If you’re a stay at home mom, you might feel like your hobby options are limited. You’ve got to chauffeur kids to activities, a casserole to make, and laundry to do. When could you possibly have time for a hobby?
Luckily, you have more options than you might think. If you’re struggling to come up with something (because mom brain is real), I’ve gathered up a list of ideas. Though I believe you should be able to enjoy any hobby you want, I’ve focused on those that are relaxed, fairly inexpensive, and above all flexible. That way, you can unwind while also balancing family duties. I’ve also tried to include a number of hobbies that would work for a variety of stay-at-home mom types.
Not sure what to try first? Try looking around your life for reoccurring problems for inspiration. Does your dog need to be better behaved? Learn about dog training! Does your bathroom really need a makeover? Head to Youtube for some DIY remodeling videos. This will help you stay motivated to keep up with your hobby and feel successful when you complete the project.
Without further ado, let’s see some hobby ideas!
Journaling
There are so many different styles of journaling. Even if you’ve tried one method before, you might want to try a different style to see if it fits better. There are bullet journals for organization (my new fav) and Wreck This Journal for creative explorations. There are also dream, food, and fitness journals for keeping track of small parts of your life. You can even do a pregnancy journal for nine months!
Gardening
Gardening is a common activity for moms, since you can do it at home with kids nearby. You can grow flowers, start a container gardening (best for small spaces) or make a vegetable garden from scratch. Whatever your choose, there’s plenty of room for creativity, relaxation, and even a bit of a physical work out when you garden. Best of all, it can help you save money on groceries.
Making terrariums
If you like the idea of gardening but prefer a micro scale, terrariums might be perfect. Terrariums are typically small or medium-sized glass containers you fill with small rocks or crystals, mosses, succulent plants, and more. Best of all, they usually don’t require as much maintenance as, say, heirloom tomatoes.
Writing
If you have a pen and a notebook or a laptop, you’re ready to begin. You can try poetry, short stories, a blog, or even writing an entire novel. If it’s almost November when you read this, you can check out National Novel Writing Month for friends, ideas, and support.
Fiber arts
Fiber arts includes any creative use of fibrous materials. Felt, yarn, thread, fabric, and even rope all fall under fiber arts. I couldn’t just pick one! So if you like the idea of being a mom who knows how to sew cute dresses, knit winter scarves, or make cozy quilts, it’s time to head to your local craft store.
Coding
Does your mind have a logical bent? Coding might be the perfect way to unwind after a long day with the kids. There’s something about putting together a sequence of commands that works which is so satisfying. To get started, there are free organizations like Hour of Code, or you can learn to create “shortcuts” on your iPhone.
Sourdough baking
Learning to strike the delicate balance necessary for the perfect sourdough starter can be a great science experiment. Not only will you get to eat plenty of delicious bread as you practice, but you can also use the “discard” to make sourdough pizza dough, crackers, and even bagels.
Reading
Reading can be a very casual hobby, done whenever you have time during naps or after the kids have gone to bed. You can also be very intentional, though. Make a list of books and try to read them all this year, or set a goal of 10, 25, or 50 books to read throughout a year. You can join in-person or virtual book clubs if you like talking with others about what you read, too!
Learning a new language
This would be perfect if you had a friend who already knew another language and you could practice together. Otherwise, you can sign up for Duolingo and choose from 20+ languages to learn. Some libraries also have language clubs you can join if you want more real-world speaking time.
Solo exercising
If you’d rather stick close to home and not bother with a gym, you can find plenty of YouTube videos for at-home fitness. Yoga, Tai Chi, and HIIT workouts are EVERYWHERE on YouTube– just pick the instructor you like best. As a bonus, if you have a really little one, there are “mommy and me” workouts you can do with your baby.
Painting
Want to be one of those people who brings an easel and pants to the beach? Grab some supplies and start watching some Bob Ross videos on YouTube and you might be before long!
Growing & using herbs
There’s so much you can do with herbs. You can up your culinary game with fresh herbs picked from your garden or windowsill, of course. (That was grandma’s secret pasta sauce ingredient.) But you can also learn about the different medicinal qualities in certain plants and learn how to make salves, teas, and tinctures for simple at-home remedies.
Wood burning
3D art forms like wood burning (or its fancier name, pyrography) are great for displaying and impressing friends. You can get very inexpensive beginner wood burning kits at Amazon, or spend hundreds once you need more specific tools.
