Are You Stuck At Home? Here Are Some Fun Things To Do When You Don’t Have A Clue!

Don’t know what to do when you’re stuck at home? If you’re used to loading up your gear and setting off to enjoy your favorite outdoor pursuits, self isolation can be a reel struggle. It’s important in this situation to remember that being outside is not an issue, it is being in close proximity to other people you must avoid.

So, if you’re fortunate enough to live somewhere you can leave home and enjoy the outdoors without social interaction, you’re still good. Go ahead and walk down to the river and fish, drive your UTV across your land, or spend the day on your boat.

If you have been instructed to stay home, and you don’t have the opportunity to get outdoors without bumping into anyone else, I’ve put together a list:

What To Do When You’re Stuck At Home

Remember, social distancing doesn’t mean you cannot go outside. It means that, as long as you have no symptoms of any illness, you should stay six feet away from the next person. You should, however, also limit the amount of time you spend around other people if at all possible.

Meal Planning And Testing

Now is the perfect time to try out new camping food recipes. They work just as well if you enjoy a couple of nights hiking from the cabin and staying out under the star, or when you are Rving.

If you run into a brick wall on the ideas front, this list of the 100 Best Camping Recipes should give you some inspiration.

There are also 20 Camping Food Hacks with ideas such as How To Make Your Smores In An Ice Cream Cone for less mess, and how to make a Sweedish Torch Fire so you do not need support for your camping cooking pots.

Once you have discovered the foods you want to eat on your next trip, you can write up some meal plans and shopping lists. This way, when the summer vacation comes around, you’ll be sorted ahead of time.

Discover New Places

It can be easy to get into the habit of going to the same places, but why not take this time at home to explore new RV sites in new States? Or fishing spots you have never tried before? Or archery ranges with new facilities?

No matter what your favorite pastime, there will be a new location you’ve never heard of that is just waiting to be discovered.

Who knows, your new favorite place could be just a click away.

Put Together Playlists

Some people prefer their time in the outdoors to be as quiet as possible. They enjoy the peace, solitude and sounds of nature. Others prefer to have a little musical accompaniment to their leisure time.

If you are in the second group, use your time at home to create some playlists for different activities and different moods.

When You Need To Read

And if you prefer to lay back, kick off your boots, and read, explore some reading lists and load up your eReader or order some books online.

There are plenty of free eBooks available for immediate download. If you prefer to hold your book in your hand, sites such as Book Outlet have hundreds of thousands of discounted books with an ever changing selection.

Review Your First Aid Kit

Believe it or not, some first aid supplies have an expiry date so it’s important to go through your kit, at least once a year, and replace items that are now out of date.

It’s also the ideal opportunity to ensure any items you have previously used are replaced, and you have everything you might need for each of your outdoor adventures. The contents of a basic first aid kit differ from the items you might choose for a camping or cabin first aid kit or a first aid kit for fishing.

Test Your First Aid Skills

While you have the first aid lit out, ask yourself “Do I know what to do with it all?” Having the first aid kit is only part of being safe in the outdoors. The equipment isn’t actually much use unless you know how to use it all.

Yes, washing a simple cut and covering it up with a band aid isn’t exactly rocket science, if you have clean water and a way to ensure your hands are clean of course. However, do you know what to do for someone experiencing a medical problem such as low blood sugar, a seizure, or an allergic reaction? Or how to control bleeding?

Ideally, you should only ever administer first aid if you have taken a course delivered by a professional, but by reading up now you can identify gaps in your knowledge and plan to take some proper training when social distancing is no longer required.

Service Your Gear

What’s the only thing worse than getting your gear ready to throw in the truck, and discovering an issue? Actually getting to your destination, going to use your gear and finding you can’t. We once drove eight hours to climb a new rock face, got up first thing the next morning and discovered that the soles of my climbing shoes had begun to part company with the shoes upper. Not the best start to a trip.

Avoid both possibilities by taking out all of your gear, giving it the once over, servicing and fixing where required, and making a replacements list.

Learn To Read A Map

Even though we have the luxury of GPS and maps on our smart devices, there is still something special about knowing how to read a map. And, of course, it’s not just knowing how to read a map that is important, you also need to know How To Navigate With A Map And Compass.

Indoor And Backyard Camping

If your local lockdown is more extensive and you are not permitted to leave home, or if you are actually in quarantine, there’s no reason why you can’t still enjoy a spot of camping, you just need to be a little more creative about it.

For those with enough private space to set up camp in the backyard don’t limit yourself to putting up the tent. Go into full on camping mode,cook outside and enjoy those special meals in which you only indulge when you sleep under the stars. Many things can feel more upbeat when you’re eating fire roasted sausages, or some melty smores.

If you do not even have the option of camping outside, put your tent up inside. Strike camp by a window, open it wide and wrap yourself up in your sleeping bag for a “sleep out.” But be sure not to use your camping stoves, lamps, heaters, or any other equipment that runs off of propane, charcoal, or kerosene. These all produce a large volume of CO2 which can be extremely dangerous, even deadly, in an indoor setting.

Enjoy A Pretend Summer

If camping at home, or anywhere else for that matter is not your thing, consider a pretend summer holiday.

Break out the colorful beach towels, sunglasses, and deckchairs, mix some fancy drinks with cocktail umbrellas, lay back, and enjoy. Don’t forget ice-creams in cones, sandwiches, and your other beach snacks.

