I started making extra money from used pallets almost by accident.

I was doing small hauling jobs with my pickup and trailer when a local brewery called me about a huge pile of pallets behind their loading dock. They needed them gone before a new shipment came in and paid me $500 to haul everything away. There were about 120 pallets, mostly the standard 48x40 ones. I was planning to take them to the dump, but before leaving I called a warehouse about 10 minutes away and asked if they bought used pallets. They said they paid $8 each for clean ones. I went back through the pile, pulled out the broken ones, and ended up with 100 usable pallets. A few trips later, the warehouse paid me $800 for them.

So that one job brought in $1,300 between the hauling fee and the pallet resale. I spent about $70 on gas, but I still couldn't get over the fact that I had been paid to remove something, then found someone else willing to pay me for the exact same thing. Now whenever I do a hauling job, I ask if there are pallets I can take too. I've picked them up from breweries, warehouses, grocery distributors, and construction sites, and if they're in decent shape, I usually try to sell them instead of dumping them.

I had to retire early and I'm home alone bored most the time. Someone on Facebook had an extra ticket to a show that was 11am. I went for free and got lunch out of the deal too. They posted on Facebook joking about going with their mom to her DR to keep her company during an iron infusion. So I messaged them and I went to the DR with her and told her I didn't want money and just to buy me lunch. After a few months word got out and I'm going to DR appts, running errands and I have a cuddle day once a week with a lady that has severe anxiety after her divorce. That's the weird one but she's cool. Just lay in bed with her while she sleeps for a few hours, gets up and makes me lunch and we talk until her kids get home. Some weeks I do this Monday thru Friday everyday while my wife is at work so I'm saving a bunch of money on groceries (a few people tell me to order something to take home to my wife, she takes it for lunch the next day) and most the time they pick me up from my house so I'm not spending money on gas.

I used to be a local tour guide in our city, it was a practical job but I have plenty of competitors and it pays me less than my effort. When one vlogger that I toured complained about not getting a drone shot due to strict restrictions of drones around the area, it gave me an idea to be a human drone instead.

Everytime a tourist visits scenic spots, heritage streets, and eco parks where drones arenʼt allowed, thatʼs when I advertise my side hustle. I would bring an ultra-lightweight 3 meter long selfie stick, mount their 360 camera on top, and then sprint along the area.

Now this gig is really pure cardio because I will hold that selfie stick until I get the rest of the footage that they asked for where I literally sprint and get past tourists that are also walking around. The 360 camera does not get a glimpse of the selfie stick so on screen, it definitely looks like a drone shot seamlessly swooping 5 meters overhead. I kinda look ridiculous but I get paid $70 right away.

My sister is an elementary school teacher and every summer break, she’d ask me  to scrub and repaint the chairs/tables of their school. Most of my friends think it’s a boring job but it’s honestly peaceful here. Every day during the summer before another school year starts, I spend it together with a bucket of soap, a scrub brush and flat knife scraping off some glitter glue, stickers, dried up gums, and other filthy dirt. Cleaning was my most hated part of the process because you’d never know what else these kids are sticking on their chairs/tables, how many gums are there, and how long it has been. But the fun part is

Once they’ve been cleaned and dried, the fun begins. I grab the sandpaper, smooth out the metal legs, remove all the dust, line them up on some drop clothes and spray paint them in nice glossy paint. Within a minute of work, these chairs get transformed into entirely new looking ones. For a day, I earn $35, not crazy money IK but  I enjoy it so much.

It’s not hard when you have four guaranteed hours per weekday from 7:00 am to 3:30 pm, no weekends, and no irritated customers screaming at me. All I do is stick the ear bud in my ear, tune into whatever music or podcast I want, and by late afternoon, I’m done for the day.

My job revolves around theater and puppetry, which by the way, can sustain my daily needs of enjoying cup noodles and processed foods. One of my friends mentioned to me a platform that hires all sorts of artists and performers for a virtual child supervision, basically just babysitting but online.

When I looked through the site, it turns out remote-work parents are gladly paying money to keep their toddler busy and entertained while they finish their job in peace.

My biggest advantage here is that a lot of these kids enjoy puppet shows. Kids do not enjoy a boring FaceTime call where you only stare at each other, instead I pull out different props such as sock dragons or a ridiculous rabbit puppet and run an hour or so of interactive improv routines.

The kids are completely entertained, sometimes we solve silly  imaginary mysteries, or create and sing goofy songs, sometimes practice basic counting, and other interactive activities they can enjoy while their parents work uninterrupted.

I found this subreddit on tiktok and read a few posts here, might as well share a side hustle that I had a couple of years back. I took a part-time gig helping out a real estate guy. He was rich, like ridiculously wealthy. He pays me great for an oddly specific task which is replicating his wardrobe/supplies across his houses.

He owns houses in different cities. Every week, he travels from one house to another with nothing but just his phone. He wants to travel without luggage to carry. And my task here is to make sure every single thing he owns has an exact replica on each of his houses. From the clothes, to the shoes, tees, workout shorts, socks, even to the medicine cabinets and electric gadgets. Everything that he owns from the other house, should be found in the other.

