No matter where in the country you’re reading this from, you will have spent some time (arguably far too much) this year stuck indoors, be that due to a local lockdown or simply staying safe. With that, and the warmer weather in recent months, you may have found yourself with a few new outdoor hobbies. I know some people who have finally mastered couch to 5k, while solo activities like fishing, cycling, and skating have helped people stay busy while gyms are closed.
But now that we’re getting to that time of year where the thicker duvet needs put on the bed, and the typically reliable British weather puts a dampener on being outside (I hate to think about all those new runners who will slowly give up when it’s raining all the time), how can we make sure idle hands are kept busy?
Here are some fun activities to try out indoors. In most cases, it won’t involve any special equipment and are hobbies which lean on you acquiring skill over time. Think of it as an Autumnal resolution, giving you a few month’s heads start for the new year.
Hassle-free hobby 1: HIIT
Is there a local lockdown in your area? Is the gym closed? Is it raining outside?
These are all questions that we’ll be using as justification not to do exercise this time of year. To that I ask, can you stand in a living room with your arms and legs out wide without touching the walls?
Then, my friend, you have more than enough room to start doing HIIT. Truth be told, as someone who goes to the gym regularly, I’m not too fond of gym classes and always prefer to do my own thing. In large part, it is due to embarrassment and a lack of knowledge when following along to someone shouting instructions that change every 30 seconds.
That’s why I highly recommend you find a space, fire up YouTube, and do some HIIT classes. It’s free, and all it costs you is a lot of sweat and heavy breathing when you realise you’re not as fit as you’d hoped. The fact that most HIIT classes too are like 20 minutes means you have no excuse not to do it. If you’ve been working from home, consider it the chance to let your body feel great after moving when you’ve clocked off, rather than grabbing some tea and biscuits to watch The Chase.
Hassle-free hobby 2: Seasonal Baking
After burning off all those calories from HIIT, you’ll be hungry, and wouldn’t it be lovely if you become the one person in the family who excelled at baking festive treats?
You don’t have to be a star baker or get the thumbs up from Paul Hollywood to get started. Search online for free recipes for baking cookies and cakes that will be seasonal. This is important in October-December as this is when you’ll start seeing a lot of nuts, rich fruits, and the likes in season at supermarkets.
The best thing about learning to bake seasonal treats is that you’re allowed to muck it up and start over. It’s also a hobby where the end result is something you can say you’ve earned by mastering your way through pudding and gingerbread man. And if you’re someone who will say you don’t have enough room to bake, read this article on How To Make Your Small Kitchen More Functional.
Hassle-free hobby 3: Model Making
Remember those magazines you’d buy for 99p that promised you could build your own model? And you vowed you’d make it through only to give up about three issues in? Well, this could be the chance to do it properly and see if model making is a viable hobby.
To make sure you see it through, I recommend getting a full model kit that has all the bits and bobs in the box. A good example of this, and something which would make for a great gift if you know a big F1 fan, are these replica Ferrari kits from Model Space. They’re made to scale and require someone to spend a few hours a week fiddling away at a table to assemble all the parts. Give a person a kit, a cup of tea, and a quiet corner of the house in the evening, and it sounds like a picture-perfect Autumn night to me. Note that the Ferrari is just one example of a high-quality model. I’ve also seen kits for everything from warplanes and movie cars to buildings and robots.
For any car fans out there, don’t forget to check out some of the fantastic articles on the Drive section of the site. Recent topics have looked at everything from getting a personalised license plate to reasons why you’ll want to delay scrapping an old car.
