Are you particularly good at fixing things? Don’t mind doing a household task most people loathe? Offer your services as a handyman or housekeeper to pick up extra cash on your own schedule.
- Handyman Tasks– Are you really good at furniture assembly? Do you love painstakingly hanging wall decor so it’s perfectly aligned? Not everyone has the time or skills for these things, so they look for people to do things like this all the time. Sign up as a pro on Handy and start looking for gigs. TaskRabbit is another great site where you can find moving, packaging, furniture assembly and general heavy lifting tasks.
- Dolly – Are you the handy friend who always shows up when someone needs help moving? You can put your muscle to work helping other people move. Sites like Dolly will put you in touch with people who need your help. What you can earn varies based on whether or not you have your own car, truck or van.
- Pick Up Trash – Look for property management companies and individual store owners with their own land or lot. Offer to go through early each morning or late each evening and pick up trash and litter. All you really need to get started is a garbage collection bag and a good set of protective gloves or a hand picking tool.
- Pool Cleaning – People love lounging in or by the pool, but they don’t usually love vacuuming or skimming for debris on a daily basis. Offer your services as a basic pool cleaner — just don’t offer to check pH levels or add chemicals unless you’re licensed to do so.
- Car Washing – Do you pay a lot of attention to your own car, cleaning it and detailing it regularly? Offer a car cleaning service, washing the inside and outside of the car. Bring your cleaning equipment to your client’s house and use their own hose. The more detailing you do, the longer the job takes. Make sure you charge accordingly.
- House cleaning – We don’t know too many people who claim they really love to clean, but we’re pretty sure those who do love it deserve to work. Offer house cleaning services to family and friends and build your business up via word of mouth. Keep in mind you may ultimately need to become licensed and bonded to protect yourself, if you want to expand beyond people you know. Sites like Care.com and Housekeeper take care of that issue by acting as the middleman as you look for jobs.
- Window Cleaning – Yes, this technically falls under house cleaning in a home, but what about for a business? Business owners often lack the time to get to the inside and outside of their often large windows. Grab some window cleaning supplies and extension handles and get to work. Canvas local businesses on foot and you may be surprised at how quickly you earn repeat customers.
- Build Furniture – Ever go to IKEA or another big box store and bring home a piece of completely unassembled furniture? Some people are so much better at putting those things together than others. Advertise your own business online or look for similar tasks on sites like TaskRabbit.
- Interior Decorating – Do you have an eye for design? Are you great with people and getting to understand their dreams, even when you have to pull the info out of them? Get started by applying to be a Remote Part-time Stylist on a site like Modsy or build a website with some before/after shots of your past projects and advertise your design services on your own.
- Laundry Service – There are a lot of people who hate doing laundry or simply don’t have the time to get it done. Love laundry? Offer to do laundry in a person’s home or do a collection from your clients, hit the local laundromat, and go to town washing, drying, and folding for several clients at a time. People will pay for this convenience on a regular basis.
- Haul Junk Away – Have a truck? Consider starting a junk removal service. Some people just need their stuff gone and may not be able to donate it to charity. As long as you have the equipment, you can haul their junk away and actually charge them to do it! You may be able to scrap some of the junk for additional earnings.
- Yard Work – There are a lot of people who can’t handle their own basic lawn upkeep, including mowing the lawn and pulling weeds. Depending on where you live, you may be able to offer fall cleanup work (raking leaves) or winter work shoveling sidewalks and driveways.
- Carpet Cleaning – Great at getting out stains? You could start an entire side gig based on carpet cleaning alone. Leave the rest of the house to the house cleaners and focus on regular carpet cleaning for people who have a lot of foot traffic or who have special needs due to allergies. All you need is a vacuum, carpet cleaner, and the right cleaners for each situation.
~Here’s to Your Financial Health!
