17 Sites to Remedy the Stay-Home Blues

My friend Suzanne called me last night and said she’s bored. Not just bored … BORED.

She’s tired of reading books. She’s tired of watching TV. She’s tired of staring out her window hoping something – ANYTHING – will happen. She’s semi-retired and is on her own and loves the flexibility she has; she’s used to being home a bit more than someone who still works full-time. But this home-all-the-time-and-bored-out-of-her-gourd? SO HARD.

I hear ya, Sister! Shortly after our conversation ended (thank goodness for video chats!), I started looking for resources to help both of us fill the time, and keep our brains engaged. There are TONS of ideas … here are a few that really caught my attention.

Virtual Tours

I love all museums – great big ones with a global following, and little local ones that provide a glimpse into a community’s history. While the little guys don’t have the resources to create fun virtual tours (and who would have ever thought they should ... before right now??) many of the big guys have amazing tours online.

I’ve yet to visit Paris, so a tour of The Louvre caught my attention right away. And as a HUGE fan of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History I’m so happy to see this one, too.

And I’m IN LOVE with Google’s Art and Culture page! Oh. My. Gosh. There is so much available here that the list would be pages long. Trust me – check it out.

Virtual Concerts

There are lots of options here; CNET includes a bunch of live stream concerts you can ‘attend’ and you can get a ‘free trial’ via Insider online for all kinds of Broadway plays. (Just be sure to cancel within 7 days if you don’t want to pay for access after that!)

The “Together at Home” virtual concert series through Global Citizen, with performances by singers and musicians including Chris Martin, John Legend, OneRepublic and Ziggy Marley, is very cool. If you’re an Instagram user, follow Global Citizen on Instagram to watch.

Expand Your Weekly Menu

We’ve always been good at creating a weekly menu plan; we also save money by buying our groceries once a week (well, we do cheat on this one if we happen to be craving something that’s not currently in the house). To keep from being bored (there’s that word again…) cooking the same things we always cook, I’ve discovered some new favorite recipe blogs including Half-Baked Harvest and Damn Delicious plus the always awesome Ina Garten. I also learned today that you can get free access to 50 recipes from America’s Test Kitchen – I have their cookbook and watch their TV show so highly recommend them, too.

Keep Moving!

We’re taking a walk every day that it’s not pouring rain – some days it’s just around our neighborhood (and yes, the 6’ distance means even on sidewalks); sometimes we take the car so we can access a favorite trail or walkable park. We also have a recumbent bicycle that we ride regularly, but I for one am missing the social part of the gym we go to. Not sure if any of these will work for me, but I'm going to check them out. I also hear having a dance party in the living room is fun ...

• Corepower Yoga is offering free online sessions and is live streaming classes on YouTube at 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET.

• Planet Fitness is streaming in-home workouts on Facebook Live every weekday at 7 pm ET. Recorded versions are available on the gym’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Brain Builders

Want to keep your brain healthy? I do – I’ve always loved learning and these options are my best friends when I hear the word BORED sneaking into my day.

• Coursera has almost 4,000 courses from major universities covering nearly every subject under the sun.

• edX also offers free online classes from schools like Harvard and MIT.

• Kahn Academy is another cool option for free online classes – I love that this site has something for every age. How about taking a class together with a child or grandchild!?

• If you don’t mind paying for classes taught by crazy cool experts, on an incredible assortment of topics, MasterClass is fabulous! And right now they’ve got an awesome ‘buy one/get one free’ subscription offer.

Okay, so there you go Suzanne ... and everyone else. A great list to get you started. And if you're STILL bored, I can probably find you a tutorial on how to speak Pig Latin.