17 Productive Things to Do at Home When You’re Bored

17 Productive Things to Do at Home When You're Bored

Have you have ever had one of those days at home when you’re flat-out bored?

You don’t want to go outside.

You don’t want to watch TV or a movie.

You don’t want to play a board game.

You’re feeling a little restless.

You want to tinker with items, or do some sort of easy, repetitive action.

What should you do?

In this post, I offer a list of seventeen productive things you can do at home when you are bored.

If none of these items interests you, you may be inspired or prompted to do something else more interesting.

That’s not a bad way to approach boredom, now is it?

Shred a stack of confidential papers and documents.

Old tax documents, expired licenses, ancient account statements…you get the idea.

Grab a plastic bag, fire up your cross-cut shredder, and get to work.

 

Count and roll coins.

Have giant jar of coins and a bag of coin wrappers sitting around at home? Spend several hours sorting, organizing, counting, and rolling coins.

 

Go through your grocery coupon collection.

Pull out your collection of grocery coupons. Go through the stack and recycle any that have expired. Review and organize the rest as necessary.

 

Transfer recipes to a recipe book or to recipe cards.

Consolidate all those different recipes you’ve been saving over the past few months. You can write recipes onto your recipes cards, enter them into your recipe book, or scan recipes into your computer.

 

Write thank you notes.

Did you hold a special party or event sometime over the past weeks? Now would be a great time to sit down and write out your thank you notes.

 

Polish an item (or two).

Make something sparkle again. Break out the polish and elbow grease and polish jewelry, a silverware service, or a dining room table.

 

Organize plastic cutlery.

Gather as many plastic forks, knives, and spoons as you can find. Organize into three separate piles, and store each in an individual box or plastic container.

 

Recycle or give away cookbooks you no longer use.

Cook happy! Keep the cookbooks you absolutely love to use, and either donate, recycle, or give away the rest.   

 

Declutter pencils, markers, and pens.

Round up all those writing implements you have stashed in drawers, boxes, and pen cups. Test the writing ability of each on a piece of scrap paper. Recycle items that no longer work, and keep the rest.

 

Fix a broken door.

Take out your toolkit and fix the hinges, lock and/or doorknob of a troublesome door. You’ll be glad you did!

 

Clean out your jewelry box.

This is a great way to become reacquainted with your jewelry collection. Remove everything, vacuum the box, and replace everything once again.

 

Clean off your refrigerator door.

Remove months old invitations, coupons, announcements, notes, and more. Enjoy admiring the freshly cleaned surface.

 

Repaint a piece of furniture.

Do you have a table, chair, dresser or other piece of furniture that could do with a new lick of paint or finish? Grab some paint, spray paint, or finish, and get to work outdoors.

 

Backup your personal computer.

Don’t let your data disappear! Use an external drive to backup all of your files and documents from your computer. You could also backup your cell phone, tablet, and laptop while you’re at it.

 

Reorganize a bulletin board.

Could the bulletin board in your home office or kitchen use a little bit of TLC? Remove everything, sort through and dispose of items as necessary. Replace everything back onto the bulletin board.

 

Clean out your wallet.

Remove everything from your wallet. Sort and collate receipts, double-check the expiration dates of licenses and permits, and reorganize everything as you please.

 

Change your passwords.

When’s the last time you changed your computer or online passwords? Now would be a good time to do so.

 

How about you? How do you stay productive at home when you are bored? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!

5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook Mockup
About the Author

Rashelle

Rashelle Isip is a New York City-based productivity consultant who helps successful entrepreneurs and business owners manage their time and energy so they can reduce stress, work less, and make more money in their businesses. She has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, NBC News, The Washington Post, NPR, and The Atlantic. Get her free guide, 5 Unexpected Things You Need to Organize a Work Notebook, by clicking here.

8 Comments

  1. Karen Hall

    When my daughter had a big jar of coins earlier this year, I asked the bank for some wrappers.
    I was told they now preferred unwrapped coins, and to just bring in the jar.
    So I did, and their machine separated and counted over $100-worth of assorted coins in just a few minutes. The total was credited to my account, and I passed it on to her.

    Reply
    • Rashelle

      Hi Karen, ah, you make a good point. Times certainly have changed. I guess it would be best if people checked with their banks first, before embarking on a coin rolling session. Still, the physical process of rounding up as much loose change as possible and taking a quick trip to the bank is a way to beat boredom. 🙂 Thanks for your comment!

      Reply
    • Jennifer

      Actually, it depends on the bank/credit union. The place we usually use still requires coins to be rolled. I guess just checking with the location before hand will possibly save time. ????

      Reply
      • Rashelle

        That’s an excellent point, Jennifer. I’ve even heard of banks having limits on the amount of coins that can be deposited per day. All the more reason to call ahead and check the bank’s policy.

        Reply
  2. Adelle Walker

    Hello! My recommendation – when you’re bored attend some classes or courses! If you get bored at the same time of the day, every day, then the problem is in you. You can easily solve that, if you keep yourself occupied the most of the time, and do different activities. So, let’s say that you are bored from 5pm until 7pm every day. Do some research on the Internet, ask some friends about the classes that are offered in that period of time, or go and check by yourself. A simple basic course in some of the languages will keep you busy, and who knows maybe you will turn into the expert of the language, and publish your own dictionary. So, you never know what type of productive thing you will get, if you get up from bed, and start getting busy right now.

    Reply
    • Rashelle

      Courses and classes are a wonderful idea, Adelle. You get to learn new skills, meet new people, and expand your horizons. Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
  3. Suzanne

    Try doing a MOOC (online free courses) lasting about six sessions or more they are a great way to get a taster of new subjects and they are free and you do them when you have those loose end moments

    Reply
    • Rashelle

      Great idea, Suzanne! Thanks for sharing.

      Reply

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