Not sure what to do during this super weird time? Us either, but we do have a few helpful resources to help you love your neighbor, your family, and yourself the next few weeks.
3 Ways To Support Local Stores
Buy gift cards where you normally would be spending. Then use them later! You can buy gift cards from Knoxville stores here.
Purchase a Good Sport Box from The Central Collective in efforts to support local artisans. They’ll package up a “unique and varied selection of local awesomeness from some of their favorite Knoxville artists and makers as well as some goodies from The Central Collective.”
Or you can give directly to help our local service industry here.
3 Ways to Support your Family
Call your loved ones who don’t live in your home. We love the Marco Polo app as a way of staying in touch!
Create expectations for your time at home, and get the family involved. Yes, everyone can help around the house! Start the day by setting a loose schedule with everyone’s desires involved. Ask kids what 1-2 things they’d like to do and add it to the schedule. Include clean up time to your daily schedule as a way to encourage the whole house to contribute! Of course your day won’t always go exactly as planned, but when everyone knows what to expect the flexibility comes a bit easier.
Stay organized before the clutter, small projects, or kid’s art projects begin to take over your home. Set reasonable expectations for the amount you can achieve in one day and then set out to finish them before moving on. Check out some of our past organizational challenges and tips if you want some things to do while at home:
Our team member Caroline always keeps us laughing with her upbeat Marco Polo videos! Even in the midst of hard times!
3 Ways to Support Yourself
Working from home? Our friend Bonnie from Interweave wrote a blog on designing your home office space for productivity and wellbeing. Take the time to set up your space well. You and your work are important (even from home!)
What do you need to feel like a normal person? Prioritize your wellness. For some it may be reading a book to calm your mind, taking a bath, going for a long walk, shooting hoops with your kids or cooking dinner with some music (and wine a little earlier than 5 O’clock). Choose one thing to do each day to care for yourself.
Gratitude. I know we as a culture talk a lot about gratitude, but it truly is so important. A friend of mine, who happens to work in a high pressure work environment, has a tradition of gratitude every morning. He writes down 3 things he is grateful for each morning, including someone he is grateful for. Then he writes that person a note and sends it in the mail! Every morning. Can you imagine? Maybe you can’t send something in the mail everyday, but you can send an email or a text. Take a moment to give your gratitude a voice in someone else’s ear.
