As kids, we enjoyed all sorts of fun hobbies. Somehow, back in the day, no matter how much homework we got, we still managed to do all this other cool stuff. But even if you are very busy as an adult, you should definitely find some new hobbies to try and attempt fitting them into your schedule. These hobbies don’t even have to be something complicated or time-consuming. There are tons of easy hobbies to pick up out there, and so everyone can find something to their taste.
That being said, some people take it one step (or more) further and engage in some pretty unusual hobbies. They range anywhere from bizarre to disturbing to downright dangerous. Some unique hobbies, however, can be quite inspiring, so take a good look at any activity before you decide to make it your hobby.
Scroll down to take a look at some of the most unexpected and random hobbies people actually do in their free time. Vote for the ones you would gladly pick up, we’re curious to see which ones would collect the most votes. If you have some cool hobbies of your own, tell us all about them in the comments.
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"I'm 17 years old and just finished building this 14.7" f/2.89 Newtonian reflector telescope. Despite its stubby size it collects roughly 2500 times more light than the human eye and is bigger than the scope at my local observatory."
Quarter piercing.
"A year ago, I started staying in and piercing state quarters, instead of going out and getting in trouble. Here is my collection so far."
Meme painting.
"I’m painting a collection of Memes. Here’s the progress so far."
Creepy head sculpting.
"Not sure if this is the right place to post but my dad is 52 y/o and his hobby is making these weird heads. he doesn’t think they’re any good but considering he makes them from scratch I think they’re amazing!"
"My pocket cottage! Loved miniatures since childhood, and have recently taken them on as a regular hobby. Here's my happy place from my palm to your face."
"I started by buying a few advertising rulers here and there; at yard sales, eBay, and the occasional antique store when they weren’t charging $20/stick. I figured that I would use them as wainscoting in a small room once I found me forever home. People would give them to me as gifts around the holidays. Two homes later, there was some very boring pine paneling, and needed something. I still have about 100 yardsticks left. Maybe for a vacation house someday."
"My father carves Pokemons as a hobby."
Saw a guy today at the supermarket and he and his little son were wearing matching Pikachu hats.
"I sew stuffed animals. I do it all by hand so each project takes six hours from beginning to end. It's so mind-numbing and zen. Here are some squid pictures. He's about 5'4" long."
Competitive duck herding.
Some dogs are specifically trained to herd farm animals and even show off their herding skills in competitions. Humans decided that activity looks like fun, so they began herding as a hobby. Duck herding is nowadays an active sport.
That sounds like a blast though I'd imagine the whistling would drive the neighbors mad. Bonus - fresh eggs! Level 2 - take the dog to the park and put it up against a flock of wild Canadian geese. That would be a spectator sport worthy of PPV.
"My sand and dirt collection is from every place I visit."
not a fan of this, if everyone did this there would be no sand left at the beaches. In some places this is even illegal.
"My mom has gotten into some strange hobbies since we left for college. Those are pistachios. I always said she needed a hobby but I did not expect this."
Dirt polishing.
Those who take up dirt polishing as their hobby first extract moisture from mud and then cover it with several layers of natural soil. What you get is a smooth ball of dirt you can later display on the shelf.
Geocaching.
Geocaching is what happens when you engage modern technologies in a treasure hunt. Geocaching enthusiasts search for treasure boxes and trinkets to then swap them with each other, but instead of maps and clues, they use satellites. However, you don’t have to work at NASA to do this, your phone is more than enough.
Element collecting.
Element collecting, as in chemical elements from the periodic table, raises a lot of questions. Number one, where do people find the rarest elements, some of which can only be produced in labs and cost a whole lot of money? Number two, how do they store elements that, with incorrect handling or prolonged exposure, can be harmful for your health?
"I collect maps, my dad worked for United so he always stuffed a map in my face to make sure I knew where we were going. Now I have a strange fascination for maps/globes."
I have a level you can borrow. Seeing that every day would drive me over the edge. Of course, that could be part of your hobby. Whenever I go to someone's house at Christmas and they have a NOEL tchotchke made up of individual letters, I rearrange them to spell LEON
Dumpster diving.
While it is a fact that sometimes people throw away absolutely undamaged and good things, it’s a whole different question whether you want to literally dive into the dumpster to find those gems and keep them for yourself or sell them. Dumpster diving gave the expression “one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure” a new meaning.
One time when I was a kid the church behind my house filled the whole dumpster with computers. They were 486 machines with 4-8MB of RAM, but that was pretty good in 1993. That began my career in computer networking! Another time, it was full of florescent light bulb tubes. Me and the other neighborhood kids had a whole day of light saber fights!
