First of all, I have to thank you for the acceptance that the first part of this publication has received. Thanks for the words of praise, thanks for the opinions and for sharing that first part with other people.
As I promised you in that post, here goes the second part. If you have not read the first part, here is the link and I recommend that you do not miss it so that everything makes more sense.
I have to confess that this research and writing, has also been very rewarding for me. What was born as an idea to make a short list of activities to make good use of this time of confinement, grew up to More than 25 Things to Do in Quarantine. This work has taken me along paths I did not plan to follow and encouraged me to do things I did not plan to. It took me to practice many of the suggestions on the list.
In this second part, there are 10 more suggestions. Some of them also have several variants that you can practice alone, with other family members, other people through social networks and even with children.
My initial intention for this second part was to present in the remaining 18 ideas to complete the more than 25 on the list, but I have been finding so much material to share that I have decided to deliver only 10 more in this edition and shortly present the third and last part of this series.
As always, I appreciate your time, your comments and suggestions. Hoping and wishing you and your loved ones are doing great and in good health, here you have my suggestions. Enjoy!
Contents / Contenido
This is the second list of activities
11. Learn a language
12. Gardening
13. Play or learn to play a musical instrument
14. Exercise
15. Clean, fix and get rid of certain things
16. Make some extra money
17. Home repairs
18. Rearrange or redecorate the house
19. Reconnect with those disconnected
20. Forgive
11. Learn a language
How many times have you said you were going to start learning Spanish? How many times have you said, this year I will start studying Spanish for sure? – And then you have found countless reasons (or should I say excuses) not to do it.
Let bygones be bygones! Now you have the time. And the lack of money to pay for a course, to buy books, or go to school, is not a problem anymore. Today you can study Spanish from your home, on your computer or cell phone and it’s totally free!
And not only Spanish, but you can also study French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Japanese, and several other languages. Below, you’ll find the links of the most recommended sites, all with different methods so you can find the one that best suits your taste and are all free.
If you can’t find the language you want to learn in one of these sites, check out another. There are other places where with a greater variety of languages where you will need to pay a small fee. But all of these suggestions I am presenting to you now have a great variety of languages and they are all totally free!
12. Gardening
My niece, who lives across the street, has a huge backyard with two mature trees, one avocado and the other is a mango, and a smaller mango tree is all she has in that huge backyard.
The beginning of the quarantine, she told me: “I am going to start a new hobby, gardening!” I offered my help and we got to work with some plants that I shared from my garden and other cuttings she got from her front garden, we had enough material to get down to work.
Then she bought some vegetable seeds and some pots where she planted tomatoes, coriander, basil, and some other spices.
In one corner, were the remains from a fallen tree from the last hurricane, making the patio ugly with a little imagination and some perennials, we transformed it into a beautiful focus of attention.
In fact, you don’t need a lot of money to start gardening. Many of the plants can be obtained from friends, neighbors, and relatives who are willing to share. At a dollar store, you can get very good packets of vegetable and flower seeds.
(For those outside the US, a “dollar store” is a store selling a wide range of goods at low prices, typically one dollar or less. Like Poundland in the UK, Euroshop in Germany, Daiso in Japan, Flying Tiger in Denmark, Miniso in China, US Dollar Store in India, Hema in the Netherlands, and Eco-Shop in Malaysia.)
You can also start your vegetable garden using leftovers of the vegetables and seeds you buy for your consumption. Below I’m posting some videos.
For pots, you need more imagination than money. Use cups, teapots, bowls, glasses, cooking pots and containers you no longer use because they’re broken or just because you’re tired of them. Dried coconuts, bottles, and plastic containers can also make a good pot. Always remember to make a hole in the bottom if possible, for drainage. If you cannot make a hole, use them for plants that require little water. So it does not accumulate at the bottom and rot the plant.
You can also start your vegetable garden using leftovers of the vegetables and seeds you buy for your consumption. Below you’ll find some videos.
