no hobbies. sad.
nothing expensive, or with an unreasonable learing curve. something easy to start doing that requires little setup so i can pick it up anytime i want
you guys got any ideas?
That’s very little to go on, so my suggestively is reading.
Very cheap to get into as well as something that’s is easy to pickup and let rest. Plenty of free options around too.Explore your neighborhood
- geocaching
- contributing to open street maps (Street complete)
- photography with your cell phone
There are exactly zero boring hobbies, through the right eyes or right lens.
boring as you use it, is a term which works best when describing a person. Take from that what you will.
Electric drum kit is fun, cathartic, and quiet outside your headphones. Chilis are easy to grow, and they certainly entertain the mouth. Running saved my life. Tennis balls from the machine launcher. Rock wall. Skateboard. People love pickleball, but you need friends. Darts. 3D printer. Electric piano. Cooking class you can meet a girl, cook for her, get back rubs. Singing lessons. Fetish exploration. You got this.
While you’re against boring, have you considered whittling?
Seconded. All you need is a knife, a block of wood and a box of Band-Aids (sticking plasters, or whatever your colloquial term is for small wound dressings).
Zero cost:
- Running
- Yoga
- Bodyweight exercise
Zero cost if you have a library card:
- Reading (fiction)
- Reading (non-fiction)
- Online discussion
Price of pencil and paper:
- Writing (creative)
- Writing (journaling)
- Drawing
Fairly cheap:
- Music (playing)
- Music (listening)
- Painting
Having fun isn’t hard if you have a library card
Painting. Can be done for relatively cheap and scales up to a lot.
Birdwatching. If you have a smartphone you can get the merlin app and start from there. Collect 'em all like pokemon.
Photography. Really helps you see everything with a new perspective. Learn natural scapes, urban scapes. Interesting people. Flowers, Social activism documenting homeless, or cool or interesting people if you live in an urban freakshow. You can make the ordinary extraordinary.
Photography can get hella expensive though, even when you stick to the used market. That said, most phones nowadays can take HDR photos so they also serve as a starting point.
You can do amazing work with a smartphone. It can be hella expensive. It doesn’t have to be. Most of the best photography in history was done with total shit compared to what’s available now.
Cycling: Get a bicycle and start exploring your area. It doesn’t need to be a nice bike; check garage sales and Craigslist and get whatever fits comfortably. Wander off your usual routes and you will encounter new corners of your town that you never knew existed.
Music: Pick up a used acoustic guitar, electric keyboard, banjo, or whatever you can find. The world is full of inexpensive books and free YouTube videos to teach new students.
Drawing: Make doodles, little comics, or sketches of whatever is around you. A pencil and paper are all you need. Look up YouTube videos for daily sketching practice exercises.
Amateur radio: An entry-level license involves a basic quiz and a nominal fee. Cheap radios can be had for less than US$100. If you meet an old timer with a garage full of gear they might hand you a pile of old equipment for free.
Of course, any of these can become expensive and time-consuming hobbies if you go down the rabbit hole. But that just means you have found something you love.
May I suggest simple crafting, like whittling, ancient/native pottery, wood carving, paper basket weaving, origami, crochet (or the slightly more addictive and expensive knitting), braiding, weaving, macrame, yarn spinning, decorative knotworking, flower pressing, dyemaking, hand dying, flower arrangement, make walking canes, etc?
Or maybe an instrument? Someone mentioned guitar, but why not harmonica, ukulele, bongos, simple percussives, or why not take up singing, there’s typically a choir almost everywhere, or you could try solo, or whistling, or yodeling.
Or maybe take up gardening/growing? In pots, hydroponically, maybe on a growing lot, or someone’s yard?
Or take up community projects, like either sanctioned or guerilla gardening, greening, forestry, litter picking, maintaining communal spaces, volunteer, start a community project (pollination diversity, bee keeping, growing lots, food drive, food forestry)
Or take up a cause? Build community, take affirmative action, demonstrate, protest, coordinate, communicate, with an established org, or on your own?
Maybe the outdoors could entice? Take up walking, ornithology, watch bats, discover new insects, take up chabana/ikebana, learn to forage, learn survival skills, go hiking, stack rocks, track animals, learn trapping, get into scouting, make bark boats, learn to skip rocks, climb trees, jump in puddles, pretend (or practice) animistic rituals, feel rain on naked skin, sleep under a bare sky, pick skulls, horns and bones to craft with.
Perhaps create stories, tell stories, write poetry, learn magic, juggle, poi, take up clowning, go swing/country/folk/traditional/ballroom/social dancing, try Butoh, write sketches, join a theatre, start a business, take up decorating, or just embrace whimsy?
I can also warmly recommend trying a new thing every week/month/period and see what sticks and not.
Frisbee golf
Reading. You got a library near you? Great, you’re set. You don’t have a library near you? E-books.
Everyone has a library card at Anna’s Archive
I just want to point out that any hobby you engage in for entertainment without it feeling like a chore is by definition not boring (to you). Personally I couldn’t see myself in a situation where I’d be collecting stamps, because I would probably find it very boring. But others enjoy it, so it’s a valid un-boring hobby, just not for me.
thanks guys )
Looks like you got a lot of good suggestions! Any of them have you excited to jump in and try?
i pro cast in ate
This should be the top comment.
I’m getting the sense it’s not so much a hobby problem, but perhaps more of a human problem…
Reading or chess are pretty cheap.
Board games. I would not call it very cheap but probably possible to buy some on the second hand markets. And does get me out of the house and socialise a little. Probably the hardest part is finding people to play with tho (can try online, maybe there are some board games group in the area)









