A new hobby can add spice to your life and help you bond with a romantic partner, child, parent, or friend. It need be nothing expensive or fancy, although plenty of these types of hobbies exist. Let’s look at a few cool hobbies that might strike your fancy.
Homebrewing
If you think learning to homebrew is tedious and expensive, think again. The process is pretty affordable, especially with starter kits. Plus, if you drink beer, homebrewing can save you money (unless you drink only the absolute cheapest stuff).
Homebrewing offers a lot of opportunities. For instance, if you adore a certain beer from a company, you can probably find a copycat recipe online and homebrew it for cheaper. Similarly, you can add herbs to beers and experiment to your heart’s content. You can take pride in the fact that you’re no longer limited to the beer at bars and on store shelves.
The tradition of homebrewing stretches back 9,000 years. Understanding the process opens up your world and helps you gain a new appreciation for excellent beer. You’ll be able to identify what causes that off-taste in inferior beer and the ingredients that lead to the best flavors and aromas for you.
Homebrewed beer can make for a thoughtful, personal gift for weddings, anniversaries, holidays, birthdays, and many other occasions. You can even start a homebrewing club with friends to make the hobby more social.
No one who homebrews needs to be a rocket scientist or even understand the math involved. The bottling process does get a little boring, but spending more money on kegging equipment takes care of the issue.
Geocaching
This hobby offers a little of everything: for example, treasure hunting, hiding your own stuff, adventuring, and exploring, along with a healthy dose of flexibility. You use geocaching apps and GPS devices (your smartphone should be fine) to track down caches using their longitude and latitude.
Caches typically have three elements: a waterproof container, a logbook for visitors to mark that they have been there, and trinkets or medallions. The latter may not be possible with extremely small caches, though.
You can focus on caches that are easy to find or go for those that require a fair bit of walking or exploration. If you’ve been trying to motivate yourself to hike or get outside more, the sense of adventure associated with geocaching could be exactly what you need.
Ghost Hunting
If you’re hankering for adventure that is a step up from geocaching, consider ghost hunting. This hobby can be extremely inexpensive or very expensive depending on your preferences and budget. Many folks ghost-hunt with a camera and nothing else. You can also enlist the assistance of tours or professional ghost-hunting companies.
A few notes of caution apply, of course. For one thing, while there are a huge number of places you can go to, you should always receive permission. Otherwise, you open yourself up to trespassing charges and potential risks you did not know about (a dangerous hole in a house, for example). Abandoned and historic buildings are promising avenues to explore, as are cemeteries, woods, forests, and the locations of recently reported ghost sightings.
What if you do not believe in ghosts, though? You should still attempt this hobby if any part of it intrigues you. Worst case, you indulge your innate desire to explore and visit places you ordinarily would not. Ghost hunting can even be a reason to travel all over the country or world.
Before you go ghost hunting at night, visit the location in the daytime. This enables you to check the property for safety issues and identify emergency exits should they become necessary.
Go with at least one other person, and bring a safety kit with a flashlight and backup batteries.
Other gear to bring for ghost hunting could include paper and pen for recording your observations and experiences, a camera (preferably high end but a phone camera will do), a Polaroid or film camera (to collect evidence in different ways), a thermometer, EMF device, and an audio recorder.
Advocating for a Cause
This type of hobby you can shape to meet your needs, desires, and abilities. There are so many ways to advocate for causes online and in person. You could make videos, sell calendars or T-shirts related to the cause, start a social media account devoted to the cause, volunteer for an organization, volunteer for a political campaign, attend conferences, blog, and/or host meetings. You could also meet with people connected to the cause such as policymakers and organization heads.
There is no shortage of causes, either. Chances are, you already have a few things you are passionate about. Children, chronic pain, teacher support, reading, the environment, animals, and senior citizens are a few broad causes that resonate with many people.
If you are looking for a new hobby, then homebrewing, geocaching, ghost hunting, or advocating for a cause may fit the bill. You have many options to tailor each hobby to meet various wants and goals — and to have a lot of fun while challenging yourself.