How To Spend Your Summer Indoors

School’s out for summer and you have a feeling things are going to be ‘lit’…or at least you did back in May when you walked out of your last final. Now it’s July and you’ve lost the list of things you totally meant to accomplish and you’re definitely over sweating every time you leave the house. If you’ve come to the conclusion that you only appreciate the idea of summer and the aesthetic that it provides, but not the actual season, have no fear. Valley has the lazy girl’s guide to spending your summer (or at least what’s left of it) indoors.

Netflix, Netflix, Netflix

If there’s one good thing about Netflix—there are many—it’s that content only stays for a while before it is circulated out for something new. Considering you probably exhausted all of your ‘must watch’ shows last spring, here are a few new things coming to Netflix this July: all of the ‘Back to the Future’ franchise, ‘Mean Girls’ and all seven seasons of ‘Gilmore Girls.’ On the other side, here a few things leaving Netflix in July you might want to catch: ‘Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby’, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and ‘Notting Hill’. Turn up the air-conditioning, find a blanket to burrito yourself in and get to watching.

Learn to Cook

Whether your return to Happy Valley will involve a dorm, apartment or house, you’ll most likely have access to a full kitchen at some point. Even if a meal plan or Order-Up are your go-to options, everyone loves a home-cooked meal at some point. If you know how to cook, you can save yourself some trouble (and money) and impress some friends. A simple Google search can point you in the right direction of any technique or meal you want to learn, but if you’re looking for a standard starting place, look no further.

Practice Self-Love

During the school year, everything is constantly fast paced. The minute sylly week ends it seems like midterms are on your doorstep and as soon as those are out of the way you’re on that treacherous stretch to finals week—then you’re actually in finals week (not sure if that’s better or worse to be honest). Take some time over the summer to de-stress and focus on you. Take a nice bath with a fancy new soap or two; dye your hair the color you’ve always wanted; practice those make-up looks you’ve been drooling over on Pinterest for months; make your ultimate favorite song playlist and then listen to it while you clean-out your room of clothes or accessories you never wanted, never wear and never want to see again. Do any activity that makes you feel calm, relaxed and happy.

Exercise

From go-to DVDs like Insanity and P90x, to YouTube channels like Blogilates, to good old fashioned magazine workout articles, exercising at home is easy. Some people use the summer season to run outside, but that seems like a lot of work. Take your workout indoors. The benefits? A shirt over your sports bra is optional, you get to shower immediately afterwards (in your own shower), you can blast your music as loud as you want and your über-fresh and healthy post-workout snack is just steps away.

Fall in Love with Reading

It can be books you never finished in high school but still find sitting on your bedroom shelf, articles you’ve had bookmarked for a “later” that’s yet to come or long and drawn out conspiracy theories about your favorite celebrities on tumblr: reading is good stuff. It keeps your mind occupied and makes your brain waves tingle. It can take you to a far away island or backward in time, can educate you on a subject you’d never pursue in school or just make you chuckle for no good reason. Long summer days inside are meant for reading.

Ultimately, if you’re spending your summer inside, have no shame. You’ve got things to do and time to do it, so just do you.