When you're a kid, snow days are the best -- you don't have to go to school, and you get to put on all your snow gear and play in the snow all day. But once you grow up, your responsibilities don't suddenly stop just because you're unable to safely leave your house. If you're snowed in but you still want to have a productive day, these ideas can help you feel accomplished without leaving your house. Most of them do require some sort of power or internet, so if you're experiencing a loss of power, you should try to just hunker down and stay safe until it returns.
1. Do That Home Maintenance Project
Has your faucet been dripping for weeks? Is the door to your bedroom just a little bit off from hanging level? This is the time to fix up little issues like that. Every year, homeowners will spend $5 on home improvement for every $1 spent on home maintenance, but maintaining your home is the best way to ensure your home can go longer without needing larger repairs.
For minor problems and repairs, there are plenty of DIY tutorials online that you can follow. If you're in need of bigger repairs and maintenance projects, you can use your snow day to research local repair and maintenance shops that can help you.
2. Try Out a New Recipe
If you've been meaning to try baking a new type of cookie or a new way of cooking your favorite side dish for a while, this is the perfect opportunity. If you love baking and already have the main baking ingredients in your home (butter, sugar, and flour), there are many things that you can make.
If you don't have the ingredients for any specific recipe, you can see what you have in your pantry and go from there. Experimenting with substitutions for recipes you already make all the time can help you discover a fun new recipe that you may not have known about otherwise.
3. Clean
Cleaning is an easy way to feel productive at any time. Spend just five to ten minutes picking up every room in your home and you'll make a good amount of headway in cleaning things up. If your home is already tidy, you can vacuum, sweep, or mop your floors, dust bookcases or other shelving, or reorganize cluttered drawers. You don't have to commit to deep cleaning your entire home -- in fact, if you only have one snow day, you probably shouldn't try to do that.
4. Read a Book
It's easy to buy one book, and then another, and another, only to end up with a large "to-read" pile that isn't shrinking. Use your snow day to start in on that pile -- sometimes all it takes is making time to read the first few chapters of a book to start the process of working through all the books you've been meaning to read. You can start with any of the books you have, and if you don't like the book, you can just decide to stop reading it. That's the best part of reading for fun: it's actually just fun and not an obligation.
5. Exercise
One of the worst parts of being snowed in is being trapped in your house all day with all the energy you would usually be expending in your day to day life. It's a great opportunity to try out a new type of workout or a new video. There are tons of videos online that use little to no equipment, and you can find a free video in the exercise form you're looking for pretty easily on Youtube. There are videos designed for any experience and fitness level, so if you're a pro you can look for videos aimed at experts, and if you're a beginner you can find videos for your skill level too.
6. Dedicate Time to Planning For Your Business
Whether you're one of the 582 million entrepreneurs worldwide or you're just starting an entry-level job for a company you hope to move up in, you can use your snow day to plan out where you want your career to go in the upcoming years. If you're considering starting a business, you can start on a business plan and do research on your target market and the kind of products or services you'd like to sell. If you're working in a company or office that you don't run, you can think of ways to improve your own work or how to help other employees work better as one cohesive unit.
7. Clean Out Your Closet
If your closet is bursting at the seams, it's probably time to clean it out. Try out taking things out of your closet one at a time and placing them into three piles: definitely keep, maybe keep, and definitely going. Once you've sorted everything out you'll have a good start towards an organized and manageable closet. You can donate the clothes that you don't want to a local charity organization to give your clothes a new life even though you're no longer using them.
8. Arrange for Flowers to Be Sent to Those You Love
If being snowed in has made you realize that you haven't seen your best friend or parents in a while, you should consider ordering a flower arrangement to be delivered to them. When asked if receiving flowers made them feel special, 86% of participants in a survey said yes. So if there's someone that you're thinking of, and you want them to feel special, sending a floral arrangement is a great way to do that.
A snow day doesn't have to mean a wasted day -- you can use a day where you're trapped in your home to do many productive things. Whether you want to clean or get started on your large "to-read" list, you've got a great opportunity to get started on whatever at-home tasks you've been putting off during a snow day.
What's your favorite way to stay productive during a snow day? What are your favorite snow day activities? Let us know in the comments section!
