Mystery Box Ideas

A Mystery Box of Recipes

• People who love to cook may have books and files of recipes but that doesn't mean that it's not possible to get into a culinary rut. Sometimes every potential dish sounds boring. To combat the monotony of your recipes, throw a bunch of ingredients into a mystery box (either the ingredients themselves or the words on pieces of paper). Pick out a random assortment of ingredients and create a dish with those ingredients.

  If your problem is that you simply have too many recipes and can't decide what to make, throw the various recipes in the box and pick one at random to cook. Use the recipe mystery box for something as simple as wine/drink pairings with meals or as complicated as the various dishes of a five course meal. For added fun, use the mystery box at a dinner party. Don't plan the menu ahead of time. Simply have guests pick it out of the box. Then go to the store, buy all the ingredients you need and cook away.

A Mystery Box of Activities

• For a fun twist on your typical weekend routine, use a mystery box to decide an adventure for the day. Depending on how ambitious you want to make the activity, you can stick to only museums or walks in the park or you can add more exotic activities that you have never tried before such as skydiving or fly-fishing. Before you prepare the activity mystery box game, think about whether you want to remain local or if you want the activity to take you on a short road trip.

  For an especially elaborate mystery box activity game, set up several boxes. In the first box, pick whether to make the activity local or far. For the second box, put various activity lengths such as "two hours," "single day," or "multiple days." What you pick for the first two boxes will then decide what activities you put into the third box. Let's say you pick a distant two-day activity. Your third box may now include activities such as "rafting," "hiking" or "concert tour."

A Mystery Box of Chores

• Not every mystery box has to center around eating and/or relaxation. Sometimes the mystery box will force you to clean up the house or take your car to the shop. The mystery box of chores is best for people who have a lot of chores left to do. If you know you need to wash windows, do the laundry and clean the dishes, use the mystery box to decide what to do first. As chores pile up, it's easy to become overwhelmed with everything and do nothing. The mystery box of chores will at least get you started. Write each chore on a piece of paper and pick from the box. After you finish the chore, continue to use the mystery box until it's empty.