With many of us spending more time indoors these days, it’s important to create structure and make the weekends feel like weekends. If you need some tips on working from home, by the way, we’ve got you covered here. It’s a great idea to try some new hobbies at home in your free time. Learn something you’ve always wanted to know, pick up a skill for free, write that novel! The world is a big place and there are so many things you can get stuck into when you’re stuck indoors.
We’ve rounded up some of the most creative and budget-friendly hobbies to try right now that will give you something to do and make those weekends feel longer.
1. Learn interior design
Umm yes, who doesn’t want to learn how to decorate their apartment or home like a pro? Interior design is about space, color, and technique. And with ten minutes per lesson, you can learn this in no time. You can help your friends and family decorate, monetize your skills, or just use it to redesign your kitchen while you’re staying at home. Check the class out here.
2. Start knitting
Knitting isn’t just for grandmothers anymore. It can be an incredibly cool hobby and help you end up with something really unique. Want to make a scarf or something similar? Try this easy tutorial for beginners here.
3. Make clay sculptures from home
No, you don’t need a kiln, you only need an oven. This is one of the easiest hobbies at home to try. You need to buy some clay, like Fimo or Sculpey, in a variety of colors, and maybe some tools to get you started out. From there, you can make your own jewelry dish, earrings, and even clay figures. See a tutorial for cute earrings here.
4. Write a book
Every single person has a book in them, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction. And take it from me, you don’t have to be a writer with a degree from anywhere to get it done. Getting it done is the first step, perfecting it is step two. Try installing a tool like Scrivener (honestly, it’s the best for compiling books) learn the basics and use the daily word count to get your novel done.
5. Create an Instagram account
Challenge yourself to take a photo every day, choose a theme and subject, and make an account specifically for that hobby. People have had success with patterns, photos of their gardens, and more. Be creative and develop your photography skills. This is the easiest of all the hobbies at home to try because it’s completely free!
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6. Start a podcast
You don’t need technical equipment to get your podcast off the ground, at least initially. You can use your phone microphone, and then upload it to the platforms you want to display it on.
7. Go on a scavenger hunt
Even though you’re at home for a while, you can still go out and about as long as you stay away from people. Geocaching is a great hobby to pick up if you want to get fresh air but stay away from people. You sign up and get co-ordinates of cache near you. You go out on a scavenger hunt, find the geo-cache, open it up and see what’s inside and fill in your logbook. There are millions of geocaches all over the world, and it’s quite an addictive game to play. Find out more here.
8. Get adventurous with your cooking
This is a time when it’s crucial to educate yourself on the staples in your pantry and how to use them. If you buy pasta and jarred sauce, for example, you can upgrade that sauce by frying some garlic in a pan with oil before you add the tomato sauce to heat. You can make shakshuka with tinned tomatoes and eggs, stuffed peppers with rice, homemade healthy pizza with fajita wraps. This is one of those hobbies from home that will make a huge difference during this period.
Start a Pinterest board with all the recipes you want to try and go from there. Don’t panic buy, instead focus on staples and smart meal plans. You can use the On The Menu Meal Pad to make this a lot easier.
9. Embroider something for your home
Get yourself a hoop embroidery kit and start embroidering a slogan or a picture. I’d also personally recommend felting as a really addictive and easy hobby, you get a felting set and just basically stab the felt into it until you make something really cute. Hoop embroidery is the same, if you get a kit it’ll come with instructions and help you work towards something every day that you can hang up at the end!
10. Paint some abstract art
Abstract art always looks expensive. All you need to get this done is a canvas and some paints, and the desire to be a little creative/messy one day or after work. It’s definitely not as hard as you think it is to create something that looks expensive, and the beauty of abstract art is that it doesn’t demand a lot of technical skill. See this tutorial here.