It’s awesome being an adult. You can watch scary movies past 8 o’clock, eat dessert for dinner, and play Pac-Man on an arcade machine in your living room. Without answering to a single soul.
But that’s just the tip of the G-rated iceberg. Make your inner child proud. Do these ridiculously fun things at home:
1. Dive into balls. Lots of balls.
Some NYC apartments have a weird room that’s too small to make a (comfortable) guest bedroom yet big enough to make a kind-of home office.
But what fun is that?
No. fun. at. all. Especially since you can easily work from bed.
Place a few air mattresses on the floor, pour a ton of plastic balls inside, seal the room with a pet gate, and dive into the best part of your eighth birthday party.
2. Slide down stairs like a boss.
Where adults see stairs, children see possibilities. That’s why they prefer jumping on beds instead of sleeping on them, avoiding the invisible lava that flows across floors everywhere, and turning sheets and chairs into capes and castles.
Follow kindergarten-you’s lead by placing a slide on your staircase, preferably with your landlord and neighbor’s permission. It’s faster than walking, and less painful on your knees. So older-you can be happy about that too.
3. Chill in a majestic fortress.
The good thing about blanket forts: they’re cheap and dead-simple to build.
The great thing about blanket forts: they’re not ageist. Which means you can build blanket forts whenever you want. And fill them with whatever you want. Including your laptop and string lights so you can Netflix & Chill with a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck.
4. Camp in the great indoors.
You may have heard of glamping. If you haven’t, think starry skies and lush forests but with a cozy bed, bathroom, TV, WiFi, a mini-bar, heat, and everything else you’d expect a hotel room to have. Yes, it does sound oxymoronic yet oddly perfect. If you don’t mind spending more money than you would on traditional camping.
Your inner-child doesn’t need pomp and frills, though, and wouldn’t wait to accumulate enough vacation days to sleep in a tent, tell scary stories, and eat S’mores. Your inner-child would do it right now. In your bedroom. Or living room. Or kitchen.
5. DIY a castle for your cat.
While we’re on the topic of carving out special spaces in your home, let’s talk about making a special home for the fluffy little child in your life.
You cater to Mittens’ every need, and she already considers herself Queen of the House. So why not make it official?
Give Mittens the majestic castle she deserves. And if “bathroom rug” isn’t the majesty’s aesthetic of choice, there’s always this clean modern take.
6. Daydream on beanbag chairs.
It’s clear that kids love to be comfortable. And that they don’t care about saving space, let alone aesthetics and interior design. Luckily, we don’t have to compromise one for the other.
It may come as a surprise, but there are plenty of beanbag chairs that look beautiful and feel like you’re sinking into quicksand. Test drive one, or four, of these supple beauties at a Muji near you.
7. Bring Barcade home.
Whether it was Six Flags or the arcade at the mall, you always had to beg your parents to drive you there. If only, you thought to yourself, if only I had all the best games at home.
Well, now you can. Because you’re an adult who’s going to knock himself/herself out with these fun space-saving games/pieces of multi-purpose furniture.
8. Eat as much ice cream as you want.
What better way to say “I’m an adult, and I do what I want” than to eat ice cream whenever you want from a retail-size ice cream freezer in whatever room you want?
Yes, it costs the same as a used car. And the electricity involved is probably comparable to gas. But then again, you save a bunch of money by taking the bus, riding the train, and biking to work.
Don’t think you have enough space in your apartment for any of these ridiculously fun activities?
Good thing there’s a space-making storage solution for that.
