgot you had. I, for example, am a sporadic earring maker. My proudest addition of late was a set of deathly hallows earrings. I’m also still working on my book, of course. :D

8. Find an online or phone game you like. I like Wizards Unite (which admittedly is not as fun unless you can move around and regularlvisit somewhere like a park), and my boyfriend plays that as well as Strike Force.

9. Right now there are tons of free courses to learn things and free virtual concerts and tours of places. I checked out Disneyworld’s Frozen ride in virtual format.

10. Do family history. Familysearch.org has recommended tasks with record hints to help you find your ancestors. I’m no wiz at family history, but I manage pretty well with the basics.

11. Play a game with someone over video chat. My friend starting playing chess with her dad this way, and I hope to play Pandemic, a collaborative game, over video chat soon. Another suggestion was if you have Jackbox games, you can open it on your computer on Zoom or Google Hangouts and then share your screen with other players, who can then use their phones to participate. See this article for more specific details on how to do that.

12. Find new ways to exercise. I like to run, so that works still, but I also used to go to the gym and to yoga classes. I’ve been looking up exercises to still do home workouts, and I tried a YouTube yoga video.

13. Do a project you’ve been meaning to get around to. I want to go through my childhood photo albums and turn them digital so should anything happen to the albums, I have proof of my ‘90s bangs and mismatched clothing.

14. Take advantage of spiritual resources you might have not had the time/energy for before. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I’ve started reading Saints about the history of the church and watching the Book of Mormon videos recently put out by the Church. Best part about those is they’re free and downloadable on the Gospel Library app.

15. Send people letters/cards. My sister recently reached out asking if friends and family would send her daughter mail to help her celebrate her birthday since she can’t go to an amusement park as planned. It was fun to make a card to send to her.