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Are you searching for ideas on things to do when you are bored at home?
There are a ton of good things to do when bored. This can range from self-care, getting organised or even starting a new side hustle.
My favourite of them all is decluttering.
Working from home has been the best career option for me, as it gives me the flexibility to work for myself. But this means having a good home office set up.
I find that if my work desk is clear of clutter, I work better. It’s the same with the rest of the room and the house.
Every six months I make it a point to clear out my closet and get rid of clothes that are worn out or are not the right size any more.
This helps freshen up my closet with new clothes and gives me a better idea of the clothes I have. It prevents me repeating the same clothes over and over. Yes! Every time stack clothes in my wardrobe after it’s been washed, I end up wearing it AGAIN the next day!
It’s different for everyone. Your productive thing to do when bored could be – cleaning out your handbag, your room, kitchen or having a relaxing self-care day.
So let’s take a look at some productive and fun stuff to do when bored.
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please read disclosure.
50 Productive Things To Do When Bored
1. Productive Things to do on Your Phone
Apart from deleting unwanted apps, and old contacts on your phone, you can make money with a few of these free phone apps that pay you for doing little things. They are legit apps that can add an extra $100 to your wallet.
2. Productive Things to do Online
Survey Junkie is a website that pays you for answering short surveys. Its currently only available to those living in the US, Canada and Australia. Survey Junkie comes as one of the most recommended survey site, that currently has over 6 million users making money from home.
3. Quick Tidy up
If you had to catch up on laundry or that over piling wardrobe, now is the time. A helpful tip to keep the house tidy is to pick up things that are misplaced as you walk around the house. This makes your cleaning up routine a breeze.
4. Empty Handbag
Declutter your handbag from shopping receipts, hair ties or other wanted things. Turn your bag inside out, and trash things you don’t need anymore.
5. Make Money with Your Receipts
While you are in the process of trashing your old shopping receipts, if you find any that’s no older than 7 days, you can upload a picture of it for some points redeemable for gift cards with Fetch Rewards. These are gift cards from big-name retailers like Target, Walmart and a few others.
Fetch Rewards is a free phone app that can be downloaded on any Android or iPhone device.
6. Check Expiry
We never usually get the time to check if things we have are still within the use-by date. While its common habit to check the expiry of things in our fridge, here are some other places that need attention. Household cleaning agents, medicines and items in the pantry.
7. Restock emergency cabinet
After getting rid of things in the emergency cabinet, make sure to restock with more supplies so you are not panicking when you come down to the last bottle.
8. Declutter wardrobes
Check for any old clothes you don’t use anymore, to get rid of. Same with torn and oversized clothing. Make sure to also check for kids dresses, jackets, old socks, and old toys laying around.
9. Organise rooms
You finally have the time in hour hands to do a revamp. Re-organise any part of the house just the way you like it. It can also include DIY homemade decor using cheap items like these mason jar crafts.
10. Sell unwanted stuff
While you declutter your wardrobes, if any piece of clothing is in good condition can be sold at online secondhand stores or given away to charity.
Here are some sites that will pay for your old clothes:
11. Meal Plan
Instead of wasting time on the internet or brainstorming ideas to cook, I highly recommend you check out this $5 meal plan.
For just $5 a month, you get access to healthy recipes on a budget, along with shopping lists, and kid-friendly recipes. The reason I like their meal plan is that they make use of readily available ingredients, so there is no need to go the extra mile to find a fancy product.
12. Kids snack ideas
While getting the meals organised is one thing, planing and prepping healthy snacks for the week is also a great idea.
Here are some ideas:
- Fruit kebabs – place cut pineapple, strawberries, grapes or any other family favourites on skewers
- Cut veggies with cream cheese or hummus dip
- Homemade granola bars or flapjacks
- Plain greek yoghurt with fresh berries
- Blueberry muffins
- Baked apple crisps
- DIY trail mix – popcorn, almonds, walnut, cranberries, raisins and toasted pieces of coconut
13. Take a nap
Every mom needs this! Lots of it to re-energise and get ready for another day with the kids at home. Even a quick power nap can do a lot of good to your body.
14. Reorganise finances
If you feel the need to budget, now is the best time to start fresh.
Write down a list of monthly income and expenses and see where you can negotiate with bills.
If you are having trouble doing this, try the Trim app. This app works as a virtual personal assistant to help analyze your accounts and find an unwanted recurring subscription.
There are many times in the past that I’ve signed up for a free trial and then went on to pay for it without remembering to cancel. Or if I join a program at a discounted rate and have now started to pay a premium price – this is where the Trim app comes in.
It not only helps cancel bills but also negotiates for a better price.
So, you might be wondering what’s the catch? This sounds too good to be true.
