A Chronically Offline Summer
Analog ideas for summering at home.
Welcome to Marusya’s World, a simple living newsletter that explores the topics of mindful spending, home, and motherhood.
Last summer, without any travel plans and with other financial priorities in place, I began wondering what it would look like to embody a European summer while just…being at home. When I thought back to the time that I did actually travel to Italy in the summer, what stood out wasn’t anything grand. All of my most cherished, most sensory memories were surprisingly simple: ripe fruit at its peak, sparkly beach mornings, dinners outside, light summer clothes, slow evening strolls, market shopping, cooking, reading, and all of it softened by a slower pace.
I live in New England, where we persevere through long, cold, gray winters for the brief, honeysuckle-laced magic of coastal summer. While I do have access to places that feel like a vacation, the truth is I still live in a normal neighborhood and have to drive an hour to reach a proper beach. Even so, I tried to lean into that deliciously lazy summer energy, even while mothering a toddler full-time, and it was lovely (I made a reel about this, and it resonated with many). The pleasantly surprising part was that being intentional about summering made me naturally forget about my phone and want to be on it much less than in the colder seasons.
This coming summer, we don’t have any big vacations planned either, and I’m wanting to double down on this ‘boring girl summer’ idea. I want to forget about my phone as much as possible and let myself fully experience the two key things that summer is meant for: pleasure and rest. Somewhere along the way, big international trips became the marker of a life well-lived. And of course, travel can be expansive in all the best ways. But for those of us who aren’t in a traveling season of life, a beautiful summer is still entirely possible with a bit of intention.
Below, I’m sharing my analog itinerary for summering at home.
Crowd out phone use with things that feel even better
Because there’s so much to enjoy in the summer, it feels easier to crowd out phone use with the small luxuries of everyday life:
Come up with a new ritual to replace looking at your phone first thing in the morning: get an analog alarm clock, and commit to something pleasurable you can default to instead like reading a few pages of a book, journaling morning pages, watering your herbs, stepping outside for a moment, or spending ten quiet minutes practicing your craft. For me, this is either snuggling my son or stepping outside on the deck.
Bring a book, notebook and pen, or portable craft everywhere: be prepared with something other than scrolling while taking your kids to the park, sitting on the beach, or even waiting at the dentist’s office. One of the reasons I love knitting is that it’s so easy to bring with me anywhere, which is what I’ll be doing.
Treat housework as an opportunity for moving meditation: I find it much easier to romanticize chores in the summer, with the windows thrown open and sunshine streaming through the house. It’s a chance to practice meditation in motion - a balm for an overstimulated brain. Try doing the dishes or folding laundry without a podcast on, hanging laundry outside to dry in the sun, or fully admiring the beauty of your ingredients while cooking dinner. I often listen to podcasts while doing housework, which can be nice, but the constant background noise does burn me out. I’ll be going without this summer!
Use your hands to make something: I always feel inspired to sew in the summer, but this could be any craft that gets you into your hands and off screens like needlepoint, knitting, baking, woodworking, gardening. Our linen fitted sheet tore pretty badly recently, but since it’s a king size, there’s still plenty of usable fabric left. I’m planning to turn it into a few simple summer blouses instead (I linked the patterns I’m considering below).
Create ‘default boredom’: leave your phone inside during short walks or backyard time and let your brain itch a little. The itch is often where creativity sneaks back in. Whenever I feel like I have nothing to give or say, it’s usually quiet that helps me untangle myself, while ‘looking for inspiration’ online tends to do the opposite - there’s just too much distraction.
Farmers market Sungold tomatoes in late afternoon light. They’re so sweet it feels illegal.
Less, on purpose
If you’ve been wanting to simplify, summer is the perfect season to exercise that muscle in so many ways.
Do less: Since I’ve distilled the two key pillars of my dream summer down to rest and pleasure, at the core of that is doing less, but on purpose. And that can feel surprisingly uncomfortable at first. Most of us are so unaccustomed to doing less because even the tiniest idle moments get filled by reaching for a nearby screen. I’ll be practicing pausing, moving slower, and simply resting without trying to optimize my time.
Simple cooking: I find summer to be the easiest season for cooking because the ingredients are abundant, juicy, and charged with the energy of the sun. Think tomatoes, stone fruit, berries, herbs, melons. So much summer produce is already perfect as is, or with a livening up of olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Look for a farmers market or a farm stand, and see what looks good to you there. I promise you’ll taste the difference! I keep my cooking so so simple in the summer, mostly thanks to and based on what’s for sale at our local farmers market (I’m sharing my go to summer recipes below).
Capsule wardrobe: summer clothes tend to be less bulky, so I think it’s a great time to practice editing your clothes to a manageable amount and making your closet into something that actually inspires you to get dressed. I’m slowly working on doing exactly that with my own wardrobe, and I wrote all about it here.
Low stakes gatherings: I love hosting and cooking for people, but I’m also guilty of wanting the food to be elaborate, the house super clean, and the vibes perfect. As a classic introvert, that usually means gatherings leave me completely drained, and not eager to host again for a while. This summer, I want to practice more frequent, casual hosting with an emphasis on very simple food and less pressure for everything to feel special in order to bring people together. It’s the people that make it special in the end.
Time in nature as a constant: maybe it’s living in New England, but I want to fill up my outdoor time quota and charge up my solar battery as much as possible while it’s easiest in the summer. I’ll be asking myself, where can I simplify my routines so that I have more time to be outside? What tasks can I do while outside?
Less scheduling: leave specific days or afternoons unclaimed often enough to create room for spontaneity, an essential quality of summer. I’ve noticed that when every day is planned out in advance, even good things can start to feel rigid and rushed. This summer, I want more space for last-minute day trips, slow mornings and restful afternoons, impromptu dinners, or simply following whatever pace the day seems to want to take.
Make your phone more boring
I’ve found a few simple ways to make my phone feel much less appealing, and more like a useful tool than a constant distraction.
Tidy up your Home Screen: Delete the apps you don’t need or use. I only keep the most essential apps that I use daily on my Home Screen to reduce visual noise (8 apps max). The rest of the apps can quickly be found through search (on an iPhone, just swipe down and a search bar comes up).
*To go an extra step: move distracting apps off the first page of your Home Screen to introduce some friction.
Grayscale during the day: Turning your phone to grayscale instantly makes it less appealing. I love this because it’s so incredibly simple to do and so effective. (You can set it up so grayscale turns on with 3 clicks of the side button on iPhone).
Red after sundown: Similarly to the grayscale, a red screen takes away that dopamine hit that you’d get from scrolling on a full color screen. I like the red after sundown specifically to reduce blue light for circadian health.
I wrote more about dumbing down my phone in this note:
Below, for paid subscribers, I’m sharing my slow summer favorites like:
my go-to easy summer recipes & what I bring to potlucks
what’s on my reading list this summer
favorite summer movies
the patterns for what I’m knitting and sewing this summer
the free workouts that are helping me get strong this season
our go-to warm weather clothes that last: the swimsuit that I’ll be wearing for the 4th summer in a row that fit me pre, during, and post-pregnancy, the affordable linen beach cover-ups I use for both my son and I, my favorite summer dress, etc.
Thank you for your support!
