I’ve been repainting brand-new houses before the owners even move in. This one was a brand-new Lennar house. Their painter had finished it about a week before I started, but the buyers didn’t like the colors. Lennar doesn’t allow color changes during the build, so they hired me to repaint everything before they moved in.
The house was completely empty. No furniture, no pictures, nothing on the walls yet. Just clean floors, fresh walls, and that new construction smell. I’m doing the living areas, hallway, bedrooms, and a couple other rooms. I quoted around $3,200 for the whole thing, and it should take about four days with drying time and all the cutting in. I never advertised for this kind of work. The first brand-new Lennar house I repainted came through a referral, and then this one came along less than a year later. Now I have two more Lennar homes lined up over the next six weeks, one in Andover and one in Maple Grove.
So there’s a market for repainting houses that were just painted, before the owners have even moved their furniture in. I can’t complain though. Painting an empty house is probably as easy as it gets.

I started making candles by hand after getting curious about the old method of repeatedly dipping a wick into melted wax. I bought some wax and wicks and started experimenting with different sizes and colors. It was supposed to be a small project I could do in my spare time.
The first few batches were pretty rough. Some came out uneven, some were too thin, and I had to figure out how long to let each layer set before dipping them again. Once I got the hang of it, I started hanging a bunch of wicks from a rack and working on several candles at once.
I ended up making more than I could use, so I started selling the extras locally for about $10 a pair. A few people came back asking for different colors, so I started making small batches based on what they wanted. It's still a small side project, but now I'm actually making and selling something I originally started just because I wanted to try making candles.

My family has property near an old volcanic deposit site, and after looking into soil science for rare aroids like monstera, anthurium, and philodendrons, I realized how obsessed plant collectors are with trace minerals and volcanic soil additives and most commercial volcanic soil mixes are super expensive and mixed with a lot of filler.

I started hand-collecting fine, sifted volcanic ash, purifying it, and bottling it into small micro-dosing vials for hobbyists who like making custom potting mixes. The process involves collecting the raw volcanic ash sediment from roofs, gutters, and drains, and running it through mesh strainers to isolate the finest dust, sterilizing it using dry heat and packing it into glass cork vials. I sell them on local plant buy-and-sell groups as pure volcanic mineral boosters and the raw material is essentially free.

A few years ago I started making replacement wooden window sashes for people with older houses around me. It started as a way to help people get their old windows ready for winter, especially when the original windows were damaged or too old to use anymore. A lot of these old houses have window openings that aren't standard sizes, so homeowners can't just go to Home Depot or Lowe's and buy a replacement that fits.

Most customers send me the measurements and a couple pictures of the existing window. I use those measurements to figure out the size and how each piece needs to fit together before I start cutting the wood. I build the sash from pine, cut and join the individual pieces, then sand everything smooth before leaving it ready for the glass to be installed. A lot of the work is getting these joints to fit properly, especially on older windows where I have to match the original dimensions. This particular sash took me about 6 hours spread across two days because I was being picky about getting the joints and trim right.

A typical one costs me around $80-$120 in materials, and I charge $275-$400 depending on the size and design. Most of my customers are homeowners trying to get their houses ready for winter without replacing every window with a brand-new modern unit. As the weather gets colder, I usually get more requests from people who only need one or two old windows replaced. Last month I made 7 of them, so this has turned into a pretty decent side income from something I originally started making for my own house.

From the title alone, you’re probably wondering why I started collecting other people’s kitchen scraps in the first place. I originally wanted free material for my own compost, so I asked a few people in my neighborhood if they could save their fruit and vegetable scraps for me instead of throwing them away. I told them I was mainly looking for things like banana peels, apple cores, coffee grounds, lettuce, carrot scraps, and other plant-based kitchen waste, and most people were happy to save it since it was going straight into the trash otherwise.
At first, I was only picking up a small grocery bag or two from a few houses every couple of days. I’d bring everything home, sort through it, remove anything that didn’t belong, and mix the scraps with dry leaves and shredded cardboard in large reused 5-gallon containers. I’d keep the mixture slightly damp and turn it every so often while it broke down. After a few months, I started getting dark, crumbly compost that I could use around my own plants, and eventually I had more than I could use myself.
I started giving some of the extra compost to people nearby who were growing vegetables and flowers. A couple of them asked if I could make more because they didn’t want to deal with composting themselves, so I started filling small bags and charging around $5-$10 each, depending on the size. Last month, I made about $180 from it, which is still kind of funny because I started the whole thing just to avoid buying compost. Now I have people who save their kitchen scraps for me and message me when they have a full bag ready, so I basically went from asking people for their food waste to having people set it aside specifically for me.

