Summer has arrived, which also means more free time on your hands to do activities outside of your normal day-to-day routine. Most students can’t afford extravagant vacations and expensive activities during the summer. However, summer doesn’t need to feel dull! There’s lots of fun things to do when bored at home that don’t involve spending money.
Here’s a list of 10 free and fun ways to beat summer boredom:
1. Cool Off in the Water
Plan a day at the beach, pool or lake with your friends. Carpool with your friends to your favorite swimming spot and create memories along the way. If you want to do something more engaging, search up the best natural swimming spots in your state and plan a day trip or camping excursion. Day trips serve as a great way to spend free time with a group of friends. You can end the day around a campfire with some delicious s’mores.
2. Plan a Picnic
Picnics, a classic summer activity to do while on a budget. Gather a group of friends and plan a picnic in the park with everyone’s favorite foods and beverages. A great way to spice up the picnic involves setting a theme. Set a theme surrounding your favorite movies, tv shows or anything everyone can enjoy. For example, a popular theme for picnics revolves putting together an Alice in Wonderland inspired tea party. A picnic serves as a perfect way to introduce your hometown friends to any friends you made in college while eating delicious food.
3. Spend Time With Your Family
Especially if you moved away for college, an essential thing to do is to spend time with family and catch up with one another. Get lunch with your parents, go on a shopping day with your mom, watch a movie with your brother; the list goes on! With all the extra spare time available to you during the summer months, it creates the perfect opportunity to engage in fun activities as a group or individually with one another. They love spending time with us, more than you think. Finding time to spend with family is just as important as spending time with friends.
4. Do At-Home Workouts
At-home workouts help in one of the best ways: it helps us stay fit in the comfort of our own homes. YouTube provides never ending suggestions of workout videos catered to your exact fitness needs and desires. Save money on a monthly membership at the gym and start doing the same workouts at home. In addition, not needing to worry about commuting to and from the gym serves as great motivation due to the fact that you can workout at any time. Partner up with family members and friends and encourage one another along the way. Some easy workouts to do at home that involve no equipment include sit-ups, squats and pull ups.
5. Rearrange or Redecorate Your Living Space
When my living space feels hectic, I can feel a bit overwhelmed and disorganized. For people who feel the same way or just feel bored with the look of their current space, redecorating and rearranging your room can serve as a great way to spend your time and change the space you live in for the better. Spend some time at thrift stores and consignment shops where you can find furniture and accessories for cheap. Ask your friends to tag along and create a trip out of it! You can also spruce up your room with colorful posters, pictures and decorations. Use this time to strengthen your DIY skills by making glass terrariums for plants, colorful pin boards, or paper ornaments to hang from your ceiling.
6. Learn a New Skill
With more free time on your hands comes more time to learn something new. With accessibility to information evident in this tech-savvy era we live in, Google and YouTube serve as your best friends when it comes to learning new things. Learn how to cook, sew, draw or paint, amongst many other things you can learn based on your own personal interests. In addition, learning technical skills like editing, photoshop, coding, learning a new language, etc. play as beneficial additions to the skills section of your resume regardless of your major.
7. Go On a Hike
You can find many trails to hike no matter what state you live in. Regardless of if you want to go alone or with a group of friends, hiking serves as a very rewarding experience and a great way to keep active while doing a fun activity. Many parks, lakes and nature areas offer marked hiking trails. As well as labeling the trail’s difficulty level, they often include options for novices and experienced hikers. Also keep in mind the amazing views and Instagramable sights you’ll see along the way.
8. Volunteer Your Time
Volunteering provides a great way to spend your free time while also helping others, primarily through non-profit organizations. There’s many ways in which you can volunteer, like working at your local animal shelter, helping organize or run community events, or something as simple as helping your elderly neighbor. Volunteering serves as a very fulfilling duty that can brighten your day in the simplest of ways. In addition, volunteer hours provide useful information to put on your resume depending on your course of study. Make sure to keep tabs on your volunteer hours if you plan to use them in the future or if you just want to keep track.
9. Get a Jump Start on Your Future Career
You can spend your time efficiently by doing research online about the career you plan to pursue in the future. Applying for future internships or even shadowing a person who works in the field you find interest in works as a great way to make your summer work for you. In addition, a variety of internship opportunities are paid, which benefits both you and your wallet. Try to take on multiple opportunities that may open up to you to fill up your schedule.
10. Teach Yourself About a Different Culture/Country
Read books or do research online about different countries and cultures. Learning about the places you’d love to travel to and getting more prepared for when you actually get to travel there can make your future travel plans easy and planned out perfectly. Do research on popular tourist attractions, local food spots to try out and other popular excursions to do in the country. Planning ahead also helps in finding the best and most affordable deals with flights and hotels. You may not get to take your dream vacation right now but planning ahead for the future is not only fun, but also gives you the motivation to make this future trip a reality.
