My answer on Quora to the question, "What are some simple and cheap hobbies for seniors to try?" was rejected because I shared links to this blog. I would love my children to read it so that they will know what I have been up to over the years.
Individuals aged 65 and older are considered seniors. So, I am qualified to answer this question. A hobby is an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure. I find time to have many.
Do you have a garden in your house? Gardening is a cheap hobby if you grow your plants over your compost pile. They will grow very well without fertilisers. You do not have to buy plants to grow. Just look out for seedlings growing out from your compost pile. As your kitchen waste can be added to the pile, you will get to grow what you enjoy eating. I managed to grow cucumbers in my garden for a period of time and they seemed to taste better than the ones I paid for.
This winter melon was another surprise I found in my compost pit. It was harvested just in time before it turned into compost.
If you prefer to grow ornamental plants or garden plants, be friendly with your neighbours. Give away surplus from your garden and they will gladly give you plants or cuttings which you can propagate. When my children were young, I used to push the youngest in a pram around my former neighbourhood. I brought home cuttings thrown at the park or outside my neighbour’s house to grow. I will start doing that again when I have a grandchild to push around in a pram. Be it a girl or a boy, a child is always a great conversation starter. They can be your lure to draw strangers in to talk to you.
Another purpose for you to start a hobby is to make social connections. So, share your hobby or interest with them and see if you can form a group of people with similar interest in your neighbourhood. Why should you make this effort? According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) you can reduce your risk of chronic disease if your hobby also provide you the feeling of being connected to others though a common interest or group.
I have another purpose for gardening. It allows me to weed my garden barefooted. According to the World Health Organization (WHO). walking barefoot, or grounding, is good as our bodies will absorb electrons when we touch the earth. These electrons will:
-lower inflammation
-ease your stress
-boost blood flow
-improve sleep.
Inflammation is linked to many diseases as well as pain. Improved blood flow can also speed wound healing and may have benefits for the skin. You can read about grounding to understand it better from the National Library of Medicine at the following links:
Weeding is my alone time when I am weeding my garden. When I am alone doing mundane stuff, my mind tends to wonder and it can lead me to negative thoughts. To avoid that, I will be listening to true crime stories on my mobile phone.
You may want to find your own way to learn new things whenever you can as this activity is good for your brain and will make you an interesting person. I read that people who learn a new skill are less likely to develop dementia.
If you like the benefits you have read about how learning you can do an online search for “free online courses”. I hope you will be able to find courses that interest you. There are links to forums for the courses you take so that you can interact with fellow students and the facilitators. These are my favourite sites to go to look for free courses:
You can watch documentaries or read as a hobby to learn new things. You can borrow videos and books from your public libraries or read them free online. My favourites sites to visit are:
Do you like to dance? Group dancing is also a good hobby to adopt for social connection. With music blaring in the background, it is a fun way, especially, for seniors to stay active. I read that group dancing is not only good for staying fit, it can also improve coordination and flexibility. One of my neighbours informed me that she knows someone who conducts free classes for line dancing. The trainer is willing to start a class in our housing estate if we could find 20 members to participate. We broadcasted this information on our neighbourhood chat group and managed to find enough people to start the class. We also managed to get the President of our housing association to sponsor the event so that the trainer gets paid for transport and the paraphernalia she requires to conduct it.
If you enjoy writing as a hobby, you can teach what you are good at or share your insights or experiences online for social connection. I used to highlight to my children that they will understand their school subjects better when they are willing and are able to teach their friends, who asked, what they have picked up in class. I enjoy sharing information. I write about:
-cooking.
-my DIY projects.
-anything related to 5Rs (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Repurpose).
-anything useful or hacks that will make tasks easier.
-meaningful quotes I have read which can inspire me to create quote posters out of them.
Here is a good example:
I get most of my inspiration for creating quote posters from James Clear. This is one of his:
Since I run a bicycle shop, I am always sharing information on matters related to cycling. I post them on Quora and share the links on my blogs and my Facebook page. I also enjoy answering questions related to my interests on Quora and connecting with fellow Quorans who appreciate what I shared. I like it that when I write, I am able to gain feedback form those who responded to my postings and interact with them. Their upvotes also boost my confidence. That is also making a social connection.
