Making money in no way needs to be boring. It can, however, sound boring. Sometimes we read a side-hustle that is so grey it actually does a full 360 and becomes funny. Whether it’s selling toilet roll holders, sleeping, queueing or any scintillating hustle that belongs next to a book of boring postcards, we are here to show you that you can literally make money doing anything.
Make Money Queuing
We Brits love a queue, so much so that when we travel around we sometimes get utterly baffled by different queueing etiquettes – one of the most asked questions when we travel is “how to queue in…” (yes really!)
So here is a job suggestion about as painfully British as “tea tester” or “weather complainer”.
How does it work, you ask?
Well, we’ve all seen the long queues as people wait in line to be the first to get their hands on the latest Apple product, sometimes even enduring a whole night of rain. Chances are at least one of those people would have paid you to take their place.
Equally there are many people who would love to get the latest iPhone or concert tickets but can’t because they have work or family commitments. They may well be willing to pay for your line sitting services.
Despite success in the US, it’s still a relatively unheard-of practice in the UK so you’d be leading the way with this money-making opportunity.
You’d be able to set your own price, either at a fixed rate or an agreed amount per hour/half hour. For example, you could charge a fixed rate of £100, or agree on £6 an hour.
Click here to find out more about making money queuing.
Make Money Sleeping
Could you imagine getting paid to sleep?
How brilliant would that be?
Well, some lucky so and so’s get to do just that, and they’re called bed testers.
Bed testers get to test out a whole range of beds, often luxury ones, and then give a verdict based on the night’s sleep they had.
We’re basically including this one for a bit of fun because it’s really hard to become a full-time bed tester – as you can imagine, it’s very competitive!
Most people were first introduced to the idea of being a bed tester after Hotel Chatter put out a call in 2006 for a professional to test their 25,000 beds. In fact, there is one opportunity to do this right here.
Make Money Trading in Empty Ink Cartridges
Everyone wants to help the environment, and everyone has empty ink cartridges lying around their home or workplace. But, instead of chucking your empty ink cartridges away, why not recycle them instead?
Printer Cartridge Recycling pays people for each one they receive. You’ll get cash depending on the ink cartridge you’ve sent. A minimum threshold of £5 must be reached in order to send the cartridges to them.
Alternatively, you can send them to the Recycling Factory. All you have to do is box up your cartridges and send them Free Post to the company. They’ll sort out the rest and pay you.
Make Money by Renting out your Drive
This is very easy and can bring in some nice cash – especially if you live in built up areas or near offices.
There are two main ways to do it. Either put ads in local papers or in the local newsagent or even on your front gate. If you live near a station, see if they will let you put a notice up there. Then see how much the station car park charges per day and try to undercut them – crafty!
Or even better (and easier) register with sites such as Park Let or JustPark and let thousands of people know about your available space. Various websites offer you the chance to advertise your space for free but these are two of the most established sites and both offer a comprehensive service.
Make Money Ironing
If you have to spend your spare time ironing, then you may as well get some money for it.
There’s an extremely high demand for efficient ironing services. People would rather pay extra to outsource their laundry than iron it themselves and that’s where you come in.
If you can get your hands on some coat hangers and know the difference between your silks and your starch, this may well be the money-maker you’ve been looking for.
Once you have got all your essentials you can sign up to an ironing agency, or even start your own.
Your ironing gig can be as small as only doing a few shirts for someone you know or it could be a proper full-time job. You can iron when kids are in bed or while watching TV. Happy ironing!
What other unusual and boring sounding side-hustles do you do? Let us know in the comments.
