Borders are being shut the world over, and thousands of flights are now cancelled and grounded. Social distancing is our new normal thanks to this corona virus. Needless to say, travel isn’t exactly a possibility right now.
Not only are we not able to go anywhere. But because we’re taking the necessary measures of social distancing to help slow the spread of COVID-19, many – if not most of the things that we would normally do, we now can’t.
Most non-essential stores and restaurants have been forced to close and as much as we can we should be staying indoors.
We’re living in a strange time these days, that’s for sure.
So what can we do to stop ourselves from going insane during all of this craziness?
Thankfully – quite a lot!
Whether you’re social distancing, or completely locked down in self isolation or quarantine, there’s still a ton of things to do to pass the time in a positive way.
So try to stop checking up on the latest corona virus updates every hour and read something else! It’s not healthy to be listening or reading about this stuff over and over again, all day.
(psst – if you need some book recommendations, these are a few of my favourites!)
Not to mention that a lot of the information out there isn’t even true! Make sure you find a reliable news source to get your information from (not social media) if you want to stay informed.
For accurate, up to date information on COVID-19, please refer to the CDC website, World Health Organization, Canada’s Public Health Agency or governmental websites for your country to name a few.
Read Next: Take this time to start planning your Mexico trip! These are the most unique things to do in Cabo San Lucas.
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Here Are 22 Things To Do While Social Distancing (And Can Mostly Do While Self Isolating Too)
Learn A New Skill
Remember that thing you’ve always wanted to learn but keep putting off because you just don’t have enough time?
With your schedule now suddenly looking extremely clear, now’s the time to do it!
It could be a new language you want to learn, or maybe you’ll finally learn how to cook. Whatever it might be, this is a great time to start.
There are tons of resources out there and you can find online classes that teach anything and everything.
Need some more ideas?
- learn how to bake
- test out new recipes
- teach a skill to your kids like cooking
- try knitting something or learning how to crochet
- learn to code
- learn how to sew
- grasp how to use photoshop
- learn how to tie different knots
- take an online photography course or learn some new techniques
Get Amazon Prime free for 30 days and then you can also try out Prime Pantry for your grocery essentials!
Get Outside
If you’re lucky enough to have nice weather where you are – go enjoy being outside!
Go for a walk in a park where there’s LOTS of space around. That way you’re still able to distance yourself from others but you can still be (sort of) social outside.
If you live with other people – awesome! You’ve got built in quarantine buddies to walk with. If you don’t, just go alone or meet a friend at the park but just, you know, keep the six feet of separation from each other.
Here in the northern hemisphere spring is finally starting so if it’s sunny out, you can bet I’m outside.
Obviously there are tons of different things to do outdoors, not just going for a walk, but at the minimum you should get out there.
Other things you can do outside at a park while social distancing are:
- grab some racquets and play tennis (maybe that’s even something you wanted to learn?)
- play badminton – you can easily get a portable badminton set to set up anywhere outside.
- Have a picnic – sure it’ll be a little awkward sitting that far from each other but who cares. If you’ve got live-in quarantine family or friends, then all the better because you can sit together normally.
- (Also try a themed picnic, like France and buy yourself a cute picnic basket and pack French foods, and wine of course!)
- Grab a portable BBQ and take it to the park. Obviously with only a couple of people so you can distance yourselves from each other but ideally with only people in your household.
Related Post: 53+ Virtual Travel Tours Around The World When You Can’t Leave Home.
Go For A Hike
Wherever you may be in the world, I’m sure there must be some sort of hike you can do nearby.
While a lot of the hikes in Canada and the US are still covered in snow – there are plenty of spring or year round hiking trails too. Just be aware that some hiking trails, state and provincial parks are being closed to the public during this time.
You might find that it takes a little longer than usual to hike because of distancing yourself from other hikers, (but hey, you’ve got the time right?)
We love hiking and it’s a great way to stay in shape, especially now that gyms are closed. Speaking of gyms being closed, that brings me to the next thing you can do while social distancing.
PS. Need some new hiking shoes first? If Amazon wasn’t your best friend before, it’s about time you got acquainted!
Read Next: 19 Small Travel Gifts That Do Practical Things (And Travelers Want!)
Work Out At Home
So most gyms are closed, but even if yours isn’t – you should be staying away from there anyway. We really do need to work together to limit public contact with each other right now.
(But honestly, it’s been sooo long now – I never thought I’d be dreaming of the day I can use the elliptical again…)
There’s TONS of different workouts you can do without going to the gym! If you’ve got a few things at home like dumbbells, resistance bands or a stability ball even better.
You can do stretches, yoga, strength training, pilates, etc. Pretty much anything you can do on a machine, you can do without too. A yoga mat definitely helps though, especially if you have wood floors.
