I have so much I want to share about social distancing. I’m pretty much an expert on it. I live my life in a one bedroom apartment. Under good circumstances, I get out to go to medical appointments. I get out once in a while to grocery shop with hubby on the weekend. If it’s a really great weekend, I get to run errands and maybe eat out.

All of that is done for now. Doctor’s appointments are done over the phone if they weren’t already rescheduled. Same with therapy. My pain management class was canceled. Leaving the apartment for any reason isn’t going to happen for weeks.

Why? I’m an asthmatic with tons of allergies. I grew up having chronic bronchitis. I still get it waayyy too frequently. (Think several times a year.) I am lucky, my asthma is kept mostly under control with medications. Add in the chronic pain and the other health issues… well, you get the idea. (And the rain for the last week and a half here in Southern California isn’t helping either.)

But, there is a bright side. While I don’t have the energy to write the extensive posts I wanted to about how to live within four walls without driving everyone in the family nuts, I am here to give you some quick tips. (If the rain ever stops, I will give you the rest of my advice, along with a bunch of activities for kids and adults you didn’t know you needed to have available.)

Tip One: Find a space that is just yours

The more people that live in your house, the more important it is for each person to have a designated escape location. If you have kids and a yard, let them each mark out an area where they can go and just be. No electronics, no one else, just themselves. If they don’t use it, that’s fine. But make sure they know that everyone has their spot and gets to decide when to go there to be alone.

The stress of everyone being home all the time will get to the kids. They probably don’t know how to handle it well. They aren’t used to having mom and dad around all the time. Make it clear to them that just like they get grouchy and need a place to vent, so do you.

The smaller your place is the harder this is to do, but the more important it is too. We live in a one bedroom apartment. We don’t deal with being in each others way well. Luckily, hubby is still required to be at work (SIX days a week, seven or eight hours a day — whole different set of issues there!) We have already started to talk and brainstorm how we will split our small space when it gets to the point where he is working from home.

Tip Two: Make sure there are writing or drawing supplies around

Some days, the best way to relieve stress is to write or draw it out. Other days, you just want to take that black crayon or pencil and color in every inch of a piece of paper. That’s ok. It’s part of being human. It’s not something I do nearly often enough.

Even when you aren’t upset, just the feel of the pencil or the crayon can help you relax. It gives your brain a break from the world around you. Creativity will flow if you just let it.

Don’t worry about whether what you write or draw is worth sharing. Make it purposely imperfect. It’s just another way to get your feelings out. Bonus: If the kids see you doing imperfect creative play, they will know it is ok for them to be imperfect too.

Corollary to this one: Get some extra craft supplies and schedule time to play. Make little gifts to send to family members or shut ins. I will talk more about this in my next idea piece.

Tip: Three: Wash your hands — and your body

If you can’t wash perfectly, don’t worry. It is better to wash imperfectly than perfectly. Take an extra shower or bath — the water will do wonders for your stress level. This is one of those that is hard for me. Getting in and out of the tub/shower is hard. But I need to do it more often than I do — just for the pure relaxation of it.

If you need to teach the kids how to wash their hands “the right way”, there are plenty of YouTube videos out there to teach then. Screen time plus a positive outcome? Great combo. But don’t assume they will get it right from one watching. Let the instructions sink in then repeat them. (Repetition is the key to learning…)

Tip Four: Read

Read together, read alone, read quietly, read aloud. Just read things that aren’t on the web. Ebooks or paper books — both work. What doesn’t count here is reading the news. This is time to relax. Try reading something you have never read before — poetry, short stories, biographies. Read your favorites from when you were a kid either alone or with your kids.

Don’t require the kids to read a certain amount or a certain thing. Let them pick what to read. If they have their own tablets/kindles. put things there you think they might like. Let them see you reading and they will be much more likely to read themselves.

Comics and graphic novels definitely count as reading!

Tip Five: Practice patience

With yourself, with others, with the kids, with the pets. Know that everyone is cramped and stressed. Changes in routines aren’t easy to make under the best of circumstances. Under these circumstances? It will take some work. For everyone. Don’t expect to be patient all the time or right away. That’s part of where those pencils and crayons come in.

When you do lose your patience, acknowledge that you did and apologize. If you do it, the kids and other adults will do it to. (Easy to say, harder to do. Practice it.)

Tip Six: Schedule work time and down time

If you are working from home, schedule out when you can’t be interrupted. Make sure everyone has things to do while you can’t be interrupted. Same goes for while others are working. If you can figure out a way to do it, skew your work time so that everyone isn’t working at the same time. Plan in times when everyone is together working, together playing, working alone, and working together. It’s well worth it — whether it is paid work or chores.

Tip Seven: Reach out

Reach out via phone, text, or email to those around you. To those who you don’t see often. Sit down as a family and write letters to people. Order a box of greeting cards so you don’t have to do all the work every time. (My personal lifesaver here: Sendoutcards.com You build a card from scratch or from one of their templates, pay for it and its stamp, address it. They send it. I’ve used them for years. They are a great way to send one card at a time or a bunch of cards to different people all at once.)

Tip Eight: Share your status and your tips

If you find a great resource, share it with us here on I Challenge YOU. Or share it on FB or Twitter. It doesn’t matter where you share it. Just know that the more stuff you can share, the more people you will help keep from cabin fever. The longer we fend off cabin fever, the more likely we are to survive the coming months.