Many of us are self-isolating because of the coronavirus at the moment. Whether you’re feeling slightly under the weather or you’re not taking any risks by going out, you’re probably going to want some quarantine-friendly activities to keep you busy.
I’ve seen a lot of good ideas floating around, and I have some of my own. I wanted to make a definitive list of things to do so that you can find them all in one place.
To make it as easy as possible for you, I’ve split them up into categories so you can first find the category you fancy, and then look at ideas based on that category.
NB: Please add your suggestions below or in a message. I’m going to constantly keep updating this with ideas and suggestions as they come in.
Creative
- Board games (Amazon has next day delivery on a great selection of board games).
- Drawing and painting.
- Gardening (mow the lawn, get rid of all the plants that didn’t survive winter, plant some seeds).
- Games like Words With Friends on your mobile phone (you can play against each other).
- Baking (these cookies are the best you’ll ever eat).
- Start a book club amongst friends. Check out these book recommendations.
- Go camping or have a picnic in your garden (a great one if you’ve got children).
- Create photo albums or organise the photos you’ve been meaning to organise for ages.
- Do a crossword or keep up to date with the newspaper’s daily sudoku.
- Download Readly and spend some time reading magazines.
- Learn a language (Duolingo is great, I’ve been learning Spanish for 18 months).
- Learn to knit or crochet.
- Do an at-home exercise routine. Joe Wickes is doing daily PE classes for children on Instagram, for example.
- Do a virtual museum tour. The likes of New York’s Guggenheim Museum do virtual tours via Google Street View.
- Press flowers.
- Learn what all your houseplants are and how to properly care for them.
- Re-watch an old series. I’m thinking Only Fools and Horses.
- Binge watch David Dobrik’s back catalogue.
- Complete a jigsaw puzzle.
- Download The Sims. That’s seven days gone in an instant.
- Learn how to do the renegade TikTok dance (or any of the other dances).
- Make a vision board.
- Document your coronavirus experience – your children/grandchildren might one day want to watch it back.
- Set up an indoor ping-pong table.
- Go for a walk/hike/run/cycle. As of 19th March you can still go outside in nature.
- Make bread, pasta and preserves and offer it out to people who can’t buy their own.
- Make a bunch of flowers out of flowers found on a walk.
Pampering
- Give yourself a manicure (these manicure tips are great).
- Clean your make-up brushes.
- Go through your skincare and beauty products and throw out anything that’s past its expiration date.
- Meditate.
- Do a full skincare routine and a nice long, warm bath.
- Create an at home spa for you and the people you’re self-isolating with.
- Wax your legs.
- Shape your eyebrows.
- Move the Twitter app somewhere difficult to get to on your phone because it’s where good moods go to die.
- Do a face or hair mask.
- Get an early night or take advantage of the no commute time with an extra-long lay in.
Staying in touch with friends and family
- Start a family book club and convene on FaceTime each week.
- Have a meal with your friends on FaceTime/HouseParty.
- Download HouseParty because it’s a great app to chat to friends on.
- Google Chrome now have a plug-in which allows you to watch Netflix at the same time as your friends, so you can keep up to date with shows together.
- Research a future trip to go on together.
- Write letters or emails to one another.
- Teach each other new skills. Got a PT in your family? Get them to do daily/weekly FaceTime workouts for you.
- Play games that can be played over FaceTime (like Head’s Up).
- Host a virtual dinner party. Send out invites and everything.
- Sign up to Age UK’s befriending service if you’re over 70 and feeling lonely. Pass this tip on to somebody who might benefit.
- Make treats for your neighbours (as long as you’re well) and leave them on their steps.
- Create a pub quiz that you can do over FaceTime. Split your friends/family into teams.
- Have epic online video game battles with your friends and family (Hello, Call of Duty, my old friend).
- Learn about your ancestry and do it with your grandparents. Get them to send you old photos and help out, too.
- Send care packages to key worker friend who are struggling during this time.
Home Improvements
- Clear out your wardrobe (I’m talking deep clean).
- Re-organise your kitchen cupboards.
- Give your floors and sofas a deep clean.
- Put up the shelves you’ve been meaning to put up forever.
- Paint a room/the whole house if you fancy it.
- Frame those pictures.
- Move your rooms around (a new place for the bed, a new nook for the TV – try it out).
- Clean the inside of your cooker (note to self).
- Clean under the bed/behind the sofa.
- Change all the lightbulbs you’ve been ignoring.
- Buy a grout pen and tidy up the grouting in your home.
- Clean your windows.
- If you’ve got a dog – use a shower squeegee to deep clean the carpets. It’s so satisfying.
- Buy and fit new door handles on your internal doors. Black is very nice IMO.
- Organise shelves, drawers, bookcases.
- Keep clean your fridge or your washing machine like Mrs Hinch does everyday.
Life admin
- Go through the photos on your phone and put them into albums/delete the ones you don’t want.
- Create folders for your household bills.
- Create a filing system for documents on your computer.
- Put your old clothes on eBay or Facebook Marketplace.
- Put furniture on Facebook Marketplace or eBay (desks and office chairs are very in demand right now).
- Unfollow people on social media who make you feel miserable.
- Unsubscribe from marketing emails.
- Sign up to stop receiving marketing letters through your door (it’s a waste of paper, let’s be honest).
- Go through your phone’s contacts and delete all the people you don’t know. Have I ever known a Sue P?
- Hand wash the jumpers you avoid because they’re ‘hand wash only’.
- Find out if you’re owed any money by Student Loans Company.
- Clean the inside of your car.
- Split your favourite music into playlists.
- Review places on TripAdvisor. It might be really important for small businesses in the coming weeks to build up reviews.
- Plan your meals for the next two weeks (it can be tricky to get exactly what you want now so planning ahead is key).
- Match all your socks up.
