Despite my current location independence, I do still imagine I’ll settle down somewhere eventually. When I do, I like to think I’ll keep up my thrifty (ish!) ways and get into some side hustles.
There are a lot of ways to make money from your home itself that generally don’t involve too much work. The following are a few ideas I’ve considered in the past, or ideas I’ve discovered recently that your home can do for you:
1) Rent It
I’d guess that if/when I do settle down in one place I’ll still enjoy the thrill of visiting new places. This would lend itself well to renting out my home for short lets while I am away. I’ve mentioned the clampdowns in certain cities on Airbnb before, but once the rules surrounding home rentals are a bit more established I would reconsider it as an option. There are new websites cropping up now like Pillow and Guesty, which will actually manage your Airbnb rentals for you, from organising cleaning to handing over keys to guests!
Another option is to rent out a single room in the house, for example to a foreign exchange student, which could provide a great year-round extra income.
2) Star in a Film
One thing that could be fun to try out is advertising my house as a film set. And you don’t have to live in some incredible mansion to do this; often companies are simply looking for “normal” homes to film in. Supposedly you can earn $1,300for a major film for just one day of filming. I guess it’s rare to earn that much, but earning a few $100 to see your home on-screen would be nice!
SharedSpace is one site for listing NZ homes if anyone’s interested. Something to bear in mind though, they may need to make some changes to the house for the filming, so make sure you enquire about this before they knock down a wall in your home and get some cowboys in to ‘sort out’ the damage!
3) Be a Bakery
Apparently, if you’ve got a decent-sized kitchen, you could let it out to a food production business, like a company that creates cakes for delivery and doesn’t need an actual shop as a base. That’d be a pretty nice passive income stream. Plus if you did manage to get a bakery working from your kitchen the smell would be heavenly…I’d do it for that alone!
4) Your Front Drive for Let
If your house or apartment comes with a parking lot (or two!) that you don’t use, at least all of the time, you could try renting this out too. There are a number of parking space rental sites, like the US-based ParkingPanda and the UK-based YourParkingSpace where you can sign up for free and create an advert for your space, a bit like Airbnb. You’ll then be matched with someone looking for parking in your area.
5) Serve as a Kennel or Cattery
Working from home has its perks, and one of the ideas I came across could tie in quite well if you’re like me and also work from home. You can open up your home up to hosting cats and dogs for short periods. Some people prefer private homes to kennels, as kennels can be expensive, and people don’t always trust that their pet will get the best care and attention. If you’re an animal-lover anyway it’s definitely a nice option to consider. Just don’t become too attached to the animals!
6) Grow Your Own Crops
Are you green-fingered? Ever thought about growing crops in your garden? Try berries, veggies and landscape products that you can sell from your own doorstep, or at a farmer’s market.
7) Rent out the Contents of your Home
I’d also think about trying renting out my stuff. I came across the site hirethings.co.nz that describes itself as a hire and rental marketplace, where you can find just about anything to rent – the wedding and party sections were especially fun for browsing! But you can rent out basic equipment and tools too. And failing that, maybe I could just sell the stuff I’m trying to hire. I suppose if I need it that infrequently, it might make more sense to hire from someone else myself… If I don’t need it, why let it take up space?!
Making money from your home can be a great way to top up your income, and reduce wasted resources, which would otherwise go unused. Have you ever tried any of the above ideas? Or use any other ways to make some extra cash from your home?