PLAY
- Collapse or move any furniture you don’t’ use very often to create more play spaces / different zones
- Clear out your porch, add a chair, cushions, houseplants and baskets of books / magazines to create a quiet reading hideaway space
- Clear out your loft to create as much safe floorspace as possible, add a rug, fairy lights and sweets to create a secret den for older children
- Create a Harry Potter world in your understairs cupboard
- Put up any tent you own in the garden to create more outside usable space and play areas
- Turn your garage or conservatory into a home gym or games room, add a darts board, old table for table tennis and any gym equipment you may own
- Use your imagination, give any small space a theme and let the kids make it their own
- Make the most of the warm weather and clear out any sheds, they can become lego zones, cafes, shops or craft studios
- Make the most of your kitchen table / island, either as a work station or lay out craft / art materials so that there is the opportunity for quiet creativity
- This could be the ideal time to construct a tree house / Wendy house!
WORK
- Find a zone to work that is yours, be it using a dressing table in your bedroom, conservatory, moving a table into the playroom and make sure there is a door you can close for conference calls
- Chose a nice wall in this workspace, put a chair in front of it and use it as a clear uncluttered background for all those zoom calls
- Create work with your partner so that you can both have the opportunity to concentrate knowing their is some parental supervision going on!
- WIFI extender plugs are your friends!
- Empty out your coat cupboard to make a new desk space
- Work in a corner of the living room and if necessary set up a space on the other side of the room for a child to work
- Get up early to get your key work done while it is quiet and there are less distractions
- Experiment with homeschool in different areas of the house to minimise boredom
- As an extreme example we know of someone who converted their large airing cupboard into a home office after a new boiler left it redundant!
- Make some time for yourself, you don’t always have to take a child out with you for your daily exercise!
