We are going on month six of quarantine and we, along with many others, have had to adjust to our new normal. It has really forced and yet allowed, us to re-think how we live our lives.
I started working from home mid-busy season. In fact, I had only been back at work for two weeks before the stay-at-home order was put into place. At first, working from home was exciting and gave me a boost in energy. I didn’t mind working late as long as I could be in pajamas. After two months I missed having a routine.
Now that we have officially been working from home for five months, we have adjusted to this new lifestyle. Here are some ways my life has changed since staying at home.
I have a shorter morning routine.
Pre-COVID, I would wake up around 6:30 am to shower, do my hair and make-up, get dressed, feed Gordo and take him on a walk, and head out to work by 7:30 am. Now that we work from home, I wake up closer to 7:30 am, might shower (see below), put my loungewear on, feed Gordo and head to work at 7:59 am.
I shower less.
This might be gross to some, but now that we don’t go anywhere I honestly don’t shower as much. Unless we go on a walk or run errands, I feel pretty clean. I was always a shower every morning type of person, mainly because my hair would get greasy faster. Since working from home, I’ve been able to “train” my hair and can go 2-3 days without washing it. I mean who do I need to impress, amirite?
I surprisingly have less work life balance.
Work life balance has been a big struggle for me. When we first started working from home, I was mid audit busy season. This meant working from 9 am to 10 or 11 pm every weekday. But now that we are out of our typical busy season, I find myself working more than what our “normal” work hours should be (8 hours a day, 40 hours a week).
It’s hard for me to shut my laptop down at lunch or even at 6 pm because I could get “one last thing done”. I find myself staying online until 7 or 8 pm without a lunch break. This system is not healthy and there’s no work/life balance, but I am working on that.
I need to not feel guilty about logging off at a normal time. If I have learned anything this year, it’s that mental health is more important than anything you could ever work on. There’s no need to burn yourself out if that puts your health at risk.
I spend less money.
Given we aren’t going anywhere, this may not come as a shock. It is quite shocking how much we used to spend in a week pre-COVID. We used to buy lunch everyday. That’s $10-15 per day. Most nights for dinner, Drew and I would be too tired to cook so we would go out to eat, and weekends were our “fun” times so going out was a must.
I’ve learned that my hobbies use to include: going out to eat and buying things I didn’t need. Since being at home, I’ve realized that we don’t need to go out to eat and definitely don’t need decor items that end up being clutter. We used to go to Target at least once a week just to “walk-around” and usually would end up buying random things we didn’t need.
We are much more intentional with how we spend our money and just spend less because we aren’t going anywhere. Don’t get me wrong – we do still order in and will occasionally go to Target to look around, but I don’t feel the need to purchase anything!
I enjoy my “me” time.
Pre-COVID, Drew and I used to spend a lot of our free time together, as married people do. However, now that we’re both working from home and are around each other 24/7, I’ve realized I really enjoy my “me” time.
Some days after work or on the weekends, we do our own things: He plays video games and I work on my hobbies while watching trash TV. I think it’s healthy to spend time apart, especially if you spend most of your day at home.
I have many hobbies.
I consider myself to be a type-A, organized, do everything by the plan type of person. With all of my extra time saved from not having to go into work and not being able to get out of the house, I found myself feeling extremely bored.
Drew has always encouraged me to explore my hobbies and this was a perfect time. We made a trip to our local art supply shop, Texas Art Supply, and purchased canvases, paints, and brushes for me to really dive into my creative side. Since quarantine, I have:
- Painted abstract wall art
- Sold my first watercolor piece of a friend’s home
- Made polymer clay earrings
- Worked on my blog (hi!)
- Learned how to code
I’m looking forward to see what I can get into next!
I love going on bike rides as a family.
I wouldn’t consider myself an outdoor person. At all. We once went to Big Bend for a camping trip, and I couldn’t even make it for a 4-mile hike. Although, it was mostly uphill so I give myself a pass on that.
Drew being an avid bike rider (he once gave me a presentation on why he should get a bike – a story for another time), he encouraged me to get a bike at the start of quarantine. Luckily for me, we purchased mine before everyone else in the world wanted to get into biking.
Since getting my bike, a family bike ride is the first thing I want to do on the weekends! Drew built a seat for Gordo and we’re able to bring him along with us. My favorite thing to do is bike to a local restaurant and have dinner on their patio with my boys.
It’s been nice to get out of the house and explore our neighborhood a little more! We now have four bikes in our garage so if you and a friend want to join us, let us know!
Given we’ll most likely be working from home since at least January 2021 (this was actually confirmed), I’m sure we will make more adjustments as we enter months six to nine of stay-at-home (!!!). One day it will be interesting to look back on this time in our lives to see how different it was.
Happy quarantining!
Vivian