Bird watching
Bird watching is another great hobby if you need something inexpensive and close to home. You can get different feeders or bird houses to bring the birds closer to you, or you can get some hiking shoes and go to the birds. Download the free app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology if you’d like ID’ing help as you get started. I know a professional bird watcher who taught his students using the National Audubon Society Field Guide, if you’d prefer something offline.
Card games
You can set up a Moms-only poker night at your house, a cribbage tournament at family reunions, or just get really good at solitaire. It can also be fun to learn about local or ethnic card games. (I grew up playing the Irish game Forty-Fives, for example.)
Learning an instrument or singing
If money is no object, you can hire a private instructor (either in person or virtual) and buy a simple, standard instrument. If you’re trying to save money, you can often find music shops that offer instrument rentals or buy a used instrument. Then, check YouTube or even different apps for learning at your own pace.
Amateur astronomy
Ever wanted to find your constellation, a planet, or a whole meteor shower some night? You can usually find used, beginner telescopes for $50-100 on Facebook Marketplace or similar online buy/sell groups. Plus, you can use your smartphone to take this hobby and expand it to “astrophotography” – take pictures of the galaxy!
Making jewelry
Your material options are basically infinite: retro bottle caps, sea glass, beads, hemp, chainmail, and more. If you’re interested in a hobby that also might make you money some day, this might be a good one to try.
Brewing or fermenting
Want a hobby that also can help make mom’s wine night a hit? Learning the chemistry behind fermenting or brewing your own alcoholic beverages like wine, mead, beer, hard cider, or kombucha can be a fun way to play with flavors and scents.
Cosplay
If you have nerdy interests, you’ve probably already heard of cosplaying, or dressing up like characters from shows, movies, video games, or books. It can involve a lot of technical precision with sewing or crafting, or it can be a matter of matching pieces from your wardrobe and the thrift store to complete an “everyday” cosplay look.
Geocaching
Geocaching is basically a combination of scavenger hunt and orienteering, or finding your way using a compass or GPS. There are currently 3 million geocaches (hidden treasures) worldwide, all free to find on accessible land. You can sign up for free at Geocaching.org to get started.
Walking
This might not sound like an actual hobby, but it is! After all, a hobby is just something you do for fun. You can either do this on your own, with the kids in the stroller, or with a group of other mom friends. I highly recommend the “parade of moms and strollers” look.
Candle making
Do you find yourself spending way more money than you should at Yankee Candle or Bath and Body Works? You might enjoy candle making as a hobby. If you’re afraid of going crazy buying supplies, you might start by learning to reuse wax from old candles first. Try putting them in new molds or with different add-ins.
Animal training
Anyone with a pet should hopefully have done some amount of training, whether that’s litter box training, leash training, or something similar But if you’d like to go a step further, you can teach your pet tricks, tasks that a service animal could perform, or agility sports.
Interior decorating/design
It’s time to head to the thrift store, ladies! Your library will likely have plenty of books on the principles of interior design which you can apply to your own home, and Goodwill can provide some new materials to freshen things up.
Cooking
Who doesn’t want to eat their hobby? Cooking can be a great way to blow off steam (pun intended) and even save money since you’ll stop eating out. You can try getting into the culinary arts of a specific country (Korea, Italy, Nigeria) or focus on taking one meal and getting really crazy. How many different kinds of delicious pizza can you invent?
Makeup
This hobby can take a few different forms. You could play around with several ‘everyday’ type styles. You could also practice doing more formal makeup (the kind someone would have on their wedding or prom night). Lastly, you might try doing some crazy costume makeup like a makeup artist for a movie would do.
Graphic design/logo making
Playing around on photoshop (or its cheaper online competitor, Canva) can be a ton of fun. You can create flyers for your school’s upcoming fundraiser, silly pictures for your kids, digital scrapbooks, and about a thousand other things.
Cricut
If you’re into crafting, you might have wanted to try a Cricut. These jack-of-all-trade machines can make Christmas ornaments, wall decals, party decorations, monogrammed pillows, even do custom onesies. If the price of a new Cricut is out of reach, try checking places like Facebook Marketplace for a used one. (Pro-tip: check in the off-season, aka not right before Christmas.)
Drawing
While you can buy some expensive supplies for drawing, you also can start very simply with graphite, ink, or colored pencils. Not sure what to draw? Try botanical illustrations, cartoons, caricatures of friends and family, or dreamscapes.