Depending on your beach preferences, throw on some summer music, break out a trashy beach novel or play beach ball.

Alternatively. have a picnic, either at home, or if it is safe to do so, get into the great outdoors.

Discover A New Hobby

There are numerous ways to have a good time outdoors without leaving home, and you don’t need acres of your own land to enjoy them.

Astronomy

You do not have to have a telescope to learn about, and enjoy astronomy. To get you started here is an excellent introductory course on YouTube Astronomy – A Crash Course.

Stone Decorating

If you already have paints, paint pens, chalks, or markers at home, you could try stone decorating. This is an excellent passtime for both kids and adults, so it’s a fabulous activity to share.

If you need some inspiration look at 25 Easy Rock Painting Ideas For Beginners at Fabulessly Frugal.

There’s no end to the fun you can have with this one. I particularly like these fishing and camping examples.

Magic Or Card Tricks

Want to learn a new “skill” you can ~~annoy~~ entertain people with for years to come? THen you could do worse than to try some card tricks, magic tricks, or the mysterious sounding visual pen tricks.

Most of us have some cards, pens and the bits and pieces used for the magic tricks laying around, so there’s nothing to buy. Not only that, when you do go back to work you can dazzle your colleagues by showing them how you made excellent use of your time in lockdown.

Archery

Beginners

If you are new to the sport we have a complete beginners guide to archery that will walk you through:

The different kinds of bow and different types of archery,
The gear you need,
How to find a club or a range,
What to expect in an archery class
And a slew of beginners tips.

Everyone else!

Unless you have plenty of room at home, your options for archery practice may be limited while self-isolating. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything to enjoy your hobby.

Learn From Another Archer

The Push – A Traditional Archery Film is a well known and popular YouTube film about archery from which I have learned a great deal. There is something for both beginner archers and those with more experience. So, if you have some time to fill, you could do a lot worse to give this a look.

DIY Target Making

In 7 Ways To Make Inexpensive DIY Targets we run down some of the ways you can put together targets without having to splash a load of cash. There is even a downloadable bullseye for you to print and use should you need one.

If you do make some of your own targets, we’d love to see them. How about you share them with us on Instagram or Facebook

Strength Building

If you can’t get out on the range, and don’t have room to practice safely at home, don’t worry. You can still work on your upper-body strength with muscle exercises specifically for archery.

Although this article discusses the exercise using barbells, you don’t need any equipment. As long as it is safe, you can use canned goods to hold and give your muscles the extra workouthat barbells otherwise would.

Boating

If you have your boat at home, or you are able to get to your mooring and work on your boat in safety, now is the perfect time to give everything a service. You can also give everything a good clean, check your safety equipment and make a list of any repairs or replacements that are needed.

Cabins

I know many people who are choosing to self-isolate at their cabins instead of at home. As long as you can practice social distancing – that’s staying at least six feet away from the next person – this is a fabulous way to use your time.

Spring Clean

So, it may not be the most exciting of options but, how about a good floor to ceiling cabin spring clean?

As well as cleaning the windows, airing out the rooms, and clearing away the cobwebs of the winter months you can vacuum the refrigerator coils, check the smoke alarms and change the batteries.

Build An Outdoor Shower

If you’re anything like me, you have a long list of things that you would like to do at the cabin, but never seem to get around to.

If building an outdoor shower is on your list, you’re in luck. I have written a complete How To Build A Simple Outdoor Shower Off Grid guide. It has everything from measurements for the shower footprint to directions for mounting your water supply.

Clean And Season Your Cast Iron Cookware

A couple of years ago I was horrified to unpack all of our camping gear and find that the beautiful cast iron cookware we had bought especially for our backcountry summers, was rusty.

Fortunately, this isn’t the disaster I feared and it is possible to restore your cast iron cookware to its former glory.
Then you just have to clean and season your cast iron skillet, pots, and pans.

Fishing

For newbies to fishing we have written The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To Fishing For The Total Beginner. It covers:

Fishing licences and laws
How to buy the right equipment for you
Lures
Knots
Casting and more.

If you are an experienced fisher we still have plenty for you, including:

And, perhaps most importantly, if you are going fishing with kids for the first time, we have some fabulous resources to make it fun for everyone.

Oh, and a tip from personal experience, take along some coloring pens and fishing coloring pages for kids, or something similar. I don’t know about you, but our kids didn’t grasp the “sitting quietly and waiting” element of fishing for a while!

Find Your Next Outdoor Love

Whether you are looking for your first travel trailer or RV or where to buy inner tubes perfect for sledding, OutdoorTroop has a buyers guide. Arm yourself with the best of advice, browse the internet for possible purchases, and spend your unexpected free time preparing for your next adventure

Our guides will walk you through many things to consider before making a large purchase.

In Closing

Some outdoor pursuits lend themselves well to social distancing. If you are fit and healthy, have no symptoms of a cold, flu, or other respiratory illness, then there is no reason why you can’t go out and enjoy a solitary fishing spot, some time on your boat, a trip to the cabin, or any other activity that doesn’t require interaction with other people.

Many of us are worried about being out of work right now, even if it is only temporary, or working reduced hours. Finding new ways to keep yourself occupied, or enjoying your existing hobbies are important ways to maintain as much normality as possible and reduce your stress levels.

As long as there are no additional regulations in your location, restricting where you can go or what you can do, just ensure you keep your six foot distance from others and make the most of your unexpected time off.