Yarn bombing.
Yarn bombing is like graffiti in many ways, except instead of paint you use yarn. The very first case was a decoration on the door handle of a yarn shop, but with time it turned into an actual hobby for many. And since most things can be covered with yarn, all you need is enough material and patience.
Painting the largest ball of paint.
If you visit Alexandria, Indiana, make sure you see the local attraction — the largest paintball. When you look at this 2.5 ton ball, it is hard to believe that somewhere underneath tens of thousands of paint layers there is a regular baseball that set the entire project in motion. What started in 1977 as a fun activity for Mike Carmichael’s toddler son turned into a lifetime project. Today, visitors are welcome to put another coat of paint on the ball.
So I absolutely had to google an image of this. I was expecting a wicked cool conglomeration of colors. I was not expecting 'shaved nütsack'.) INALEballp...t_ks08.jpg 
Tree shaping.
No, we’re not talking about trimming here. Tree shaping means you give the trunk of a tree all sorts of weird shapes depending on your imagination. One word of advice though, tree shaping takes time, lots of time, so if patience is not your virtue, think again before taking up this hobby.
Did you know that plants scream in pain? It's ultrasonic, so humans can't hear it.
"Postcrossing.
I like to exchange postcards with people from all over the world."
Entomology.
If you are a zoologist, entomology, which is collecting bugs and insects, might be a fairly common activity for you because they are the subject of your studies. However, just as exhibits to be put in jars on shelves at home, this hobby raises some questions.
This used to be a very common hobby. It was also part of the nature studies students did at school. My grandad taught it in the 50s onwards and the kids would often bring their finds to school. His older brother also collected butterflies (Lepidopterist), and enjoyed the fact that during WW2 he was stationed in Darwin, where he could collect ones he had never seen before. They used to put a cloth with ether on it in a jar to kill them I believe.
Mushroom hunting.
Mushroom hunting is not too weird compared to other hobbies on this list, but probably was much more popular in previous decades, when supermarkets didn’t offer you any kind of produce. Before you start, make sure you learn enough about mushrooms, as not all of them are safe for consumption.
Soap carving.
Why use a boring bar of soap when you can turn it into a piece of art? This unusual canvas can be a way to unlock your creativity. You can even give away some of your work to your friends and family as a nice personalized gift.
I got an A+ for an art project in junior high when I carved the Sphinx from a bar of soap
Rock painting.
You can use rocks as canvas to paint whole scenes on them, or you can take a look if its shape reminds you of anything and then paint that thing on top of the rock. All in all, rock painting is a quiet, relaxing hobby. A small bonus: you can always pick up your new canvas for free on the road.
I come out of chemo one day feeling like really down and decided to take a walk by the river close by,I found a stone with smile written on it and a flower ,it had a little thing on the back saying ro take or place somewhere else.I took it and still have it 9 months later on the kitchen window sill where I can see it every morning ,made such an impact on me
"I collect antique typewriters. Started when I thought I'd try writing something on an old manual to see if it helped my tendency to ramble. I made it one page and went running back to the computer. But the typewriter I picked up (for $5 on eBay) was such a cool little machine that I started getting into them and got hooked. As antiques go they're often really cheap too, even in working condition."
"I build instruments. I'm not that great at the music itself, but I really like thinking of different string configurations and variations in shape and materials. I started out by trying to understand guitars since I got one and had no idea how to play it; as I learned a bit more, I built things I couldn't afford (like an octave mandolin) and finally, things that didn't exist."
Toy voyaging.
No one should be left out of fun, not even toys! That’s what toy voyaging enthusiasts think. This unusual hobby includes sending your teddy bear, or any other toy for that matter, on a holiday to other places where a fellow hobbyist will host them and update you on your toy’s adventures.
Ghost hunting.
Ghost hunters might not have all the fancy equipment the ghostbusters had in their movies, but they still aspire to catch as many ghosts as possible, even if it’s only on film. While many of us would prefer to stay away from haunted places, this is exactly where ghost hunters practice their favorite pastime.
Quidditch.
Yeah, okay, brooms can’t fly in our world, so what? Everything else in Quidditch is pretty real: throw a ball, catch a ball, don’t let your opponents win. While Quidditch is still not officially recognized as a sport, many campuses have their own teams, where players compete according to the rules described in the books while holding a broom in their hand.
I am a ridiculously big Harry Potter fan and I would not do this.
Stone skipping.