Book/journal making
Were you the girl making little “books” as a kid with stacks of folded, stapled paper? You can keep doing that as an adult, though there are even more interesting ways. Try looking up hardcover journals, stab-binding, smash books, and other DIY journal trends on Pinterest for ideas.
Watercolors
I don’t know about you, but I think those pastel-toned watercolor word art is the prettiest thing. Or maybe you want to do landscapes. Or dog portraits. Or new school tattoo design. Whatever! Go for it!
Podcasting
Ok, “talking non-stop” doesn’t really count as a hobby. But if you have a microphone it does! Find a topic you care about and write down 20 different ‘show’ ideas before you get started. To make things even more interesting, grab a friend and have them be your co-host!
Foraging
Foraging is going out into the wilds (or your backyard) and finding edible plants. This is a great hobby to start doing with an experienced guide or a foraging club, to prevent harvesting look-alikes. There are some tasty leafy greens, flowers, berries, and even mushrooms out there in the world.
Becoming a history buff
Some people hated history class in high school, I get it. But learning about a specific historical time period or location can be absolutely fascinating. Best of all, you don’t have to write essays to prove what you know! Instead, just watch historical movies (either fictional or documentaries), read books, visit museums, and find other history nerds in Facebook groups or subreddits. And if you’re a stay at home mom AND a homeschooling mom, you can turn your hobby into classroom fodder, too.
Beekeeping
Bees are an important part of the ecological fabric, and essential to modern agriculture. They also make delicious honey. This one can be an expensive hobby if you buy everything new, but if you meet up with other local beekeepers, they might have some starter equipment to lend or sell used.
Improv/comedy
Were you the class clown in school? Maybe you’d be good at stand up comedy or a good improv cast member. I’m seeing more and more moms represented in modern comedy, from Jen Fulwiler to Ali Wong.
Legos
Building lego models and designs is very popular. Though it’s typically marketed to children, there are plenty of adults who build. (Don’t believe me? Fox made a whole TV show called Lego Masters.) You can buy stand-alone kits or get a big box and let your imagination go crazy.
DIY Home improvement
If you own your own home, something is always breaking. Why not turn the solutions into a hobby? Then you get to have fun fixing and tinkering AND you don’t have to pay a professional.
Dancing
This could be either the ‘dance party in the kitchen’ style or the ‘go to a local studio and take classes’ style. There’s also the ‘line dancing at the senior center’ style and ‘teach kindergarteners what you remember from ten years ago’ style. Dancing is just fun!
Group fitness
If you like dancing, but want to focus a little more on working out, you can got to a local gym or community center and find a class. High Intensity Interval Training, barre workouts, Zumba, or spin classes might offer the kind of group atmosphere to motivate you.
Board games
As a stay at home mom, this hobby might be trickier to do with kids around all the time, but it’s great for date nights or mom’s night out with friends. It’s more than just Monopoly, too. There are fantasy games, true crime mystery games, even escape rooms in a box!
Rock climbing
Do you have a climbing gym near you? Rock climbing can be lots of fun if you’re not afraid of heights and enjoy the mental challenge of planning a route. If you really want to do something out-of-the-box, look up speed climbing videos on YouTube see if you can get in shape to try that.
Video Gaming
I know, this wasn’t what you expected when you started searching for hobbies for stay at home moms. But video games are just plain FUN. You don’t need to buy a top-of-the-line Play Station or Xbox, either. Computer games and mobile games can help you use what you already have, or you can find used gaming systems to keep this an inexpensive hobby.
Theater
If you have a flair for the dramatic, community theater might be a great hobby. You usually don’t have to pay anything, just find the time to attend rehearsals and “tech week” (typically daily rehearsals the week before a show).
Karaoke
If you don’t think you can commit to the rehearsal schedule of an actual production, but you still want to be on stage, try karaoke. Grab some friends and some drinks and belt your heart out.
Word games
Have you tried Wordle? Is “Scrabble” the most used app on your phone? You might also enjoy bananagrams, Semantle, or virtual crosswords.
Local, pickup sports teams
Most cities have leagues for different sports. They’re typically competitive, but not overly so. You might not find a women-only league for most sports, but co-ed leagues exist. As a bonus, your kids might get a kick out of cheering for mom, for once!
Volunteering
I’ve saved the best for last. Volunteering is an excellent hobby for stay at home moms because it not only helps you, but it helps others, too.
I hope you found some intriguing new hobbies for stay at home moms. If you’d like more suggestions for ways to live your best mom life on a budget, subscribe to my newsletter below!