Is #Stay@Home Starting To Feel Like You’re Living in a Tiny Home Even When You’re Not?

Whether you’re sprawled out in a roomy 3000 square foot home, nesting in your small apartment, or somewhere in between- Pratt Modular Homes, in Tyler, Texas, understands that many people are still looking at possibly lengthy quarantines in their homes.

Many families are feeling that their home is just a bit more confining these days- ok, maybe A LOT more.

So whether you’re in a 4 Bedroom manufactured home or one bed and bath small home, children and parents alike are looking for stay at home activities to do. AND…. It’s also spring—a season when many of us take time to freshen, clean, or organize our homes.

Now is a perfect opportunity for DIY home projects for the whole family. It’s a chance to learn together as a family and participate in some home improvement. IT’S A WIN-WIN!

DIY projects with kids aren’t always easy, so the team at Pratt Homes carefully researched and put together some family projects that everyone can do together.

1. Organize the Pantry/Food Shelves

This is a great DIY project with kids of all ages, even toddlers. Not only does it help you by cleaning and organizing, but it’s also an important activity during quarantine because you can take stock of your food supplies.

• You can organize the foods into categories such as canned goods, noodles, rice, beans, dried goods, etc.
• Mason jars or large plastic containers can help organize open bags of pasta and rice, in addition to helping keep them fresh.
• Your kids can help by deciding how to organize things, making “lists” to take stock of what you have, and it’s always a fun time for make-believe and playing, “Store!”
• Watch out for and discard old foods past their expiration date or that may be stale.

Now that you have a good idea of what you have on hand, make a list as a family of things that it would be helpful to add. Or that you want to add, like your favorite treats.

2. Make a Container Garden

Spring is the perfect time to start a container garden, no matter where you live. If the weather is cooler, you can start your seeds indoors. The little seedlings just need a bit of light and warmth to get started. Recycle plastic containers by using them as places to start seeds. Don’t forget to poke a hole in the bottom for drainage.
Once things warm up outside, you can transplant your baby plants into larger containers out of doors.

Since East Texas enjoys a warmer climate, you can plant your seeds directly into whichever interesting container or planter works for you.

It’s nice to have traditional pots or planters to grow your plants—but they’re not a necessity. Container gardens are a perfect opportunity to recycle household items and re-use them as planters. And it’s something you can do with all ages. It’s even a safe activity for toddlers—give them a container of dirt and a spoon, and they’ll make a joyful mess!

It’s also a good lesson for older kids to learn how to plant and grow their own food. Let your kids help you choose what kind of garden you’ll have—whether it will be a vegetable garden, flowers, herbs, or a little of all!

• Choose the seeds together—there are many wonderful online seed resources you can have delivered safely right to you.
• Carefully watering and monitoring the plants’ growth is fun for the whole family, and harvesting and eating your produce is something for everyone to be proud of.

A few container ideas:

• Clear plastic takeout sandwich containers make great plant starters because when you close the lid, it’s an instant little greenhouse!
• Cut the tops off of liter juice or soda bottles, and it’s an instant pot for a tomato or pepper.
• Old buckets of all kinds.
• Old kitchen items such as teapots, bowls, etc. both work and can look cute.

3. Tackle a Sewing Project/Learn to Sew

Sewing is a lost art. It’s been banished mostly to the realm of specialty skills and Etsy shops. But basic sewing is easy to learn and a beneficial skill to have. And it is definitely not just useful for women. It’s helpful for everyone to know how to fix a rip, patch a hole, or sew on a button.

Learning to sew doesn’t mean you have to take on big projects right away. Start small. All you need are a few needles and thread.

If you’re comfortable, look online, especially at sites such as Pinterest, for other household DIY sewing projects such as pillow covers.

4. Cook and Cleanup Together

Quarantine has left us more time together for family activities such as cooking. Cooking is the perfect family activity for all ages. Toddlers love to “help” in the kitchen. Give them some utensils, bowls, pots/pans, and even odds and ends such as carrot tops or cabbage leaves to “cook” with, while you prepare the rest of the meal.

Generally, we use the excuse of not enough time for why we don’t cook more. Now, however, there’s both the time and the necessity for staying in the house and cooking.

• Choose a recipe together. Sit with your kids and/or partner and discuss what you’ll cook for the day. Look up recipes, online or in cookbooks.
• Write out a “meal plan” for the day and choose music to go along with both the cooking and eating.
• Depending on the weather, have a living room or backyard picnics to change up where you eat.
• And don’t forget cleaning up. Doing dishes doesn’t have to be a chore. Choose music everyone enjoys, or take turns picking the playlist for cleaning up. This can be the perfect time for a dance party!

5. Reorganize

Pick one area of the house—a closet, bedroom, basement, attic, etc. and reorganize it—together. This can be a project that takes you down memory lane as old photos, projects, and artwork surface.

Make three piles as you go: One to throw away, One to give away, and One to keep. Talk together about what stays and what goes. If it’s important, but you’re on the fence about keeping it, take a photo of the item to keep.

Because of quarantine, families are spending more time together than ever. Our team at Pratt Modular Homes wanted to share a few ideas that are not only useful around your home, but ways to keep the whole family happy and healthy while spending so much time with each other at home.

• When these crazy times are over and you are still ready to “go bigger”, give us a call. Our gorgeous modular and manufactured homes come in all sizes!
• And for those of you who realized all of your home’s excess space was unnecessary all along…. Check out our Tiny Homes! You’ll Be A Pro at Tiny Living.