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Kind things that cost nothing
No money at all. Attention, a few minutes, and occasionally the willingness to say one slightly awkward sentence. Most of the best things on this site are in here, which is not an accident — money is rarely the scarce ingredient.
Showing 1–30 of 275 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
Invite the new family twice
The first invitation is often declined out of uncertainty. The second is the one that establishes it was real.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
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
Answer the message you have been avoiding
The longer a reply is owed the harder it gets, and the person waiting has usually assumed something worse than the truth.
5 minutesFreeA friend1 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
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
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
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
Slow down at dusk, where the road meets the fields
Most animals are hit in the half hour either side of dark, on roads people know well enough to stop concentrating on.
5 minutesFreeAn animal
Not rated yet
Let one corner of it go wild
Stop mowing a square yard. Leave the log where it fell. Neatness is the expensive part, for everything that is not you.
5 minutesFreeAn animal
Not rated yet
Say the specific thing you noticed today
Not that you appreciate them. The actual thing, from today, that you would not have noticed about anybody else.
5 minutesFreeSomeone you live with
Not rated yet
Leave the accessible toilet alone
It is not the spare one when there is a queue. For some people it is the only one in the building.
5 minutesFreeA stranger3 people did this
Not rated yet