If the Trim app is successful in saving you money, they take 33% of your total yearly savings.
15. Start a bullet journal
Bullet journaling is a creative way to stay organized.
If you have the habit of writing reminders on sticky notes or on your phones note pad, try bullet journalling instead. Its such a stress relief idea as well.
16. Make a list
Get into the habit of making lists.
There are so many ways you can get on top of things if you have a checklist for each. Here are some ideas where a checklist will keep you on track.
- Cleaning checklist
- Daily routine log
- Meal plan
- Home organisation
- Holiday Planning
- Birthday or event planning
- Shopping list
17. Make a shopping list
Speaking of shopping lists, this is the next on our list:)
I love using the Cozi app for creating weekly shopping lists. It is a free app not only great for grocery shopping but also providing recipes and calendar list for kids school activities. You can check it out here.
18. Learn a new skill
Nothing like using your free time to learn a new skill. Not only are you equipping your skillset, but this also make room for a new side hustle.
Check out this online platform that gives you 2 free months to learn a new skill like, calligraphy, cooking, crafts, photography, freelance writing, illustration and a thousand other creative ideas.
19. Side hustle
If you are looking to start a career and have less than 2 months to learn a new skill try the following online programs.
Free Proofreading Workshop – The paid course can be completed in less than 30 days. Salary potential -$40,000 a year.
3 free virtual bookkeeping class – Full course can be completed in 2 months. Salary up to $60 an hour. Check out how this mom earn $11,000 every month as a bookkeeper from home.
20. Make money with a hobby
There are many ways to make money if you are passionate about something.
For example, if you love writing you can write one-time articles for online magazines. Here are 16 websites that pays beginner writers. Topics range from health, food, humour and faith.
If you are a creative person who loves to draw, you can make money as a freelance illustrator.
21. Connect with family and friends
It’s the best time to catch up with friends and family!
22. Read motivational books
If you love to read, you can use this as an opportunity to read a few motivational books. Alternatively, you can also listen to some of your favourite podcasts if you prefer this to reading.
23. Social media detox
Choose to go without hopping on to any social media sites for a day or two. You’ll not only have a lot more time for other things, but it also relieves stress on your eyes.
24. Save phone on dropbox
Photos and videos can use up a lot of storage space on your phone. You can transfer all these files to Dropbox to save them. This is a good way to back up your images in case something goes wrong.
25. Clean inbox
I hate a cluttered inbox. As a work at home mom, I get a good number of emails a day. I try my best to read and delete them without getting them piled over.
Get rid of spam emails and unsubscribe from those that are of no use to you.
26. Keep cash aside for emergency
This is more of a budgeting tip I like to follow. Using cash, allows you to see how much you spend when compared to swiping a debit/credit card.
I prefer to take out a set amount of cash to use each week and try my best not to go over it.
Give this a try. You can choose to withdraw either $50 or $100 roughly based on how much you’ll need and try not to spend any more than this.
27. Meditation and yoga
Relieve your body from stress, physically and mentally by following a small yoga and meditation routine. It can just be a 1o minute ritual you follow every day. But this does so much good for your body.
One little hack to keep up with a routine is to follow a fitness guru on social media. Once you do, you will see their new videos show up as you scroll through social media. Works as a great reminder every time!
28. Exercise
If you prefer doing an intense exercise session, for weight loss or to tone your muscles, you can do this instead!
29. Mow lawn
Tidy up your outdoors if its not too cold. Get rid of unwanted weeds, mow the lawn or plant something new – a flower, fruit or veg.
30. Start a blog
Last but my favourite!
Everyone wants to find ways to make extra money, right?
Why not consider a side hustle to boost your income?
What better way than to make money blogging. The investment involved in starting a blog is less than $100 a year. Bloggers make anywhere between $500 – $20,000 or more a month. Not bad for a $100 a year investment right.
If you love to write, I would recommend considering this as a side hustle.
Things to do when bored with friends
31. Try out some fun crafts
32. Have a movie night
33. An at-home spa day
34. Try a new recipe together
35. Dance night
36. Have a mini-competition – cooking, dance, karaoke, costume night
37. Potluck with friends
Fun things to do when bored
38. Board games
39. Try a new hairstyle
40. Experiment with a new DIY haircut
41. Grow vegetables/fruit in your garden
42. Try some mason jar crafts
43. Watch something funny on Youtube
44. Learn a new skill or craft
45. Make a scrapbook
46. Create your own photo album of family and friends
47. Change up your home decor
48. Go for a relaxing walk
49. Try a new and healthy drink
50. My last personal favorite is, to listen to some Christian songs
This information is really, really useful. I am saving this post to refer back to. I had no idea that you could learn these skills such as bookkeeping in such a short time. So many good and practical ideas. Thank you
Thanks Diane!