99 Things to do at Home During Lockdown

Let’s face it. We’re all a little bit bored. This whole lockdown thing is so frustrating. And yet so necessary. But fear not, if you are out of ideas, you’ve come to the right place. Here are 99 things you can do in lockdown to keep you and your loved ones busy. Although I can’t promise you’ll be on speaking terms by the end of it.

1.      Reorganise your wardrobe. You don’t need that top you wore once five years ago.

2.      Make a pile of all the clothes you can give to charity and leave the pile in the corner for the next 2 months.

3.      Write, and send a letter. If you don’t have a stamp, send it to someone in the same house. Or a neighbour.

4.      Clean your makeup brushes and marvel at how dirty they really were.

5.      Call a friend and complain about being inside.

6.      Do a workout video then lie on the floor and complain how much it hurts.

7.      Leave a positive review of your favourite restaurant. Because it’s nice to be nice.

8.      Clean your kitchen cupboards to remove that weird can that went out of date in 1998.

9.   Make a Spotify playlist for the next week.

10.    Play said playlist repetitively until everyone else is annoyed.

11.   Learn a new skill from YouTube.

12.   Meditate to block out the noisy neighbours.

13.   Half-listen to a podcast while doing something else, start it again when you realise you weren’t listening.

14.   Start a blog but still read this one.

15.   Have a movie marathon, then another, then another.

16.   Go for a run, or walk.

17.   Make a cocktail you’ve never tried then drink ten.

18.   Create a collage or mood-board for an unattainable aesthetic life.

19.   Make a blanket fort and don’t’ let anyone else in unless they know the password.

20.   Find out your Myers Briggs personality and then judge everyone else in the house.

21.   Give yourself a facial.

22.   Unsubscribe to unwanted emails that have been bugging you for years.

23.   Deep clean the freezer. It’s gross.

24.   Update your resume. You might as well.

25.   Dance, on your own or with others.

26.   Have a fancy-dress contest using only what is in the house.

27.   Play a boardgame and create tension in the house when you win.

28.   Learn calligraphy and ruin all the pens.

29.   Read the newspaper. Not online.

30.   Sort out the cupboard full of mismatched Tupperware lids.

31.   Read a new book. Preferably a long one like War and Peace. Or the Bible.

32.   Make up a card game. Teach it to someone else. Play with them and make sure you always win by inventing new rules as you go.

33.   Learn all the words to your favourite song. Sing it non-stop for three days.

34.   Start a journal and only write it when someone else is talking until they get suspicious.

35.   Wait until someone has finished a super hard jigsaw puzzle. Destroy it.

36.   Organise your computer files. So. Much. Junk.

37.   Buy a houseplant. Try to keep it alive until the end of the lockdown when you can forget about it and let it die.

38.   Plan a luxury non-expense-spared trip for when lockdown is over.

39.   Feel sad that you will likely never take said trip.

40.   Learn a foreign language then only speak in that language so no one understands you.

41.   Do some yoga and then lie down after you stretch too hard and pull something.

42.   Search for your symptoms online to find out the many ways in which your headache could be serious.

43.   Contemplate your impending demise.

44.   Stalk your ex’s new partner on Instagram.

45.   Attempt a self-portrait only using a pencil and paper.

46.   Write a truly terrible short story.

47.   Ask others for genuine feedback on the story.

48.   Enjoy the awkwardness of your family and friends trying to tell you that your work is awful.

49.   Turn a piece of paper into a fortune teller like you used to do at school. Tell the fortunes of everyone in the house.

50.   Learn how to French braid hair properly.

51.   Go through your phone and find your favourite photos. Send them off to be printed.

52.   Have a wine tasting night. Or vodka tasting. Or gin. Whatever takes your fancy.

53.   Spend an entire day in bed with a hangover after the tasting evening.

54.   Save money.

55.   Have a household version of the great British bake-off.

56.   Listen to an audiobook.

57.   Cut your own hair and then be pleased that no one has to see it.

58.   Hold a quiz night.

59.   Learn a TikTok dance. Post it and then regret it.

60.   Rearrange the furniture in your house. Bonus points if you do this without telling anyone else. Just do it.

61.   Learn how to shuffle cards like one of those cool people in a casino.

62.   Learn how to write with your non-dominant hand.

63.   Learn Origami.

64.   Move in slow motion. Bonus points for speaking in slow motion.

65.   Donate money to a charity. Other people are struggling too.

66.   Spend some time worrying if anyone remembers that embarrassing thing you did three years ago.

67.   Challenge others to a song-writing contest. Everyone must include the word Corona in their song.

68.   Take a nap.

69.   Whenever someone asks you do to something, just responded with “why”?

70.   Put too much bubble bath in the bath. Make a foam beard.

71.   Order a customised painting-by-numbers kit of a photo of your family. Paint it and demand it is hung on the wall above the tv.

72.   Create an indoor scavenger hunt.

73.   Consistently do the one thing everyone complains you never do. Maybe it’s the washing up or making your bed.

74.   Go online and do a virtual museum tour.

75.   Give someone a makeover. Good or bad. You decide.

76.   Create a runway. Everyone must give a fashion show of the least-worn clothing items in their wardrobe.

77.   Have a proper fancy dinner where everyone dresses up for cocktails before and drinks with their little fingers sticking out.

78.   Make presents for each other. Put out all your decorations and celebrate Christmas.

79.   Make a bath and a feeder for the birds. They aren’t in quarantine, lucky buggers.

80.   Make paper aeroplanes. Whichever flies the farthest, wins.  

81.   Watch the live-cams at a zoo.

82.   Create and wear a cape. Put it on and run downstairs at speed. Enjoy the feeling of power.

83.   Make lots of really tiny pancakes the size of a penny. Put them in a bowl and eat them like cereal. Marvel at this extraordinary new breakfast.  

84.   Find a new way you can become eco-friendly.

85.   Have an upside-down meals day. Eat dinner in the morning, and breakfast at bedtime.

86.   Take an online university course. Something to add to your newly updated CV.

87.   Learn how to give a proper back massage. People will thank you.

88.   Have a house speed-dating night. Everyone sits at different tables and moves around. Find out something new about everyone.  

89.   Go down a Wikipedia rabbit-hole. Emerge two days later fully creeped out and confused.

90.   Plan your meals in advance to avoid shopping too frequently. Be creative and try new recipes.

91.   Stargaze.

92.   Apply to help transcribe documents. Police station, the national library, you name it. Loads of places need help transcribing old documents. It’s both fascinating and useful.

93.   Call your grandparents. Just do it. They love it.

94.    Think about your favourite books and recommend a book for each of your family and friends.

95.   Drink too much coffee. Spend all morning trying to calm down.

96.   Kick a bad habit.

97.   Comment and like everyone’s posts online. We all need to feel good right now.

98.   Update all your online passwords. Better safe than sorry.

99.    Spring clean everything. I mean, it is Spring.