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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 61–90 of 146 ideas
Ask what the hardest part actually is
We assume we know which part of someone's situation is worst, and we are usually wrong.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Tell a carer what you noticed
Carers watch someone decline daily and lose sight of who they were. An outsider's observation gives that back.
5 minutesFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Return the thing you have had for two years
Everybody is holding something borrowed and mildly embarrassing. Giving it back is easier than the story you have built around it.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Say the spare room is available before they need it
People leaving bad situations often have nowhere to go for two nights, and cannot bring themselves to ask.
5 minutesFreeA friend1 person did this
Not rated yet
Scan the box of photographs
Boxes of prints are one house fire or one house clearance from being gone. Scanning them takes an afternoon.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Offer to be the one who tells everyone
After a diagnosis or a death, repeating the news to each person in turn is its own exhausting job.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Be the person who holds a spare key
Almost nobody has a local key-holder any more, which turns a lost key into a locksmith call and a few hundred pounds.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Do the garden of a house that has stopped managing it
An overgrown garden is usually a signal — illness, age, or a household with no spare capacity at all.
An afternoonFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Ring at the same time every week
A call that arrives predictably becomes something to look forward to. A random one is just a call.
OngoingFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Send the message that needs no reply
People in crisis stop answering because every message is a task. One that closes itself is a gift.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Invite the child everyone stops inviting
Parents of disabled children describe the birthday party invitations drying up as the loneliest part.
5 minutesFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Fill in the benefits form with them
Carer's and disability forms run to dozens of pages and are refused on technicalities. Help with one is worth real money.
An afternoonFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Do the bins for the house where it is getting hard
Wheeling a heavy bin down an icy path is one of the small tasks that quietly becomes dangerous with age.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Review the tradesperson who did it properly
For a small trade, online reviews are most of the marketing budget. One honest paragraph is worth real money to them.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Send the carer the card, not the household
Cards and gifts go to the patient or to the family. The carer receives almost nothing addressed to them alone.
5 minutesUnder $10A caregiver
Not rated yet
Take the paperwork pile away for an afternoon
There is a pile of unopened post in most overwhelmed households, and it grows more frightening the longer it sits.
An afternoonFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Talk to the person, not over them
People who are ill or disabled are routinely discussed in the third person while sitting in the room.
5 minutesFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Write an actual letter
A letter can be reread, shown to visitors and kept on the mantelpiece. A text cannot do any of those things.
Half an hourUnder $10A neighbor1 person did this
Not rated yet
Check on the one who held it together
At every funeral one person organizes everything. They are the last to be asked how they are, often by months.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Put your number through a door
Most neighbors have no way to reach each other. One card through a letterbox fixes that for years.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Offer your wifi when their internet goes down
For anyone working from home, an outage is a lost day of pay. A password shared over the fence gets it back.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Do the thing you already said you would do
An old promise quietly expiring does more damage than a new favor does good. Finish one this week.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Bring tools out when someone is moving in
Moving day is the one day a household owns everything and can find nothing. A screwdriver at the right hour is remembered for years.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor1 person did this
Not rated yet
Write the delivery note before they arrive
Most failed deliveries are a driver guessing. Three sentences of instruction saves a doorstep conversation and a wasted trip.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Look after the thing they love while they cannot
The plants, the dog, the allotment, the band. Keeping someone's project alive through an illness keeps a version of them alive too.
OngoingFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Keep inviting after the diagnosis
People stop inviting the seriously ill to ordinary things, assuming they cannot come. Being asked is the point.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Take over dealing with one professional
Carers coordinate between GPs, social workers, pharmacies and schools. Owning one of those relationships lifts real weight.
OngoingFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Find out who is on their own at Christmas
People will not volunteer that they have nowhere to go. The question has to be asked directly and early.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Ask an older person to teach you something
Being useful is the thing most often lost in older age. Being taught is a better gift than being helped.
An afternoonUnder $10A neighbor
Not rated yet
Ask what they wish people would stop saying
Everyone going through something hard has a list of well-meant phrases that make it worse. Nobody ever asks.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet