Wherever you are from, here’s to hoping that we will all do our part in flattening the curve against the spread of COVID-19. This increases our chances of slowing down the rate at which people get sick, and hopefully, beat the pandemic that has gripped most countries around the globe.
Now what to do when you’re cooped up at home for community quarantine? (Apart from working from home, that is, if you’re from the private sector.) Here are some things I will be doing; by sharing them with you, perhaps you can glean some ideas for yourself too.
Embark on a major decluttering during the quarantine.
Now that the kids are at home, they have pleeeeentty of time to help go through their stuff and pick out ones they’d like to donate and those they’d like to keep (if it were up to me, I’d give them an 80-20 ratio LOL). My husband and I have a huuuge collection of books that we have not touched since our collegiate years, so I have floated the idea to my husband of giving them away to anyone who wants to read actual books.
Organize and rearrange furniture.
I’m hoping that with a major decluttering, I’ll have enough room to organize the things that I do decide to keep. I have also been itching to rearrange some of our furniture for months now, but haven’t been able to because of work. While the slowdown is admittedly going to be an economic challenge for an entrepreneur like me, I’ll take this opportunity to work on things that I didn’t have time to work on before. I’m actually excited to take on this task!
Teach the kids to clean their surroundings.
We’ve already started doing this. My husband found a cute explainer video about coronavirus on Youtube and got the kids to watch it. This inspired them to take on disinfecting all the door knobs and stair railings in our house. Perhaps tomorrow we (they? 😂) could tackle the bathrooms?
Catch up on your online courses (if any).
I’m a former online course junkie, and there are some classes that I purchased late last year that I haven’t finished due to increased work load. Now’s the best time for me to finish them. (Now if online course are something you haven’t done before, I’ll warn you, they can be addicting. There’s a class for just about anything and everything you could possibly think of.)
Work on your passion projects.
Since late last year, I had been working on an online course for home styling and decorating. It’s far from done, but I am quite excited to launch it this year (Update: I launched my online homestyling course in April 2020 and have since updated it for 2021! Check it out here). Would my course interest you? Hit reply and let me know!
Now if you have your own passion projects and have been meaning to “work on them some day,” now is the time to do it. Set aside some time to work on it bit by bit—perhaps after office hours, after dinner, or early in the morning before your WFH day starts? You’ve basically cut out time spent on your office commute anyway, so that’s the perfect time to switch to doing something you absolutely love.
Finish your reading.
Before lockdown started in 2020, my husband and I book-shopped at the annual Big Bad Wolf book sale. There are a couple books I bought there that I’d been wanting to finish: Erin Gates’ Elements of Family Style, and Tim Rundle’s Visual Contrasts. They’re definitely something I can use in my work, and they make a great resource for just about anyone interested in home decorating.
What about you—any titles you’ve been wanting to finish? If you have a reading list in your Kindle that you’ve been meaning to go through, then use your home time to unwind and get reading! I must say, that’s a better use of your time than scrolling through Facebook or Instagram and getting all worked up over the news.
Netflix and chill (less quarantine-related stress!)
Now is not a time to be stressed; remember, stress makes one more susceptible to illness. To get your mind off troublesome information, catching up on some shows on your preferred streaming service. I only have Netflix, but there definitely are a lot of shows that have been highly recommended, like, say, Crash Landing on You (yup, I haven’t caught the #cloy bug yet!), Kingdom, Outlander (I just finished Season 1!), all the Studio Ghibli films, Ugly Delicious…anything else you’re going to watch, or can suggest?
Keep yourself updated on #covid-related news…and not fake news.
This goes without saying. I’ve decided not to share information that I only receive through my various group chats; it always has to be official information released by authorized government agencies, the World Health Organization, or legitimate news agencies (even those sometimes gets facts wrong). Nevertheless, it pays to always make sure the information you’re receiving and passing on is verified. Proliferating fake news could endanger lives.
Just in case you haven’t joined yet, the Department of Health has created a Viber community that allows them to release official information—memoranda, resolutions, and press releases, among others—which members may easily disseminate to their contacts.
What’s great is that members of the group cannot post or comment; only authorized superadmins are allowed to post information. This ensures that the messages you receive have been properly vetted by the authorities—aka, no fake news. If you’d like to join, just click on this link: http://bit.ly/DOHPhCOVID-19.
There you have it! I hope this gives you some great ideas on what to do during our month-long community quarantine! Remember, let’s do our part to stay safe and healthy by staying home—for everyone’s sake, and yours. Praying we get through this pandemic sooner than later 🙏🙏🙏
All photos from Ivory Mix