The library
Kind things you can actually do
Every one of these is specific enough to do today. No grand gestures, no fundraising page, nothing that needs a free weekend.
323 ideas. Try a situation — grief, new baby, neighbor, hospital.
Know roughly what is going on but not what to search for? Start from a situation — fourteen short lists of what actually helps, from somebody new on the street to somebody having the worst year of their life.
Showing 1–30 of 323 ideas
Talk to the one who married in
Every family gathering has somebody who knows none of the stories, and everybody is assuming somebody else is talking to them.
Half an hourFreeA relative
Rated higher · 1 person rated this
Ask whether it can be repaired, before you buy it
One question at the point of purchase decides the next ten years of that object.
5 minutesFreeThe planet
Rated higher · 1 person rated this
Plan someone's first week, not their first day
Onboarding is concentrated in day one, which is the day nobody retains anything.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Rated higher · 1 person rated this
Learn to say their name properly
People with unfamiliar names spend their lives being mispronounced and told it does not matter.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Rated higher · 1 person rated this
Explain how the system here actually works
Registering with a doctor, council tax, school places. Obvious to you, opaque and consequential to a newcomer.
An afternoonFreeA neighbor1 person did this
Rated higher · 1 person rated this
Call the relative you only see at funerals
Nobody fell out. It lapsed on its own, and now the only time you are in a room together is when somebody has died.
5 minutesFreeA relative
Not rated yet
Apologize without the second half
“I'm sorry I snapped.” Full stop. No “but I was tired”, no “but you had just”.
5 minutesFreeSomeone you live with
Not rated yet
Take one regular journey off the car
Not driving less in general. One specific trip you make every week, done another way, permanently.
Half an hourFreeThe planet
Not rated yet
Leave the fledgling where it is
A feathered bird hopping on the ground is not abandoned. Picking it up is usually the thing that kills it.
5 minutesFreeAn animal
Not rated yet
Put the phone in another room for one evening
Not on the table face down. In a different room, where reaching it is a decision.
An afternoonFreeSomeone you live with
Not rated yet
Keep the cat in at dawn during nesting season
Fledglings leave the nest unable to fly properly for about a fortnight. Dawn is when both cats and birds are busiest.
5 minutesUnder $10An animal
Not rated yet
Refill the one thing you keep rebuying
Pick a single household item and stop buying new packaging for it. One item, permanently, beats a good fortnight.
Half an hourUnder $10The planet
Not rated yet
Do the chore they hate, and never mention it
Every household has one job somebody dreads. Doing it silently is worth more than doing it and collecting the credit.
Half an hourFreeSomeone you live with
Not rated yet
Ask now what they would want
Where they want to be, who decides, what they would refuse. Asked over tea it is a conversation. Asked in a corridor it is a crisis.
Half an hourFreeA relative
Not rated yet
Let them tell you the story you have already heard
Do not say you know. Let them get to the end of it the way they like telling it.
5 minutesFreeSomeone you live with
Not rated yet
Pick up the litter you did not drop
Two pieces on the way home, every time. Not a campaign — a habit that takes eleven seconds.
5 minutesFreeThe planet
Not rated yet
Find out what your council actually recycles
Ten minutes on their website. Most people are wrong about at least three things, in both directions.
5 minutesFreeThe planet
Not rated yet
Take one recurring job off them permanently
Not help this once. The renewals, the bin day, the school forms — yours now, and off their list for good.
Half an hourFreeSomeone you live with
Not rated yet
Take decent photographs for an animal rescue
Shelter animals are rehomed on the strength of a phone snap in a concrete run. A good photograph is worth weeks.
An afternoonFreeAn animal
Not rated yet
Mend it once before you replace it
One repair attempt, on one thing, before it goes. Most failures are a seam, a fuse or a seal.
Half an hourUnder $10The planet
Not rated yet
Give it away while it still works
Not when you have finished with it and it is nearly dead. Now, while somebody would actually want it.
Half an hourFreeThe planet
Not rated yet
Walk the dog of somebody who cannot
After surgery, during a bad stretch, or in the weeks after a bereavement. The dog is often the thing they are most worried about.
Half an hourFreeAn animal
Not rated yet
Turn up when there is no occasion
Birthdays and Christmas are obligations. A Tuesday is a choice, and everybody can tell the difference.
An afternoonFreeA relative
Not rated yet
Plant the tree you will not sit under
Whatever you plant now shades somebody who has not been born yet. That is the whole appeal.
An afternoonUnder $10The planet
Not rated yet
Learn to make the food they miss
The thing from their childhood, or the country they left. Getting it slightly wrong still counts.
An afternoonUnder $10Someone you live with
Not rated yet
Deal with the thing they keep meaning to deal with
The cupboard door, the unopened letter, the tap. It has been on their list for two years and it is forty minutes of yours.
An afternoonUnder $10A relative
Not rated yet
Write down how their house actually works
Which tap drips, where the stopcock is, who fixes the boiler. One page, on the fridge, for whoever needs it next.
Half an hourFreeA relative
Not rated yet
Check under the car before you drive off in winter
Cats sleep against warm engines and inside wheel arches. Ten seconds and a bang on the hood.
5 minutesFreeAn animal
Not rated yet
Put water out in a heatwave
A shallow dish at ground level, refilled daily. In a dry week it is the difference between a bird surviving the afternoon and not.
5 minutesFreeAn animal
Not rated yet
Ask about the thing they mentioned last week
The difficult meeting, the scan, the argument with their sister. They probably assume you forgot, because most people do.
5 minutesFreeSomeone you live with
Not rated yet