We’ve all tried stone skipping but some people took it to a whole different level when they turned it into a competition. Currently, the record is 51 bounces over the water in one throw.
Saw a video of a kid skipping a rock more than twenty times!!! My record as a kid was four.
"I collect military helmets. There is a huge variety of different helmets to focus on. I mostly collect American helmets from WWI-Vietnam. Here is a picture of a fraction of my collection, showing some of my rarest ones."
Noodling.
Noodling has nothing to do with either cooking or eating noodles. What it does involve is catching fish in shallow waters with your bare hands. It may not sound like it, but noodling can be pretty dangerous and you can get hurt if you don’t take precautions.
Breaking News: One-armed man found adrift in small boat. His last words appear to be "Don't noodle sharks......".
"I pickle garlic and other things.
One day a thought popped into my head. "Hey, I like garlic. I wonder if I can get pickled garlic from somewhere." Well, I couldn't seem to find any at the local grocery store so I just decided to look up how to do it on my own. Now I'm pickling garlic with onions, peppers, and eggs."
If you want to do this, make sure to look up a method approved as safe by your government's agriculture office. Also, if you don't do it correctly, you'll end up with blue garlic.
Mooing.
Yep, mooing as in imitating the sounds cows make. You can take as much time as you need to perfect your cow impression and then probably visit a local farm and have a chat with the cows there.
Me, too!! It started as a joke for my kids when they were young and when we traveled around France. If I saw cows, I'd moo in different French accents until I got a response (I also do stop and ask horses for directions) Later, I learned that cows don't all moo the same, and regionally will have an "accent", so I was correct to moo in various French accents! I also learned that heifers also growl and are extremely protective of their veal, I mean offspring. My best cow joke is that the best cheese is brie de Meaux! (pronounced moo, and yes, it's a real brie from Meaux, France)
Sketching on vehicles.
Tattooing vehicles is very close to tattooing your skin, except if done right, it’s fairly easy to remove the design. So maybe, before you decide to commit to a new tattoo, try it out on your car first?
I wouldn't sketch on my car, but erasable whiteboard markers work well on large white goods - like your fridge.
Ant keeping.
Ant keeping is different from traditional pets because they live in colonies and you can’t have just one. It is also different from beekeeping, as the latter is a farming activity, while ants bring no material gain. Yet, some people choose to have ant colonies at home and observe their daily lives.
Extreme Couponing.
It would have been fun if extreme couponing had anything to do with sports, just like extreme ironing, but in this case “extreme” refers to the amount of effort you put into collecting and organizing all sorts of discount coupons. It all pays off when you go to a shop and save a huge amount in one shopping trip.
I love bargain shopping. Most stores have their own digital coupons, newspapers still have them, you can print them from online sites. The fun is trying to combine store cpns, mfg c0ns, can codes (when available) and store sales. Texas no longer has double or triple cpns in most grocery stores, but there saving out there. I recently only paid like $1 for Olay Body wash,which is normally about $7-$8. Plus, there are many YouTubers that do this and find deals for you
Ecstasy collection.
Disclaimer: drugs are harmful for your health and most of them are illegal to have in your possession. The world learned about ecstasy collection as a hobby in 2009, when a man called Dutch authorities to report that his collection of 2,400 tablets was stolen. While he knew his hobby was illegal, he preferred to let the authorities know, as the collection might have been very dangerous.
News bombing.
It’s one thing when there is a live broadcast in the street and you happen to pass by. Some people can’t resist and look straight at the camera from behind the reporter’s back. It’s a completely different thing when people turn news bombing into a hobby. They find live reports and insert themselves in the background of the shot. Well, at least you could say you were on TV after that.
Fork bending.
A lot of superheroes, especially those with super strength, can bend metal with no effort. And while most regular humans can’t really bend an entire iron fence in a go, some of them give it a try, albeit in baby steps. This is how fork bending became a hobby.
Collecting in-flight sick bags.
Most of us, when boarding a plane, hope that we’ll never have to take the in-flight sick bag out of its pocket. But there are people who take them on purpose, even if they don’t feel sick in the slightest. Even though this is a fairly simple act, it turns out, you can have an entire collection of sick bags and turn it into your hobby.
Competitive dog grooming.
Speaking of dogs, does your floof have lots of fur? Then why pay a groomer who will give them a pretty common, breed-appropriate haircut anyway, when you can do it yourself and have your pet sport your most extravagant design? On top of that, if you perfect your skills and enter a competition, you can even win a substantial amount for competitive dog grooming.