You don’t need a huge patio with dirt. Some people live in apartments and yet practice gardening and grow their own vegetables.
Another very good idea that you can practice, not only now in quarantine time, but in the future, is to make fruit tree plants even if you don’t have space to keep them. – Say what? – Well, below you will see some techniques to germinate the seeds of the fruits that you buy to consume, you grow the seedling, you have it in your house for a while and when you see that it is already growing too much for you to keep it, you can sell it.
Or, you can plant the seedling in public places, whether they are parks, open spaces or even next to the sidewalk. In this way you will be contributing to the regional ecology, you would be donating fruits to the community and also to wild animals.
If you think you don’t have the imagination or the basic skills to do it, below are some videos that will stimulate your imagination.
Click on each of the links below to watch the videos.
23 Genius ideas for your garden
10 Vegetables Easy to Grow in Containers
13. Play or learn to play a musical instrument
Obviously, for this activity, you need to have a musical instrument. If you already know how to play it, this is a good opportunity to share music,during family time. You can also play music in the patio or balcony to share your art with the neighbors, always taking into account and respecting the hours of rest, and observing a level of volume that is pleasant and not annoying. Remember that your tastes do not necessarily have to be the taste of others, and this is a circumstance where we have to take others into account.
You can also take advantage of recording a video either alone or with some other member of the household who also plays an instrument, and afterward, you can share the video in social networks.
Likewise, you can organize a virtual group, each one playing at home but united virtually either by WhatsApp, Skype or some other social network.
If you would like to play an instrument and you don’t know how to do it, YouTube has several videos where they teach how to play various instruments. Below there are some videos I found, but if you can’t find the instrument you like, don’t forget to search for it on YouTube, the video will most likely exist.
How to Play Piano
14. Exercises
This is another activity that apart from keeping us busy for a while, is totally beneficial on a physical, mental and spiritual level.
It is also one of the activities to which some people find thousands of excuses for not doing it. (I am the very first one!)
Below you will find a wide variety of exercises for all types of people, tastes and levels of fitness.
Click on each of the links below to watch the videos.
15. Cleaning, fixing and getting rid of certain things
Who doesn’t need to clean and organize the house? I think everyone does. Probably some people more than others, right?
What would be the outcome? – We’ll realize that we usually accumulated a lot of objects, be it clothes, books, CDs, home appliances, magazines, cups, plates, some of us have even kept unopened gifts! The list is endless.
Whether you live in a big house or a small apartment, things always accumulate, and if you don’t believe me, look in your closet, chest of drawers, cupboard, kitchen cabinets, multipurpose furniture, etc.
The great challenge is to get rid of them and stop finding excuses to continue hoarding them without using them for weeks, months, even years.
There are many books and videos that you can find in bookstores or online that can teach you different methods to sort and separate what you want to keep and what you don’t, but here I leave you a very simple way to do it.
As you clean, separate the items into two groups; Staying and Leaving. Here comes the question of the year, how to decide what stays and what leaves?
Think, and be honest, if you haven’t used that item in the last 6 to 12 months, you don’t need it. Then, that goes into the Leaving pile.
In the next activity, we will see what can be done with the group of things Leaving.
16. Make some extra money
We can sell the things that we no longer use to make some extra money or we can donate the items to those most in need.
Of course, thousands of excuses will appear to keep every single item, and putting them back away will not help at all.
One of the most difficult things to let go of is clothing, and a very common excuse is, “I’ll keep it for when I lose weight”. The truth is that in 99.99% of cases the result is one of two; either you will not lose weight, or if you lose weight, then you won’t wear those clothes because they are no longer in fashion. So, the best to do is to let them go.
Some philosophies teach that, for new things to enter your life, you have to let go of things that are no longer useful to make room, so let them go!
