'The Spring We All Stayed Home': 6 Great Ways to Make the Best of It

What a time to be alive!

This will forever go down in history as "the spring when everybody stayed home." Without school, sporting events, movies, concerts, gatherings, festivals, and even Disneyland, nearly everyone is preparing to hunker down—pioneer-style. So what to do with all this extra downtime?

Well, as experienced homebodies, we OCN editors are more than ready to offer our expertise! Here we go ...

1. Read all the books. (Of course!)

Seriously. You've finally been given the gift of time to finally start whittling down that TBR pile next to your bed. If you don't already have some books in mind, take a gander through your local library (if it's still open) or go shopping for titles online. Here are a few to get you started:

15 Books to Read Before You Die (a little inappropriate of a title, given the circumstances? yes)
10 Must-Read Books of 2020
5 Books to Read in 2019 (in case you have a lot of catching up to do!)

2. Watch all the movies and shows.

Again, if you have a list of entertainment you need to binge, then get started. How awesome would it be to say at the end of this: "I used my quarantine to watch all of Game of Thrones, The West Wing, The Mandalorian, and The Office"? This time is a gift. Make good use of it.

3. Play all the board games.

First of all, the Friends Monopoly game is officially available! If you're a fan of the hit TV series, this is a sure-fire way to find some entertainment while you're stuck at home. (For the full experience, pop in your Friends DVDs to play in the background!)

Back before the holidays, we shared with you some of the most popular board games by age group. They're worth a reshare now!

And if there was ever a better time to play the board game Pandemic, I don't know what it is.

4. Build all the LEGOs.

I mean it—LEGOs are hugely satisfying and can help you focus your mind and energy on something other than the surreal reality we're all living. Channel your inner child and get out all your old LEGOs. Don't have any? Order one of these amazing sets we've featured in the past:

5. Clean all the things.

This is a great time to do some actual spring cleaning! Think about how fresh your home would feel after you've deeply cleaned all your corners and spruced everything up. And with all the fear of catching the coronavirus, sterilizing is a pretty good idea right about now! Need some tips on decluttering? Need to know which cleaning products are recommended for effectively killing the virus? We've got you covered.

6. Try all the hobbies.

You'd be amazed at what a new hobby can do for your self-confidence and happiness! Take this time to try something new:

Start getting a garden area ready (though it won't be warm enough to plant outdoors just yet)
Take up kite-flying
Learn to knit
Try your hand at painting
Learn how to play a musical instrument (YouTube is great for this!)
Put together a jigsaw puzzle
Start woodworking
Make toilet paper crafts (you have plenty of hoarded toilet paper, after all!)

Want to know the hobby I recently discovered? Soap carving!

Snail soap carving

Get yourself some carving tools, a book of tutorials, and some Ivory soap (to start). It's oddly satisfying! Plus, working with all this soap will help your hands to stay clean, which (as we all know) is of paramount importance. ;-)

What do you plan to do during the spring we all stayed home? Is there anything we should try? Tell us in the comments!