I usually research what I want to write about and I love making new discoveries during the search which is why I enjoy answering questions. I also enjoy searching for free images to include in my postings. I found the images that I shared about true crime story, James Clear, the old man dancing and the one below from Pexels.
So, if you feel that people close to you tend to take you for granted, trying sharing your knowledge and insights online. I can assure you that their appreciation for what you normally do for your family will be very motivating and good for your mental well-being. You are more likely to want to improve on your skills.
If you are too shy to share your writings online, you can try journaling as a hobby. Writing down your thoughts and feelings regularly is a great way to release any pent-up emotions that you may have. Instead of wasting your energy dwelling on negative thoughts or feeling suppressed, you can write about things that you are grateful for and stick images of things that make you happy in your journal. Journaling is also a great way to unleash your creativity as other than writing, you can also draw or include your craftwork in your journal. You do not have to buy a book to start. You can use your old exercise books to write on. This video will give you an idea what journaling is about and how you can start.
As a senior, if you have many family members to buy gifts for during the festive seasons, consider making them yourself. You do not have to buy tools or new materials to work on if you can improvise with whatever you have on hand. This is a weaving tool I made with empty PVC bottles for my herbal supplements. The weaving material I used were cut strips from plastic bags.
I call such efforts, creating “abundance from the abandoned”. You can check out my board at Pinterest for the kind of material you can use and how you can craft with them. Pinning is also my hobby and it is my source of inspirations for my crafting hobby.
I used to crochet as a hobby when I was till schooling. I am back at it, this time, creating bags. I can crochet while I am watching TV or when I am in the car as a passenger. Check out this crochet pouch cum crossover bag that I made with cut strips of plastic bags.
If you see bags that I have made in multiple colours, you can be sure that I was trying to clear some leftover yarns.
My objective is to crochet as many bags that I can so that I can pass them down to my family members. Crochet work can last for a very long time and it pleases me to know that they can be passed down to future generations. By then, my work may become vintage enough that they may be able to make some money from selling them (that is just me praying that the future generations will be too impatient to learn to crochet).
Other than making social connections, here is another reason for you to have a hobby. A study published online Sept. 11, 2023, by Nature Medicine indicated that, no matter where you are from, if you have a hobby and you compare yourself with those who don't, you will discover that you have:
-better health
-more happiness
-fewer symptoms of depression
-higher life satisfaction
After reading all these benefits through my research about keeping a hobby, I am glad that I find time to have many.
I usually keep my store bought buns and homemade bread in the fridge.
I can easily heat them up in my airfryer when we want to eat it.
Are you aware that you should place a piece of tissue or kitchen towel on the plate in which you will be serving your heated bread, pastries or pizza? If you don't place a piece of tissue or kitchen towel under your heated food, vapours will form on the plate which will make your food soggy. Most of the time, the tissue used is still good enough to be reuse. So, I have been saving them in a plastic container after making sure that all crumbs sticking to it have been removed. I started this habit after discovering Vinda kitchen towel. The paper is so thick that it is such a waste to discard if it can still be re-use.
When I need to clean my stove after cooking, I will use these tissues instead of a cloth. Though soiled, they are still good for absorbing oils and any drips on the stove. In doing that, I now no longer have to wash my table cloth as often.
In the long run, that saves me time and water as I can just discard the tissue or kitchen towel once I am done with them.
You can also consider keeping your used tissue or kitchen towel if you have only used it:
-to wipe your hands dry -to wipe your mouth -to dry up containers, pots or pans
It is best to save your soiled tissue or kitchen towel in an airtight container. That will prevent any ants from getting to them if there are still crumbs or residue from food left that you have missed removing.
Here is another good reason for you to save soiled tissue or kitchen towel. It is also handy for wiping off sauce and stains on your table before you wipe it with your table cloth.
I would have had a hard time washing such stains off my table cloth if I had not use a piece of tissue first.
I also re-use soiled tissues to wipe sauces and residues off my plates, containers, pots and pans before I wash them.
By doing that, I can save the water for rinsing them for other purposes. I will share how I store and re-use such water in my next posting.
I used to waste my time punching holes in my bills to save them in files. After a few years, I remove them from the files to recycle the paper. By then, the hooks on the files are rusted and they are not in good condition to be re-used.
So, I have started saving the bills in used coffee bags that are large enough to hold A4 size bills.
Since they are mylar bags, they can be re-used if I want to. But by then, they may have more value being recycled.
