20 Alternative Tips to Help You Stay Sane at Home

How weird is this? We're living through one of the strangest and most dangerous times in recent history, with entire nations on a 'war footing' and a third of the planet's population staying at home. It's easy enough for those of us who work from home anyway, but what if it's a first and you've never done it before? What if you're stuck indoors with not a lot to do, just waiting for the three week initial lock-down period to end? What if you're climbing the walls already? Are you bored? Is daytime telly driving you nuts? If so, here are some tips and treats to help you stay sane until we've beaten the Covid-19 outbreak. In the meantime stay safe, be kind, and take care of each other. Together we'll beat it.

20 alternative things to do when you're stuck at home

1. Count your blessings... literally. Grab a pad and pen, or your phone, and make a list of everything you can be grateful for. Your life, your health, the people you love, your pets, your garden, the people you work with, the fact that spring is nearly here, every single good thing you can think of
2. Next, be actively grateful – say thank you for each of your blessings and you really will feel better about life. When you're feeling low, being grateful is powerful stuff
3. Learn to meditate. It's a proven way to relax, re-calibrate your attitude and bring about positive feelings about life, the universe and everything
4. Have a laugh exploring the many 1980s fitness and workout videos available online - massive hair, legwarmers, lots of Lycra – then pick one each day and work those muscles. If you like, wear something outrageously silly to exercise in, video it, and give your social media contacts a giggle. This one, for example, is absolutely hilarious. Whether you're male or female, if you don't own Lycra, wear tights instead for an even funnier look
5. Clear out your wardrobe, just like you've been meaning to for ages. Make piles to give away, chuck out, recycle or repurpose
6. You love the fabric but the item of clothing is awful, old and tatty, or way out of style? Cut it into squares and make a patchwork bed cover, throw or cushion cover out of the old clothes you can't bear to get rid of because the fabric is so lovely. Here's a good tip – if you have an old duvet cover, make life easy - use it as a basis for your throw or bedspread. A mandala design is really easy to achieve, a simple flower-like shape with concentric rings of 'petals'. Use our clothing for inspiration if you like – we have lots of clothes with mandalas on them that you can copy
7. It's dressing up time! Create the most tasteless, awful, embarrassing outfits you can, take a selfie, post it, and challenge friends and family to create outfits of their own that are even more tasteless than yours
8. Do you have an old hat at home? Decorate that hat with Christmas decorations, jewellery, beads, ribbons, silk flowers, crochet flowers, tissue paper flowers, pasta threaded onto cotton, corks, bottle tops, bobbles made from wool or string, anything suitable you can find
9. Binge-read. Read the books you've always meant to read – maybe the complete works of Charles Dickens or every book Joanna Trollope has ever written
10. Spring clean. Your home will look and smell fab, and you'll get plenty of exercise while you're at it
11. Change the furniture around to give yourself a new-style space to enjoy
12. Start an online Covid-19 diary to track the things you've discovered about yourself and the world, what you're thinking, what's happening for you right now. If you have kids it'll be fascinating for them to look back on. If you prefer, make it a traditional paper diary, your Covid-19 journal
13. Learn new stuff. There are literally millions of online courses to take about every imaginable subject, from academic to practical and everything in between
14. Write actual pen-and-paper letters to your friends and family if you have stamps. Otherwise set up a letter-writing support network via email or instant messaging to keep in touch with each other and support each other
15. Start a virtual book club
16. Share personality quizzes online and do them with friends and family
17. Start a bad jokes thread
18. Get together on-screen via Zoom or Google hangouts for a virtual sing-along or instrument playing session
19. Nominate your friends and family to list their top 5 songs, animals, foods, whatever, and also their 5 worst things: worst holidays, worst relationships, worst fashion choices...
20. Dig out your board games, everything from crazy modern party games like 'Say It, Don't Spray It' to old school fun with packs of cards, Operation, Monopoly, chess and draughts

Have you dreamed up something cool, fun and safe to do at home while we wait for the Covid-19 threat to die back? If so we'd love to hear about it!