Watch some youtube videos online and learn a new workout – there’s lots of good ones on there. I like Tara Stiles for yoga and Jillian Michaels has some good aerobic and strength training workouts.
There’s also sooo many great workout videos that you can watch on Amazon Prime (plus movies, TV shows and kindle books). You can try Amazon Prime free for 30 days here, if ya like 🙂
We had been going to some TRX classes before all this madness came about that we liked quite a bit. It’s an awesome training that uses only your own body weight so it’s way better for your joints – but it’s a killer workout.
You can buy TRX straps to install at home though if you want to try it out. You just need a bit of space and somewhere to suspend them from. Probably something we’re going to do as well.
Find Your Green Thumb
First of all, if you have an actual garden I have to say that I’m super jealous!
For those of us that don’t have one – container gardens are where it’s at. It’s spring, so now’s the perfect time to start planting if you haven’t already.
Pick up some flowering plants from your local nursery or grocery store, or better yet – order them online! Lots of grocery stores are doing free online pickup too, so take advantage (also order your food this way to keep up your social distancing).
Don’t forget about vegetables and fruits either. Choose some seeds to order online and hopefully you’ll get to enjoy food from the garden all summer long and into the fall!
Lots of veggies and fruits can be easily grown in a container on your deck if you have enough light. Or even indoors, like herbs and alfalfa sprouts. Tomatoes and strawberries make excellent plants for container gardens in my experience.
Don’t really have the space for a garden or a container garden? You can also buy those indoor “smart gardens” that are also pretty much dummy proof if you tend to be a plant killer.
Keep your social distances and easily buy all the gardening supplies and how-to’s you need without even stepping foot in a store.
Related Post: 29 Free Virtual Museum Tours To Check Out Today
Find New Podcasts To Binge
I only started listening to podcasts pretty recently so I’m a bit late to the game.
You might already have a few that you love and listen to, but you can always subscribe to more right?
If you haven’t started listening to any podcasts yet, there’s a lot out there to choose from. From talk shows, to fiction stories to true crime (I love a good murder story) – pretty much anything and super addicting! You can also live vicariously through some great travel podcasts while we’re dealing with this pandemic.
You might not know this, but if you subscribe to Amazon Prime, your membership comes with premium podcasts and Audible books too. If you don’t have it, you can try it free for 30 days here.
Plan Your Next Trip
I know, I know, travel is a no go right now – but that doesn’t mean you can’t plan for when this situation is over!
We were about to book some flights just a few weeks ago, but then all this stuff happened. Now we’re not sure if we’re going to be able or allowed to go or not.
So. Our travel plans are currently on hold but I’m trying to stay optimistic for end of April, early May. Fingers crossed. (Update: still at home like everyone else…)
This situation super sucks.
But hopefully, all this social distancing WILL help flatten the curve so we can get a handle on the virus and get back to our regular lives!
So now that you have all this extra time on your hands, you might as well get planning right?
Go start pinning your heart out (follow me!) if you haven’t been pinning already. Do some deep research and read my blog!
You might not be able to or feel comfortable booking flights right now, but you can definitely read hotel reviews and tentatively book.
Another thing you can figure out right now, is the areas you want to stay in and what things there are to do there (Like these unique things to do in Cabo San Lucas). Pretty much everything you can plan out now and just book your flights later.
Read Next:
Start planning a future trip to Cancun – Read about The Best Cenotes In Mexico.
5 Cool Tiny House Rentals in Squamish, British Columbia
Consider Fostering A Pet In Need
I was going to suggest volunteering at a local animal shelter, but because of what’s going on, lots of animal shelters are closed to the public and aren’t accepting new volunteers. [If places are open now in 2021, you should definitely try to help out!]
This means that many of the animals aren’t getting the adequate support they need during all of this.
Lots of animal shelters are desperately looking for foster homes to help take care of these pets and are eliminating or reducing adoption fees in hopes to find them homes as soon as possible.
If you can consider fostering a pet in need, it would be a great help to your community. If you’ve always wanted a pet but didn’t have the time for training in the beginning, now might be a good time to adopt if you’re working from home!
Go Camping
Just because you can’t travel out of the country, doesn’t mean you can’t travel locally – sort of.
You could definitely go camping!
There’s a couple options for camping while still being isolated and social distancing from others.
a) Find somewhere you can camp that isn’t already busy and only go camping with people that live in your household. That way you’re still doing your part to stay isolated from people that don’t have regular contact with you.
You might run into issues of campsites being closed or not open yet for the season, but there should be plenty of places you can go still.
Obviously the important thing here is to just make sure you’re keeping as far as possible from other people.
b) Camp in the comfort of your back yard if you have one! It’s way less work since you have everything at home, so you can easily do it on a whim if you wanted. (or go inside if it rains)
Plus it’s already self contained so you don’t have to worry about running into other people.