Anthem listening.
"I like listening to national anthems. It's a great way to study language and culture. The bad thing is that it's really hard to be critical (in a literary and artistic sense) without someone being offended and yelling patriotism. Also, I know people who absolutely refuse to sing foreign anthems. I just think it's interesting and that I should be able to appreciate them for their musical and lyrical value."
I don't even want to listen to my own national anthem. Granted, there are probably plenty that do sound good.
Extreme ironing.
No, extreme ironing doesn’t mean you have to iron clothes for your entire family. It’s about taking ironing to all sorts of extreme locations. Ironing while suspended from a cliff? Done. During a parachute jump? Check. Underwater while scuba diving? Completed. And if you think there can’t be too many people who partake in this hobby because come on, this is ironing we’re talking about, think again. Extreme ironing has long stopped being a hobby and has become a competitive sport.
I don't iron at home so why would I lug an ironing board up a mountain to iron there?
"I collect cups.
If it's cylindrical and made from paper, plastic, or Styrofoam...and has a logo on it...I want it. I do not collect shot glasses, regular glasses, beer mugs, or steins. Water bottles and those old plastic casino buckets count. This is a small sample of my collection. I have over 600. I began collecting in 2006.
I like to think that I chose cups because I like the idea of something so common being displayed with so many differences. Additionally, it's proof that a company will slap its logo onto everything. Take Mcdonald's, for example. The golden arches pop up on the cup, fry boxes, burger wrappers, and even napkins."
Clowning.
Clowns get a lot of bad rep for being creepy, but some people actually enjoy it. They dress up as clowns, walk the streets, and perform occasional hijinks on unsuspecting passersby, all in good nature for a hearty laugh.
Collecting navel fluff.
Australian Graham Barker took weird to a whole new level when he started collecting navel fluff back in 1984. Up until now he has collected 22.1 grams (0.78 oz) of navel fluff. The only reassuring thing here is that it’s all his own, and he doesn’t go after other people’s navels.
Beetle fighting.
Disclaimer: we are against animal cruelty. While beetle fighting might not be as violent and harmful as dog or rooster fighting, it still involves pitting two bugs against each other for the audience. It has even turned into a gambling opportunity.
Train surfing.
Another extremely dangerous hobby, train surfing, means riding on the outside of the train at full speed while holding onto the handrails. While in some countries with overloaded train commutes, this is an unfortunate necessity, in other places, people practice train surfing as a hobby that gives you a huge adrenaline rush.
This is illegal and unsafe and shouldn't be encouraged whatsoever
Witchcraft.
At some point in your life you realize that the letter from Hogwarts is not coming. Some people move on, others decide to practice witchcraft on their own. The problem here is that outside the Harry Potter universe, witchcraft is often used to harm others. Whether you believe in this or not, if your neighbor keeps boiling stuff in a copper cauldron, maybe it’s a good idea to stay away.
Woodworking - been doing it since I was 5 and it turned into a business but still have hobby aspects that I do for me. Beekeeping - just got into that because someone gave me a jar of honey and it tastes SOOO much better than the store bought stuff. (and can use wax for above mentioned woodworking) Tanganyikan Shell Dweller Aquarium - been keeping fish since I was 10 or so. Astrophotography - mainly single shot Milky Way photos Genealogy - like treasure hunting but can do it from the computer. At an impasse on 1 gg grandfather so going to do the DNA thing and see if that leads anyplace. Fun fact: if you can trace your lineage back to Isaiah Harrison from Oyster Bay, New York, you're related to Abraham Lincoln and Elvis Presley (and me). Chances are better than you'd think because he had 10 kids or so as did a lot of his children.
You know what, I'm gonna start practicing witchcraft hehehehe
Woodworking - been doing it since I was 5 and it turned into a business but still have hobby aspects that I do for me. Beekeeping - just got into that because someone gave me a jar of honey and it tastes SOOO much better than the store bought stuff. (and can use wax for above mentioned woodworking) Tanganyikan Shell Dweller Aquarium - been keeping fish since I was 10 or so. Astrophotography - mainly single shot Milky Way photos Genealogy - like treasure hunting but can do it from the computer. At an impasse on 1 gg grandfather so going to do the DNA thing and see if that leads anyplace. Fun fact: if you can trace your lineage back to Isaiah Harrison from Oyster Bay, New York, you're related to Abraham Lincoln and Elvis Presley (and me). Chances are better than you'd think because he had 10 kids or so as did a lot of his children.
You know what, I'm gonna start practicing witchcraft hehehehe