Another thing that can help you let things go, is to ask yourself Why you are hoarding them, they eventually deteriorate anyway. Meanwhile, somewhere, there is someone else who needs those items and could use them. If you let them go, would be doing double good, to yourself and somebody else.
Once you have the group of things to let go, you can decide whether put everything in a garbage bag and throw it away, or you can make a little money out of it as a reward.
Let’s see! Separate this group of things into three new groups: Garbage, Recycle, and Sell.
Garbage: There are things, whether you want to admit it or not, that has been saved and is now useless, either because it is broken or stained and is no longer useful. Be careful with appliances and devices, some things might be broken and not working, and fixing them can be more expensive than buying new, but some people buy them as is. Of course, when you sell these items, let the buyer know of any failing or damage so you don’t have to go through the inconvenience of a returned item.
Recycle: Some items might not be fit for sale or gift, you can still recycle instead of thrown away. If you don’t know how you can recycle certain things, on Google or YouTube, you will find numerous ways to recycle objects and clothes before they go to the garbage. From making clothes or toys for pets to dishes that become pot holders, or cups that become pots, bottles into lamps, etc., etc.
Sell: This is the part that may interest you the most since something will go away but it will bring you something else, money! There are many ways to sell these objects, and one of the most used nowadays is by social networks and applications.
Some of these options I list below are also available outside the United States. But if you can’t find it in your country, I’m sure you will find something similar. It would be great if you can share those places or apps in the comments below for other readers living outside the United States.
Facebook Marketplace is very good and widely used because it connects you with people in your area and because you can do some research about the buyer before you meet him or her. If you don’t feel safe or confident, just follow your guts feelings.
Other online sites or applications are:
- Ebay
- Poshmark
- 5miles
- Letgo
- Offerup
- Craiglist
Wash and iron the clothes, or clean the items you’re about to sell. Take a good and sharp photo with enough light and a neutral background to make it easier to sell.
Look, read and read again all terms and conditions, and instructions of each site or application to know how the payment is made and how you will receive the money.
In some cases, you will have to mail the items and in others, you will have to meet the buyer. In all cases, use caution and good judgment. Agree to meet in a public place to deliver the item and if it is a large appliance that they need to pick it up from your home, make arrangements to be with some else at home, not alone. Remember that not everyone has good intentions.
Finally, if after a while, days or weeks, that’s up to you, things have not been sold, do not put them away again to keep!
Look for ways to donate them, be it a homeless, a neighbor, a relative, or some aid entity such as:
- Goodwill
- Salvation Army
- Red Cross
- Dress for Succes
- Baby2baby
- Miami Rescue Mission
- Any church or entity you want.
17. Home repairs
This is another activity we procrastinate on because we never have time to do it. Guess what! Now is the best time to deal with it.
While it could be a large repair, such as plastering a wall, building up a partition, or removing a wall completely to expand a room, many small repairs keep accumulating in the to-do list over time.
For example: Fixing a running toilet, the squeaking door, the lock in the window, the hinge in the kitchen cabinet, replacing the burned-out light bulb, taking care of the damp spot on the ceiling, the list is endless and for everything, there is a solution and once again our source of knowledge will be,… YouTube!
For each of these things and many more, someone posted a video on YouTube and if you find it a bit hard to understand, I’m sure that just by following the images you will be able to accomplish your purpose.
Just go to www.youtube.com and type in whatever you need to do. For example: How to fix a toilet, How to replace a toilet, How to unclog the kitchen sink, etc.
18. Rearrange or redecorate the house
After you’ve made space by getting rid of the things you no longer use, and after you’ve repaired what was needed, you can now take care of redecorating your home, or a specific room.
If budgeting is a problem, don’t despair! There are plenty of things you can do before you break your piggy bank or bank account, and one of them is to get creativity running.
One way of giving a room a new look without spending money is rearranging the furniture. That’s it! Just moving your furniture around could give a room a whole new flair. Don’t be afraid to rotate your furnishings, place them at an angle, diagonally, across, switch them left to right, and vice versa if you need to.
