10 Date Ideas To Mix Up Your Routine

In between work and school and friends, your relationship can start to feel a bit stale. It’s no one’s fault! People have routines and unless you make a conscious effort to connect with your partner, they can fall off the top of your priority list. Relationships are hard work! And if you’re in a long-term relationship, the usual date ideas are very “been there done that”. Here are 10 date ideas to mix up your routine.

1. Museum Momento

Take your love to an art museum. Tell them to stop at an artwork that reminds them of you. You do the same. Re-create the drawing with a sketch pad and pencil. At the end of the date, swap drawings. This is a good idea for the weekdays at odd hours, when the museum is less crowded.

2. Scavenger Hunt

Make your boo hunt for you! Leave clues about past dates, vacations, experiences and if they’re smart, they’ll know where you are. Take it to the next level by leaving them a nerf gun with one of the clues. When your partner finds you, they’ll have to defeat you in order to claim their prize.

3. Picnic

Pack some sandwiches, drinks and a blanket. Go to a nice park or beach and soak up sun for a day. Bring a book to read to each other or a headphone splitter to share music. This is also a cute idea for double dates.

4. Love Language quiz

You and your partner can take a love language quiz to find out how you both like to loved. You will fall into one of these categories: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service or physical touch. Both of you can plan a date for the other based off of how they like to be loved.

For example; Words of affirmation: write them a poem about how much you appreciate them. Quality time: take them somewhere quiet and do an activity together. Receiving gifts: pick out something you know they’d like and give it to them. Acts of service: clean the house before your partner gets home or fix that one thing they’ve been complaining about for a while. Physical touch: give your partner a massage.

5. Movie Marathon

Now, I know this one is so overdone but the next time you have a Netflix marathon, build a fort before you watch the movie and pick a genre or show to stick to. You can make themed snacks to go with your marathon. The Office marathon: jello. Disney Movies: cookies. Stranger Things: waffles.

Pro tip: this is an awesome date for when it’s cold out or raining.

6. People Watch

This is a good one to pass the time. If you’re out to dinner and looking at other parties in the restaurant try to think what their lives are like or what kind of day they’ve been having. Or take a walk through a park and try to tell each stranger’s future.

7. Bowling

Ah, bowling. What a typical American thing to do. I am the least athletic person ever but I’ll admit that bowling is fun even when you have no idea what you’re doing. Bowling is nice because it’s a sport that doesn’t demand too much of its players. There’s time to connect and talk while pins are being lined up or you’re waiting for your ball to come back.

For competitive couples, make this interesting! Place bets and make losers take punishments while the winner gets a reward.

An Open Letter to The Right Person At The Wrong Time

8. Play drinking games

This is also a great one if you’re thinking of doing a double date. Of course drinking games are always great to get to know people but they’re also great for getting drunk at a relatively quick pace. King’s Cup, Never Have I Ever and Flip Cup Tic-Tac-Toe are some fun ones to get you started.

9. Spa day

Take a bath together. Sometimes it’s nice to sit and talk to each other without phones in our hand. Being in a wet tub forces us to leave technology out of it and do something simple and nice for each other. Add in a bath bomb, face masks and wine for the complete self care package.

10. Make art

Look around. What is your place missing? A mug, plate, painting? Go to the craft store and pick out some clay, paint, canvas, or play-doh and make that thing that will make your house more home-like. Or for a more sexy version of this date night, bring home some body paint and turn each other into art. You can even get a big piece of white paper and use your bodies as the brushes.