Set up string lights, roast marshmallows over your fire pit and make food on the barbeque.
If it’s still pretty cold at night where you are, it might be worth picking up a warmer rated sleeping bag if you don’t have one. I’m guessing it probably won’t be that fun if you’re freezing all night long.
Experience A Virtual Museum Tour
I didn’t even know this was a thing until recently! But did you know that you can visit some of the world’s best museums and art galleries in an online tour?
What a great idea and way to see some of your favourite, famous artists work. You don’t need to wait in line, or pay admission – you can check out some of Monet’s greatest pieces from bed if you want to.
You can visit museums like The Louvre, The Vatican Museum, The Metropolitan and lots more.
Other places you can “visit” virtually are some zoos. Many of them have live cams, so you can watch elephants, koalas and sharks from your living room.
ALSO: I just wrote a new, HUGE post about virtual travel tours around the world that you can check out here! It has all these, plus a lot more – honestly, virtual beach travel is better than you think!
Organize Your House
Sure you can binge watch Netflix all day. But there’s no better time than now to tackle any projects around the house you’ve been putting off meaning to do.
Do a thorough spring clean – dust things, wash the windows, organize your drawers and cupboards. Fun things like that.
Free up space in your closet by going through and seeing what you don’t wear anymore. Decide what to give away, sell or recycle. Any loose socks or hole-y clothes can be taken to H&M to be recycled instead of thrown away (once the stores reopen).
If you have good quality clothes and accessories you want to try to sell, there’s lots of sites for that like eBay and Poshmark.
If you don’t have an account yet, click here to get $15 when you sign up for Poshmark with my invite code ACURATEDCLOSET_. It’s a great way to make a little money on the side, especially given the current work situation a lot of people are in.
(Also, if you’re trying to be more sustainable – which we should all be doing, it’s a great place to buy things!)
Redecorate
Once you’ve re-organized and gotten rid of things, maybe you want a change of scenery?
Paint or try wallpapering a feature wall, or choose a new colour to paint all the walls!
Create home decor Pinterest boards for ideas and colour palettes. Order new toss pillow covers online to freshen up your space. There’s tons of little things you can change to update the look of your home.
Dreaming of renovating your kitchen or bathroom? Look for inspiration online and start planning it out for the future.
Watch The Sun Rise Or Set
What a positive way to start and end the day by watching the sun rise or sun set, don’t you think?
Maybe you have a go to sunset spot already, but you could look for NEW places to watch from. I’m sure most people don’t get a chance to watch the sunrise that often, so finding a spot to welcome the day could be something you really enjoy too.
Just make sure to keep up your (physical) social distancing while you’re outside.
I’m a big sunset and sunrise chaser, so this is something I’ll definitely be trying to do.
Say Hello
Take this time to reach out to friends and family that you haven’t spoken to in a long time. And finally respond to those texts and missed calls you forgot about.
I feel like such a hypocrite mentioning it because these are things that I, personally have been really struggling with in the last couple of years.
I really am going to try though, it’s honestly so important. Maybe none of this is an issue for you, but if it is, I hope you can try too.
We all need human contact – especially in times like these where we actually have to be isolated.
Social isolation can be really dangerous for our mental health. The current situation is probably making a lot of people feel anxious and stressed too.
Please make sure to check up on the people you love and care about to make sure they are doing okay. And reach out to those who care about you if you’re feeling down. We should be here for each other, not just in hard times but all the time.
It would also be pretty cool of you to send a handwritten a letter to someone! (For those of you under 20… a letter is a written document that you put in the mail.)
Have A Spa Day At Home
Spas are obviously a high touch environment so there won’t be going to any of those but you still gotta treat yo self.
Order some sheet masks or clay masks and get out your biggest, fluffiest towels. Give yourself a full body scrub (DIY maybe?) and take a nice long bath.
Get your partner to give you a massage if you’re so lucky – or even better, just buy one of these massage mats to lie on. One of my friends swears these things are amazing!
You could also do things like: deep condition your hair, do your nails, light candles and use an essential oil diffuser.
Read A Book Or Two
Now is the perfect time to start reading a new book or a whole new series. Or maybe you want to re-read an entire series (like all 7 of the Harry Potter books – I’ve re-read them a few times over the years!), why not?
I haven’t read a whole book in a looong time though, but it’s something I’d love to do. Reading is just so much more substantial than watching a movie or show in my opinion.
When you read a book, you can get deep into your imagination. It allows you to put yourself there and it’s more like an escape. You get to see things how YOU imagine them, not how someone else has depicted it in a movie.
Personally I love the feel of reading a paperback book, but kindle e-books books are super convenient if you have a tablet to read on. Especially if you don’t have a lot of space to keep books, e-books are a fantastic option.
These are a few more of my favourite books in case you need some ideas!
The Gargoyle – by Andrew Davidson – I think I’ve read it twice!