Remember that now you have the time to do it. Once you have finished rearranging, give your mind and the rest of the house occupants a few days to get used to the new layout. Worst case, if you do not like it or the new design is not practical, you can always go back to the original layout.
Here you can put into use, those recycled things that we talked about before. If quarantine in your area is not so strict and you can leave your house, you will find in many stores you will find very affordable accessories and pieces of furniture. Sometimes even for free, such as at www. craiglist.com or the Freebie Alerts application.
Here are some ideas. Click on each of the links below to watch the videos.
19. Reconnect with the ones disconnected
I am sure that, just like me, you have some friends, or relatives, of whom you have not heard for a long time. In most cases, we have hundreds of “friends” on Facebook and other social networks, and sometimes we haven’t even seen their pictures for ages.
Even if you are not a social media person, the story is the same. There is always a number of friends or relatives, of whom we have little news. The reasons can be many, they live in different cities, they had a new telephone number which we never got, there was an argument that ended up in distancing or the usual reason, there is not enough time to socialize.
Well, if the main reason is the latter, not enough time, now it is not a reason anymore. Now you have the time. Now you can reconnect with those people and relive that friendship or bond that at some point in the past brought you both together. It is time to rescue the positive and move on.
Make a list of the 10 people from whom you haven’t heard in the last months, or years, and try to contact them.
If you have their phone number, call them. If you are going to use one of the social networks, for example, Facebook, do not send him/her a message on his wall that everyone can read. That takes away the intimate and serious touch. Use Messenger to sincerely express that you would love to hear from her or him. Say that you hope he/she is in good health and that you regret all this time that has passed without communicating.
Mention some details about yourself and ask for a reply. Say you will be waiting. Once you have an answer, try to relive that relationship that united you both in the past, if possible. If the answer is negative or hostile, do not answer back in the same way. Bless that person, wish her/him well and let that person go her or his way. No bad feelings. Keep in your memory only the good moments and keep going.
Whether the friendship resumes or not, you can be sure that this experience will be very edifying for both of you, and will take you to the next activity; Forgiving.
20. Forgiving
Although this activity might seem out of place because it is not an activity that puts us in physical movement and that leads us to make good use of the time in these moments of quarantine or confinement. It is nevertheless an activity that mobilizes us internally and spiritually.
We all carry within us something unresolved, something we have regretted and wish to be excused or receive forgiveness from the person we offended or did wrong in some way. A bad reply, a fight, a wrongdoing, a betrayal…
Similarly, there are some people, friends, or family, who at some point have repented of the wrong they did to us and would like to receive our forgiveness, our apology. Forgiving, doesn’t necessarily mean socializing again. There are ties that once they have been broken will never be the same again. But that does not prevent us from forgiving and establishing a new bond, a new relationship.
So previously when we were talking about connecting with someone we had lost contact with, perhaps that will include some forgiving as well.
We cannot expect to be forgiven if we are not willing to forgive. “Because the way you judge others, you will be judged,” says the Bible in the book of Matthew, chapter 7, verse 2.
If the division is so huge that it will prevent you from speaking to them, or if that person is no longer in this world, we can still forgive. There is no need to shout it from the rooftops and posted on all social networks. Just by sincerely forgiving in your heart, in the intimacy and loneliness of your conscience, that alone will free you from a great burden and help you to keep moving forward on this journey called life.
Thank you very much for the time invested in this reading. If you found something useful, I’d love to know. If you think I could expand more on any topic, I’d love to know, too. And if you think you can help someone by sharing this article, please share it. You will be helping me to reach other people as well.
CONTINUE READING
Thank you so much for sharing this! My brain is going crazy with so many gardening decorations ideas for my own garden!! Can’t wait to put it into action.
Very happy to hear that! Don’t keep it to yourself, please share the post with your friends and family! Thanks for your support!