Every week, I’d visit his main house and update an inventory spreadsheet of what’s new. He also updates me on the items he just bought recently so I had to look and buy the duplicates and ship it to the housekeepers of his other properties with complete info on which drawer or part of the house the items belonged to. Every time I shop for his things, I have to stand at checkout counters buying the exact same clothes that sometimes other people wonder if I have twins.

I kept seeing these damaged Costco patio umbrellas getting sold off cheap, so I started buying the ones that looked like they still had enough good parts to be worth taking apart. A lot of them had bent support ribs or broken cranks, but plenty of the other pieces were still in decent shape. Some people might only need one replacement part to get their umbrella working again.

My last load had 22 umbrellas. Only 4 were too far gone to bother with, so I spent an afternoon taking apart the other 18 in my garage. I sorted the usable poles, ribs, brackets, cranks, and hardware into separate bins. I list the smaller parts on eBay, while the bigger pieces usually go on Facebook Marketplace or OfferUp since shipping them isn't worth it. I also check the model numbers before listing anything because parts that look similar don't always fit the same umbrella. The metal pieces I can't reuse go to a local scrap yard.

I spent around $400 on that load and ended up bringing in about $900 between the parts and scrap, before other expenses. Some pieces sell faster than others, and some sit around until the right buyer comes along. I have to keep track of what sells so I don't end up spending money on parts that nobody needs.

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I don't have a laptop, so my phone is all I have. I'm 21 and a university fresher. Are there any side hustles I can do using just my phone? I'm quite ambitious but I just don't know what would be the best for me. Please recommend me something.

I've been modding Casio and Seiko watches for years now to help have a creative outlet. About 11 months ago I started filming the builds because I noticed people on reddit asking how certain things were done.

Three income streams came out of it that I thought was pretty interesting.

First one is commissions. People see a build and contact me asking if I'll do one for them. This brought in some extra change and helped me fund new build for the channel. Commissions and watch sales are hitting $500-600/month now in profit.

The second one is ad revenue, which is the part I find interesting. Currently it's sitting around $100 a month and a decent chunk of that comes from videos I uploaded months ago and haven't touched since.

The third one is affiliate revenue. In each video I link to the parts and tools I use throughout. This one started really small but now over the last two months it's grown to over $300/mo.

The workflow is simple and that's the main thing I'd want anyone to take from this. I'm filming the thing I was doing anyway. Actual video editing consists of cutting out the dead space, so the silences, me fumbling for a tool, the bit where I drop a spring bar and spend four minutes on the floor looking for it. Then I record a voiceover on top of what's left. Thumbnail, title, upload. No script, no second shoot, very little b-roll. For a full video it takes an hour or so.

Overall it's getting pretty close to $1000/month and while it isn't life changing it helps fund a hobby I love which in turn slowly increases the money I make. It's also not instant and the first handful of videos made basically nothing for a long time, which I'm guessing is where most people bail.

The reason it worked for me is that the filming attached to something I was already doing. If I'd had to go find a hobby to film I don't think I'd have lasted more than three months.

I’ve had this idea when I saw a post of someone who organizes photos and videos, basically just decluttering and thought that it’s a good side hustle especially in this modern generation.

I’ve also tried copying their side hustle and posted it on my Facebook account but people did not pay much attention to it so I decided to add a little twist. Maybe, something more personal, more attached, and you know, emotional would attract them to avail my service. And the closest thing to organizing digital memories is to create a digital time capsule.

When I posted it to different groups and communities, more people became interested and availed my service. Through their feedback and reviews, it also helped me gain more customers.

Basically, people would send me the memories they want to remember in the future such as photos, screenshots, messages, playlists, random notes, voice recordings, and anything they want. I would design and organize everything into a digital package, but they cannot access it nor find ways to open it because the package would find them on the year they want to open it through an email.

There was a posted flyer of a theater company offering $300 for someone who’d volunteer to have their hair buzzed off live during their show. I had no intention of going bald, did not enjoy the feeling of being bald, but I needed the money so I took it. I did not say any lines during the show, I only showed up at their final rehearsal too. My entire job was to walk under a single spotlight, sit on an old wooden chair, and stare blankly ahead while the actor shaved my entire head in dead silence. And to give you a little background abt me, I had shoulder length hair so when it was shaved instantly, you could literally hear the gasps and reactions loudly from the crowd.

Once the scene ended, I immediately went backstage and they handed me a beanie along with the payment for my one time show appearance. I felt new walking home without my hair lol but I got an instant $300 just from going bald. Still went to the barber the next day to fix the uneven spots. Definitely worth going bald for.

I've always been the guy in my friend group who gets asked about cars. I'm not a mechanic, but I buy a lot of my own parts used and have spent way too much time looking through Marketplace listings. I got especially picky about tires after one of my Grabbers started looking like the tread was separating. One weekend my brother was about to drive 40 minutes to look at a used set, so he sent me the listing. The pictures were terrible, so I went with him and brought my tread gauge. I checked the wear across all four, looked at the sidewalls and date codes, and told him to skip them.
After that, people started asking me to check tires before they bought them. A coworker was next, then someone from a local Facebook group asked if I could meet a seller because they didn't know what to look for. I started charging $25 for the trip and inspection, taking close-up pictures and sending the buyer everything I found. I've made around $300 doing it so far. I'm basically getting paid to tell people not to buy the tires they're looking at.