The Shadow of The Wind – by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Should I admit that I liked the Twilight series?
The Sookie Stackhouse Series – also known as True Blood, which was an HBO show if you watched it, I never did. I read the books before the show came out though and they’re good!
To Kill A Mockingbird – by Harper Lee. Only the most classic book ever!
And Then There Were None – by Agatha Christie. Another great classic!
Go For A Bike Ride
We just took our bikes out to ride around the seawall the other day. If you’re having good weather, dust off your bike seat and go for a ride.
Even if it’s just around your neighbourhood, it’s good to get out while you can and enjoy it.
Just try not to go anywhere too busy so you can keep your distance. But places should be pretty dead anyway with most people staying indoors (where you technically should be, but you gotta live too – plus it’s exercise).
If you have your own bike to use, that’s best. It’s probably not the greatest idea to use city e-bikes or anything like that because of virus transmission, in my opinion.
That being said, I did see some people on e-bikes when we were out but they were wearing disposable gloves – so maybe that’s ok? I’m not really sure, I would probably avoid it.
Paddle Board Or Kayak
If you live near water, either of these are great things to do while social distancing! You can totally be away from anyone.
We are so lucky to live right by the ocean, so naturally we have our own paddle boards that we use a lot.
Most rental places would be shut right now during the corona virus situation and it’s probably not a good idea to rent anyway. If you have your own kayak or SUP though – go get out there!
It’s a bit of an investment, but if it’s something you think you’ll love and do a lot, you could maybe think about buying one? If you’re worried about space, you can buy inflatable versions of kayaks and SUPs and they can be awesome quality.
We bought our inflatable paddle boards on Amazon a few years ago and we love them! They no longer sell ours online but they have lots of other great options if you’re interested.
Take Up Birding Or Birdwatching
Yes, these are two different things!
I actually got this cool idea from my sister because she’s an avid birder and wildlife photographer.
Birdwatching is pretty much just noticing birds when you’re out and about, or watching them from the window in the comfort of your home. Perfect if you’re self quarantined indoors. Put up a bird feeder or two and have the birds come to you.
Meanwhile, birding is actively going to find the birds wherever they may be. Parks, forests, near bodies of water, that sort of thing. You’re someone who is actually quite into birds and researches where and when to find certain species.
If you’re already a seasoned birder, you’ve probably taken this time by now to enjoy being out alone in nature with the birds. If birding is something you haven’t gotten into yet, spring is such a great time to start!
This is an awesome activity to do alone and away from other people.
Whether you’re into birds or not, the important takeaway from this is that being outside no matter what the activity is beneficial to your health and well being. So just be sure to step outside whenever you can to get a dose of nature.
Find Street Art In Your City
With most places being closed because of COVID, there’s less distraction around so you can explore the area you live in, a little closer.
Sooo many cites and towns have amazing street art to discover. And as long as you’re maintaining your social distancing, why not find where they are?
Sometimes we don’t notice the things where we live because we’re just there all the time.
[In Vancouver where I live, during the beginning of the lockdown there were tons of murals and art painted all over the boarded up windows which was a really nice thing to see. I’m guessing there was, or is something similar going on where you live. You can check out some of the Gastown murals on instagram here.]
Ride Your Motorcycle
It’s spring (again in 2021), the weather has been b-e-a-utiful and everyone’s been getting their bikes on the road.
If you ride a motorcycle – you totally understand the urge to go for a ride on a sunny day.
Personally it’s a little too cold still for my liking, but riding your motorcycle (if you have one) is pretty much the perfect social distancing activity!
When you’re out on the road, you’re more than far enough away from other people. Plus you’re wearing a helmet, gloves and other protective gear which has got to help lower your chances of getting or transmitting COVID.
The best part is, you can still technically be “social” and ride with your friends because you’ll all be riding with more than enough distance between you. You’ll also get the benefit of being outdoors which is important for your mental health.
Organize Your Travel Photos
There’s no better time than now to finally sit down and organize and edit all your travel photos.
You’ll get to relive your travels through your photos and remind yourself of good times and what you can look forward to once all this virus stuff passes.
Choose new photos to print and frame to update your space, you can make a photo album traditionally or online, or make a scrapbook.
While you’re doing travel photos, you might as well go through all your old printed film photos too and sort them into albums so you can enjoy them.
What are you doing to stay sane while social distancing during all of this? Let me know in the comments!
2 comments
I’ve been working on my blog and organising my stuff!! Alongside going out for runs everyday
Loved this positive energy in this time of uncertainty x
Pretty much the same as what I’ve been doing, along with A LOT of online clothes shopping! My living room is literally full of boxes lol, I can’t stop. It’s bad. But can’t wait to be able to actually wear them out when we’re allowed to have a life again.
Thanks for reading! xx
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