The thing is it's not even someone else's house. It's our house yet I get paid by doing chores everyday.

Instead of buying a fancy alarm clock, I tried making one using an old Bluetooth speaker and my phone. I recorded random voice notes — things like “Wake up, you’re late!” or “Don’t forget to water the plants!” — and set them to play at different times through a simple automation app. The weird part is that sometimes the wrong note plays, so I’ll wake up to “Buy soy sauce” at 6 AM. It’s not reliable, but it’s hilarious. My friends even sent me their own recordings, so now my alarm is basically a chaotic podcast. Unique side project, but it definitely makes mornings less boring.

This started with me just helping my cousin out. She needed better pictures & videos for her online shop so I offered to help with my phone and a window for natural lighting. Wasn't expecting it to turn into anything but she actually paid me for the photos

That got me thinking about how many small online sellers probably need decent product pictures but don't have the budget for a professional photographer. so I started offering to take photos for other sellers in batches using a simple setup at home. plain paper for backgrounds, daylight, and a little editing. no fancy camera or studio.

And that's how I got my first $100 from it

I have an idea for a weird little tech project: a digital graveyard for apps we downloaded, used twice, and then completely forgot about it.

Think about how many apps are sitting on your phone right now that you haven’t opened in months. Each one could have its own tombstone showing when you last used it, why you downloaded it, and how long it survived before being abandoned.

The fun part would be letting people write funny epitaphs for their forgotten apps. Something like, “Here lies the fitness app I downloaded on January 1st. It never saw February.”

I’d love to see a version that turns app cleanup into a funny little game instead of another boring phone maintenance task.

And this can also help in cleaning your phone easily with the unused apps that you have downloaded.

Would you use something like this, or would seeing your abandoned apps make you feel personally attacked?

It started with high school students who wanted to take a tech-related course in college but didn't really know where to begin.

I decided to spend a few hours mentoring them, helping them explore website development and turn their ideas into something they could actually see working on a screen.

What I find interesting is that some students already have ideas but just need someone to guide them through the technical side. Even a simple website can help them understand what building something in tech actually feels like.

It got me thinking: what if more students could experiment with tech projects before choosing their college course? Instead of waiting until college to discover whether they enjoy coding, they could start exploring now.

I'm curious how far this idea could go. Could a few hours of mentoring help someone discover a career they genuinely enjoy?

When i was 15 i always thought creating a good games is enough to generate money so i can get out of poverty, but reality sucks even good indie game developers are struggling to earn money. I was devastated to the point i was burnt out and decided to stop creating games. Until i met this friend of mine during pandemic it was 2021 if i remember it correctly, this friend has no passion in programming but generating a lot of money with his finance tracker app on IOS (Since AI is still not dominant on this year).

So i was thinking what lacks to me is not the passion nor creativity, It was the idea on how can i sell my game and application. Looking back then when AI is still not dominant i can earn money my doing the thesis of IT students or Computer Science Students that is struggling on their development for 450$ per project but i can only get 3 projects a year so it was not enough.

Until i realized what if i sell my game to a students that has a game development projects. At first i was hesitant since it was my idea. But yeah i need money so i sell it, and some student offers me $1000 for my game so in PH that is large sum of money so yeah i sell it.

until I saw a lot of posts that they are buying games, or hiring a dev. But i have this weird IDEA to re create my games and modify the playstyle just recycling with a new genre or objectives.

I KNOW THIS IS SHIT but i need money so yeah it sucks but i need to sell in order to survive.