Social distancing has us all going a little crazy with boredom. Remember when we used to complain to our parents about being bored and they would always say, “I’ll give you something to do?” Some of us may be considering that offer right about now. 

But fear not, now actually is the time for action! Many of us missed out on home economics in high school, and we may be lacking some vital “adulting” skills. Now is the perfect time to perfect those skills and turn ourselves into functioning members of society.

Here is a sampling of some of the skills you can begin learning while social distancing.

1. Basic cooking skills.

Cooking can be scary sometimes. Fire? Yikes. But it’s one of the most vital skills a person can have. Now that campus has been evacuated and everyone is distanced from “fast food,” cooking at home has become your best bet. Start with simple recipes with few ingredients — these are easy to follow and hard to mess up. A great place to start is allrecipes.com: you can find recipes based on ingredients, and the options are endless.

2. Hand sewing.

Believe it or not, hand sewing is fairly easy once you get in the swing of it. It isn’t as intimidating at sewing with a machine and it can have a calming effect. Not to mention you could finally fit that one hole in your pants that you have to hide every time you wear them. The Spruce Crafts offers an extremely helpful guide to hand sewing to get you started.

3. Changing a tire.

Maybe you’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing a flat tire, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. And believe me when I say I have been sorry. If you’ve never had your dad or grandpa force you to help them change a tire, it can seem like a really difficult task. Bridgestone Tire not only has instructions on how to change a flat tire, but also a video to watch if you’re a visual learner.

4. Organizing important documents.

Whether they’re bank statements, hospital papers or important school documents, having all of your documents organized will help you in the long run. How many times have you run around last minute looking for a paper that you stuffed in a random binder? The Spruce breaks down organizing into five convenient categories to help you keep your files looking fresh.

5. Minor home repairs.

Now you’re back home, you might be realizing your sink doesn’t drain as well as you remember or there’s a suspiciously large hole in your wall that wasn’t there before. What better time to learn how to make small home repairs than when you can’t leave the house? The Family Handyman helps walk you through any of 100 home repairs. The best thing? Anybody can do these.

6. Proper cleaning techniques.

Now is the time to clean, clean, clean. But are you doing it right? Just spraying cleaner on what you can see isn’t going to get rid of all of those germs in your house. With the spread of sickness, deep cleaning is extremely important. Door knobs, the bathtub, around the base of the toilet and countless other places need to be scrubbed down. Luckily, Molly Maid gives a step-by-step cleaning list for you to check off.

7. Balancing a checkbook.

The time has finally come to become the true adult — one who knows how to balance a checkbook. I’m personally guilty of this one, so I might be joining the fun. Thankfully, dummies.com is here to help us balance those books keep everything accurate.

8. Doing taxes.

This one is perhaps the scariest skill on the list. As someone who is not good with and scared of numbers, this is a daunting task. Maybe you have someone in the house who can walk you through doing taxes, but if you don’t it’s completely okay. Credit Karma gives some helpful tips on how to fill out your taxes. 

No matter how you’re spending your time during quarantine, it couldn’t hurt to try a few of these out. If you know how to do all of these, I kneel in awe before you.

But if you’re like me and never learned how to adult, now is your time to try, try, try. Maybe you’ll fail a few times, but the best things come from failure. So fall down and get back up until you have a few new skills.

Reporter Taylor Metcalf can be reached at [email protected].