Have you thought about renting one of your rooms on Airbnb--you know, the extra bedroom with the exterior door where you've been storing junk for the past decade--but cleaning up and letting people into your house feels like too much to handle? Cheer up! There are plenty of other things you can rent out for money without letting strangers spend the night at your house.
Rent Your Photography Equipment
Did you once open a wedding photography business that went bust, or are you a camera enthusiast with a lot of spare equipment? Sign up at CameraLends and rent your photography and videography equipment to people who need to commemorate a special occasion or make some gorgeous visual art.
In addition to listing the cameras themselves, you can list your lighting, audio and camera stabilizing equipment. CameraLends takes a commission of 10 to 30 percent on rentals. You keep the rest.
Rent Your Parking Space
Do you have a fantastic parking space downtown in a large city, next to an airport or near a major attraction? Is your house near a big event venue or fairground? If the answer to either of these questions is "yes," you can rent out your unused parking space for some extra dough.
A site called ParkingSpotter.com will list your parking space for free and display it as an option for travelers in need. You can offer monthly or daily leasing options depending on whatever suits your schedule and your budget.
Rent Your Car While It's at the Airport
Paying for safe, covered parking in the airport garage will cost you a pretty penny. Instead of waiting in the cold or heat for a shuttle, piling your suitcases on it and tipping a driver to take you what seems like miles from the airport, pay for a close-by garage space by renting out your car while you're gone.
Services like Turo will let you list your car, set a price and rent it to a network of approved drivers. Both sites offer insurance coverage for your vehicle in case of loss or damage, giving you a safe way to bring in extra cash.
Rent Land to Hunters
If you're sitting on a piece of rural property that's teeming with elk, deer, caribou, moose, ducks, geese, turkeys or other game, leasing your land to hunters could put some spending money in your pocket. Even if you just thin out the deer population that's munching on your flowers and eating your apple trees, you'll get more than money out of the transaction.
Mark Hebert, founder and CEO of LandToHunt, provides landowners a place to list available property for hunters. Landowners set their own prices, decide who gets to hunt and set out boundaries for where hunters can go. "You can approve which animals they can hunt, what hours they can come on your property and how long they can stay," Hebert explains. If you're not sure how to set a fair price for your land, LandToHunt will let you view comparable properties and their listing prices before making up your mind.
Rent Yourself Out
A lot of people find themselves with an extra ticket to a sporting event because a date backs out at the last minute. For a purely platonic night on the town, they can skip going stag and rent you instead, starting at $10 per hour.
If you have extra time on your hands, a site like RentAFriend could be interesting to try. There's nothing romantic involved--you'll be someone's purely platonic companion for a day or night out. You can also rent yourself out to teach cooking lessons, give tours of your town to new residents or give a psychic reading to someone in need of guidance. If you like meeting new people, or if you're looking for some quick extra money, it's free to set up a profile and start earning money.
Do you love weddings? If you're perfectly happy to be a bridesmaid but never a bride, offer your talents on Bridesmaid for Hire. If someone backs out of the wedding party, or the bride needs someone to whip the rest of the wedding party into shape, you'll be dressed up and ready to go.
Enjoy the Sharing Economy
Before you use one of these sites, make sure they have appropriate safeguards to protect you and your personal property. Also, make sure you report your extra income on both your state and federal income tax forms.