70 Ways I’m Staying Busy During Social Distancing

Social Distancing is hard! Things have been so crazy over the last few months with the COVID-19 Pandemic coming into full swing. Staying at home can be so boring, but it also means being safe. I am constantly seeing posts on social media about how people are bored and how they want to stay busy.

So, far I’ve been doing alright with social distancing. I work from home and have for over a year, so it’s not much of a change for me. But, I have definitely had to find more ways to keep me from going totally bonkers at home.

Here’s a list of some of the things I’ve done to stay busy during this time.

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Cleaning and Organizing During Social Distancing

1. Cleaning my home, especially my bathroom and kitchen.
2. Organizing my bathroom drawers and cupboards.
3. Cleaning and organizing my linen closet.
4. Cleaning and reorganizing my walk in closet.
5. Decluttering my desk, using these amazing bins.
6. Cleaning all my linens- using detergent and borax to boost the clean!
7. Dusting everything!
8. Cleaning out and soaking all my rubbish bins.
9. Enjoying a cold beverage or two.
10. Repairing or throwing out garments with holes.

Learning Something New During Quarantine

1. Learned how to acrylic paint a Monstera Leaf.
2. Practiced French with Duolingo.
3. Learned a few new cords on the Ukulele.
4. Took a photography class on Udemy.
5. Tried out a few TikTok dance challenges.
6. Laughed a lot at myself because I am NOT a dancer.
7. I learned how to give myself a quarantine haircut.
8. Then I talked myself out of quarantine “bangs.”
9. And then I gave my husband a terrible hair cut! It was my first time using clippers.
10. I gave him a second haircut to fix the first one. And it turned out way better!

T.V. Shows and Movies I watched During Social Distancing

1. Rewatched The Mandalorian on Disney+. This is a must watch for all you Star Wars fans out there.
2. Binge watched Project Runway starting with Season 11 and including all All-Stars Episodes. (Really wish I had a sewing machine!)
3. Fell in love with Bob’s Burgers all over again. Their wholesome, quirky, silly family just gets me right in my feels and in my funny bone.
4. Watched The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, season 3. It’s okay, I loved seasons 1 and 2 more though.
5. Had a movie night with my roomies and watched “The Last Jedi.” It was pretty good.
6. Re-watched Midsommer. It is an amazing thriller, very cinematic and made me equally terrified and intrigued by Sweden.
7. On Hulu, I watched Doll Face with Kat Denning. It is a funny “guilty pleasure” type show that I watched when my husband is at work.
8. I went on a Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride with Lilo & Stitch. It was killing me to not be able to go to the beach during the first 5 weeks of Social Distancing. So, this was kind of a fun replacement.
9. Used a free trial of Amazon Prime Videos to watch Starz and Showtime! And I still have a few shows on there I need to watch before my free trial ends.

Self-Care During Social Distancing

Self-Care is a passion of mine. It helps me to balance out my mental health. It also helps me to take care of myself instead of focusing on the other people in my life. Here are a few things I did to take care of me.

1. I spent a lot of time journaling during quarantine.
2. Got Sheet Faced with these amazing face masks lol!
3. Got some sunshine in almost every single day. Somedays this meant a walk to the mail box. Sometimes it was drinking my coffee on the patio.
4. Took an amazing bath with these CBD Oil Bath Bombs. Use code “OFFER15” for a Discount.
5. I tried my best to eat something nutritious each day. Built Bar are amazing protein bars made with real chocolate! I love their coconut almond flavor.
6. I reconnected with some old friends online and over the phone.
7. And I did a birthday photo shoot to celebrate my 30th!
8. I had a lot of fun making different DIY Self Care Products.
9. I played a lot with makeup during this time. And had a ton of fun expressing my creativity.
10. Whenever possible, I stuck to a routine and made sure to complete my Mindful Morning Rituals.
11. I revamped my skin care product collection!
12. Which included some fun new skin care tools.

