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Kind things to do from home
From your kitchen table or your front step. Several of these are aimed at people who come to your door regularly and have never been thanked by anyone inside it.
Showing 31–60 of 146 ideas
Give money without making it a loan
A loan between friends creates a debt that outlasts the need. A gift, clearly stated, does not.
5 minutesMore than $10A friend
Not rated yet
Find the subscriptions someone forgot about
Most households pay for several things nobody uses. Finding them is an hour's work and a permanent saving.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Offer somewhere quiet without making it a thing
Loud rooms are genuinely painful for some people, and asking for quiet in a group is socially expensive.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Give the good version away, not the worn-out one
Charity shops and refuges throw away an enormous amount of what is donated because it was not really a gift.
Half an hourFreeAn organization
Not rated yet
Let a child finish the sentence
Adults complete children's sentences constantly, and the child learns that their version was not worth waiting for.
5 minutesFreeA friend4 people did this
Not rated yet
Make leaving early unremarkable
Chronic illness, anxiety and pain all mean sometimes going home. The hard part is having to explain in front of everyone.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Learn the names of your child's friends
Knowing who is who turns 'how was school' into a conversation that can actually go somewhere.
5 minutesFreeA friend1 person did this
Not rated yet
Let a child overhear you praising them
Praise reported to a third party is believed in a way that praise delivered directly is not.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Look, the tenth time they ask
A child asking you to watch the same trick again is asking whether they are still interesting to you.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Teach a child something genuinely useful
Changing a tire, wiring a plug, making one good meal. Competence is a form of confidence that lasts.
An afternoonUnder $10A friend
Not rated yet
Check whether someone is on a social tariff
Discounted broadband, water and energy tariffs exist for low-income households and take-up is tiny.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Apologize to a child properly
Adults rarely apologize downwards, and a child who is never apologized to learns that power decides who was wrong.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Ask someone to teach you their food
Being asked to share something from home reverses the usual direction, where the newcomer receives and thanks.
An afternoonUnder $10A neighbor
Not rated yet
Answer a child as if they could understand
Children ask real questions and get deflections. A serious answer is memorable precisely because it is so unusual.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Let a child help badly
Doing it yourself is faster every single time, and the accumulated effect of that is a teenager who cannot cook.
Half an hourFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Be in the same room doing nothing
Children disclose things sideways, during dull shared time, not when asked directly how they are.
Half an hourFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Move your bin off the pavement
Bins, bikes and parked cars narrow pavements to the point where a wheelchair has to go into the road.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Be the house where the friends come
Teenagers need somewhere that is not a bedroom and not a street. Somebody's kitchen is the whole infrastructure.
OngoingUnder $10A friend
Not rated yet
Tell a young person about your own failure
Young people assume competent adults were always competent, which makes their own struggle feel disqualifying.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Write down the thing a child said
Every parent believes they will remember. Almost none do, and the exact words are what disappear first.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Tell someone about money they are entitled to
Billions in benefits, reliefs and refunds go unclaimed every year, mostly by people who do not know they qualify.
Half an hourFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Tell a teacher what they did for your child
Teachers hear from parents almost exclusively about problems. Specific praise is rare enough to be kept for years.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Find a chair before anyone asks
Standing is the hidden barrier at parties, queues and exhibitions, and asking for a seat means explaining why.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Praise the effort where the result was bad
A young person who worked hard and failed will be told the result was disappointing by everyone else.
5 minutesFreeA friend1 person did this
Not rated yet
Return it better than you got it
The borrowed car with a full tank, the returned dish with something in it. The margin is what people remember.
Half an hourUnder $10A neighbor
Not rated yet
Help with the deposit, not the rent
A one-off lump unlocks a situation. Ongoing help postpones one, and is far harder to stop.
5 minutesMore than $10A friend
Not rated yet
Talk to the child who is not performing
At any family gathering one child holds the room and another is under the table with a book.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Put it back exactly where it was
In the home of a blind or partially sighted person, a tidied object is a lost object.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Be the reference someone has no way of getting
Renting, banking and jobs all require a history that anyone newly arrived by definition does not have.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Believe someone about their own symptoms
People with invisible illness spend years being doubted, most often by people who mean well.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet