The world is currently on standstill due to the global COVID-19 pandemic – which means that any hobbies and pastimes that you might normally dedicate a lot of your time to – like cars, for example – are going to be either put on hold, or are otherwise going to need some significant modifications for the time being.
Fortunately, there are a variety of ways you can use your creativity to make the most of the quarantine period, and to stay active and entertained while things are still shut down and your general opportunities for travel and socialising are significantly more limited than they would normally be.
Here are a few car-related ways to use your time during quarantine.
- Give your car the clean you’ve always meant to
Day-to-day life has a way of getting pretty intense and distracting, and of drawing your attention away from the little chores, errands, and tasks that you know you should really get done, but that aren’t extremely urgent.
One common way in which this plays out, is in the form of a general-purpose neglect for automotive cleanliness – or, in other words, you just leave it a bit too long between car cleaning sessions.
Well, now that you don’t have many places to go, or very much to do, it could be the perfect opportunity for looking into tools such as powerful 4000 psi models of jet washer, so that you can give your car the clean it’s been yearning for, for a good amount of time.
A visit to the car wash is certainly better than nothing – but it’s often the case that even a good car wash visit won’t really address every potential aspect of car cleaning. To really make sure that your car glistens, shines, and looks its best, you need to give it some personalised and attentive care.
- Plan a great road trip for when the world gets back to normal
You know the saying, “you don’t know you have until it’s gone?” Well, by all accounts there are a lot of car enthusiasts out there right now who are yearning for those long road trips that they previously put off, didn’t pay much attention to, or otherwise didn’t really appreciate in the moment.
There’s something about being able to hit the open road under your own initiative, and to see new places and experience new things, that can be deeply positive and life-affirming in and of itself. And if you’re stuck at home for an extended and indefinite period of time, there’s a good chance that you are thinking about how good it would be to take a long trip right now.
Well, why not do the next best thing? Plan a great road trip for when things get back to normal, figure out the places you would like to stop at along the way, the soundtrack you would like to take for the journey, the friends (if any) you’d like to invite along with you, and so on.
A planning process like this can help to really boost your optimism for the future, while also keeping you entertained in the present, and simultaneously giving you a heightened sense of control over your life.
- Consider working to refine your amateur mechanic skills
So, there’s an important caveat for this point: if you have a car that was built within the last decade or two, there’s a good chance that you don’t really have many options at your disposal for doing your own mechanic work.
If your car isn’t one of those with completely inaccessible space-age parts, though, or if you’ve got a spare car in the garage from back in the day, you could work on refining your amateur mechanic skills while you have some extra time at home.
In fact, this could even be a great time to dive into a more ambitious restoration project that you’ve been meaning to start on for the last couple of years.
- Make a list of destinations that you want to visit in the near future
This point is similar to the one about planning for a big road trip – but it’s not identical.
While a road trip is a particular project, making a list of destinations that you want to visit in the near future, in general, is more about increasing your awareness of the great things out there in the world at large that you like to see and experience.
Maybe there’s a great theme park, auto show, museum, or historic site not too far from your home? If so, make a kind of “bucket list” and visit those places when the opportunity arises.
Photo Credit: Bugatti