In the Kitchen

I love to cook. But, I don’t cook nearly as often as I should. Cooking was always a way to connect and gather for my family. I’ve been using this extra time to reach back to my roots and get into the kitchen again.

1. Creating a Sour Dough Starter.
2. Trying New Recipes. My favorites have been sourdough pizza, a dutch baby, and spicy sausage gravy.
3. Organizing and labeling my kitchen cabinets.
4. I repotted my plants. I made sure to add some drainage rocks to help prevent root rot in this humid Hawaii climate.
5. Then I harvested fresh oregano, basil, rosemary, and sage from my patio.
6. Practiced making the perfect French Press Coffee just like Alton Brown.
7. Made amazing spaghetti sauce with my fresh oregano and basil! Yum!
8. Tried the new whipped Dalgona Coffee trend. Hated it! Please refer to #6 of this section for good coffee lol.

Blogging During Quarantine

I’m always working on the blog, but I found myself having more time and focus over the last few months to take some courses, photos, and reach out to other bloggers.

1. Fine-tuning my blog using new Time Management Techniques.
2. Connecting with other bloggers and influencers.
3. Learning about TikTok for business.
4. Made my social media posting so much easier by using Tailwind to schedule all my Pinterest posts.
5. Took an amazing Pinterest Course “Pinterest with Ell” with helped me increase my Pinterest to over 300K views!
6. Did a birthday photoshoot for Instagram. It was really fun to have an excuse to put on make up and go outside. We have a lot of lovely palm fronds near our garage and mailbox.

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This is what turning 30 looks like during a crisis. Note: We bought a few masks to help us with grocery shopping when the virus was first gaining strength in China in January. We are reusing them and are being as careful as we can. – – Swipe for a happier photo 😊 – – Turning 30 is definitely a mile-stone. And although I’m a little bummed that I can’t get out and share my special day with my friends. I’m thankful. – – I’m thankful, we’re all healthy right now. I’m thankful to live with two of my favorite people. I’m thankful for a fridge full of delicious foods. And I’m thankful for being able to find the sunshine even in the darkness. – – What are you thankful for right now my loves? 🔽🔽🔽🔽 – – – #over30style #over30 #oahublogger #birthdaywishes #birthdaygirl #celebratelife #bringthesunshine #positivityiskey #positivevibes #positiveenergy #positivemindset #selfcare #selfcarefirst #selfcareday #plussizefashion #plussizeblogger #plussizeblog #discoverunder5k #discoverunder10k #milestonebirthday #luckyweliveoahu #luckywelivehi #oahuliving #oahulife #islandliving #influencehercollective #nickypresets #hinewnormal

A post shared by Summer | Self-Care Blogger (@thesunshinesuitcase) on Apr 11, 2020 at 12:01am PDT

Home Maintenance Tips

Around week 6 of Quarantine we had to move to a new condo! So this added a huge list of things we needed to do! To be honest moving is a ton of work but it really kept me busy. I won’t list out everything we did to move. But, here’s a few things we did at our new home that you can do at yours too!

1. Installed new air filters.
2. Replaced our water filters.
3. Then we painted our new bedroom.
4. We set up and then rearranged our living room.
5. I swept our walkways and patio (we call it a lanai here in Hawaii.) This gave our outdoor space a nice clean vibe. I even added an eco-friendly outdoor rug made from recycled water bottles!
6. We deep cleaned the oven.
7. We fixed a loose shelf by screwing it back into the wall.
8. Cleaned and conditioned our wood floors.
9. Made no less than 4 trips to Home Depot. Their curbside pick up has been a god-send!
10. Also, I moved my plants around the Lanai for optimum lighting.
11. I found some super cute DIY Tutorials for Home Decor on Creativebug.

I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe at home right now. I’m sending you so much love and light, let me know if you have tried any of the above Social Distancing Activities in the comments below!