Project Ideas Around the House (for When You're Not Feeling Productive at All) • The Blonde Abroad

I’ll be the first to admit that productivity hasn’t been 100% lately—and I’m guessing I’m not the only one. While there are a few tips I employ to boost my productivity, there are some days where I just…can’t.

You know the feeling?

While it’s pretty easy to veg out on the couch in front of the TV or continue scrolling through Instagram, I can’t stand that *guilty* feeling of wasting time. While I realize this is self-imposed and sometimes you need to give yourself grace, there are other times where I need to mentally check out, yet I still want to do something productive-ish.

And in an effort to cut out any extra work for you, I’ve rounded up a list of projects you can tackle at home. For me, these are projects that have long sat on the backburner or are the things that I always mean to do and never get around to.

Here are project ideas around the house for when you’re not feeling productive at all!

Clean Out and Organize

Take this time to get into home projects that you’ve been putting off (such as cleaning your closet, putting together things you want to donate, organizing the pantry, etc.).

Cleaning is extremely therapeutic so put on that inspiring podcast and get to it!

Sell Your Used Goods

After you’ve sorted through your closet, if you’ve got items that are in good condition and want to try your hand at selling them—look to Poshmark and Thread Up!

If you have “like new” or “gently used clothes” but have been holding onto them because they’re worth more than $.50 at a garage sale, check out Poshmark, a free online platform for buying and selling clothes. Poshmark takes a small commission on the sale, but sends you a prepaid shipping label and packaging so all you need to do is sell, then drop it in the mail!

Thread Up is really cool as they’ll provide you with a large bag that you can ship all your items—they’ll go through the pieces, professionally photograph them, and you’ll get a portion of the sale.

Let Go of the Clutter

While this ties in to clean out and organize, do some digging—what haven’t you cleaned out in a while?

Are there old boxes under the bed? That random “junk” drawer? Does your bookshelf need to be organized and are there books on there you haven’t read or would like to share with a friend?

Learn How to Make a New Meal

I’ve shared tons of recipes from around the world on TBA recently and now is a great time to learn how to make a new dish!

Digital Organization

This one is a huge necessity for me and I’ve learned my lesson in the past when I thought I lost all of my photos—my laptop crashed and I spent the entire weekend working to recover photos from so many trips.

So take a lesson from me and stay on top of your digital organization!

Back up photos on the Cloud
Organize digital photos into folders and copy them to a hard drive
Clean up your computer desktop
Delete all the junk emails and zero out your inbox

Productive DIYS

Once I started traveling and blogging, creating NEW things and capturing NEW photos, there never seemed to be enough time to go back and reflect, let alone craft. I sometimes take thousands of photos in a single day. Multiply that by 8 years of travel…phew! So the photos sit on hard drives while the postcards and ticket stubs sit in boxes waiting for a day when I’ll have the time to memorialize them in some way.

I decided to finally go through the archives and put the past three years of friends, family, and experiences in South Africa into a photobook.

As soon as I started going through photos, I couldn’t stop. I laughed, I cried, I relived some of the happiest times in my life. Creating this photobook was a journey on its own, and it already feels like one of my most valuable possessions.

Artifact Uprising made it SO easy to build and design my own photobook — the process helped me get over the hump of my creative block. And I am so impressed with the quality — it looks like a professional coffee table book that we can cherish forever!

Consider going back through your photos and making that album or just getting the prints you’ve always said you wanted! Plus you can use code ‘BLONDEABROAD15’ for 15% off photo books and more!

Employ the Idea of Mise En Place

Have you heard of the phrase mise en place?

Make sure everything has a place to live; while the expression mise en place is typically used in a culinary kitchen, it literally means “everything in its place” and is a really good rule of thumb to keep things neat and tidy.

I’m a big fan of the label maker and giving everything a dedicated space!

Another thing you can do is either make a spice jar or spice rack and label everything!

Make a Lifestyle Change

Nothing makes you feel more productive than doing something good for your health, right? One of my favorite lifestyle changes—both for overall health, to reduce waste and plastic, and my environmental impact—is switching over to plant-based milks.

The switch is not as scary as you might think! Check out how I make plant-based milk at home for only 50 cents for all the details and recipes!

Plan Your Next Travel Vacay

Not that you need permission, but this is the perfect excuse to spend some time perusing Pinterest and figuring out your future travels! Start saving some ideas and while you don’t need to book tickets or accommodations right this second, it definitely helps to have an itinerary in mind.