5 side hustles that can make you hundreds a month with only a few hours of work and no up-front costs

• Jen Glantz is an entrepreneur who has tried various side hustles to pass time in the winter months.
• She's made $500 this season selling her stuff on platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Poshmark.
• Glantz suggests using skills you already have to organize someone's home or tutor local students.

When the weather gets cold, I'm less eager to leave the house and more tempted to sit on the couch and be lazy. But as a full-time entrepreneur whose income varies drastically month to month, I feel guilty when I'm not making money during my free time.

For the past few years, I've tried out a handful of different winter side hustles that not only generate extra cash but also don't require me to spend time outdoors. Plus, many of these extra gigs can be done on the weekends, so they don't disrupt the flow of my work schedule.

If you want to make extra cash during the winter months, here are five side hustles that I've tried over the years that don't require much experience to get started doing.

1. Selling my stuff 

Each November, I sort through every item in my apartment, from furniture to kitchen appliances, clothing, and electronics, and take inventory on what I want to sell. I then take multiple pictures of each item to capture every angle, write a description of the item including all the relevant details, and set a listing price based on its condition.

After that, I use resale platforms like Poshmark, which is great for clothing, or Facebook Marketplace, which is better for furniture and miscellaneous items, to list the items. I often put the same items on both platforms to double the exposure and increase the potential of a sale.

While this side hustle is free to start, it requires a lot of time. On the weekend, I spend at least an hour snapping photos of items, writing descriptions, answering inquiries, and shipping products that have sold.

In the past three months, I've made more than $500 selling my unused stuff. I've made the most money on furniture items, such as a desk and two chairs. Depending on the platform you use, you might have to pay a fee per sale. Poshmark charges a flat commission of $3 for sales under $15 and a 20% commission for sales over $15. Facebook Marketplace doesn't charge anything when you make a sale.

2. Being a personal organizer 

A few years ago, a woman in my neighborhood said on a community message board that she needed help organizing items in her apartment. I reached out and offered to help her store her holiday decorations, clean out her closet, and handle clutter around her house. She paid me $175 for four hours of work. I didn't have a professional background in organizing, but it's something I enjoy doing and figured that if I could help her, there must be other people out there who would pay me to do this.

I posted flyers at local restaurants and coffee shops and told neighbors I was offering this service. I set an hourly rate between $75 and $100, depending on the size of the space. I was able to book four clients during one winter season, earning a total of around $500. I did this in 2019 but decided to stop in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Most people hired me because they needed an extra pair of hands and someone to do their dirty work for them, like take bags of clothes to donation bins, pack up decorations, or sort through piles of unopened mail.

The only investment I made in this side hustle was printing out flyers, but if I wanted to take it to the next level, I could've built a website using a simple platform like Squarespace or Wix, paid for ads on social-media platforms or in local newspapers, and even offered a referral fee to past clients or neighbors who brought me business.

3. Tutoring local students 

When I moved to New York City from Florida 10 years ago, I was so shocked by the cold weather that I hardly went outside. I wanted to spend my time wisely, so I started offering tutoring services to local students. Because I didn't have a teaching degree and had never tutored, I offered to tutor students and help them write their college essays since I had a creative-writing degree and was working as a full-time copywriter.

I started by asking parents of high-school students in my building whether their teenagers needed help with this. I charged $100 for two one-hour sessions to help them write or edit their essays. I didn't do any other marketing for this side hustle since after I booked my first client, I was able to book five other people that year just through referrals. I stopped doing this because I didn't enjoy it that much.

If I wanted to earn more money with this side hustle, I could've created a profile on tutoring websites like Tutor.com and Wyzant to list my services and rates and have past clients leave testimonials.

The more experience you have with a skill, like a degree in the topic, a teaching background, or a job where you use that skill, the more tutoring jobs you might pick up. In my case, I noticed that when I was able to make one client happy, referrals could've been endless, which is a zero-cost way to market this side hustle.

4. Pet sitting 

Before I got my own dog, I wanted to find a way to spend quality time with pets while earning money. I started doing pet sitting on the weekends during winter months for people who were going on vacation. I didn't need any qualifications for this side hustle, and a lot of people hired me after chatting with me and learning that I had been around pets my whole life. I charged $50 a day and would often pet-sit for two to three days at a time, usually keeping the pet in my apartment.

While this job did require going outside if I was pet-sitting a dog, it was worthwhile since it was easy otherwise.

I was able to find clients by posting my services on social media, telling neighbors that I offered this, and having friends spread the word. I stopped doing this once I met my partner and we started traveling more in the winter season together. If I wanted to earn more money with this side hustle — and even do it year-round — I would create a profile on platforms like Wag or Rover.

5. Testing out products or websites 

On the weekends when I'm sitting on the couch and binge-watching TV shows, I'll make extra cash by testing out products or websites, providing feedback, and taking surveys. I find these jobs using platforms like Survey Junkie, Testerup, and BetaTesting. Based on your background, you can be chosen to provide user feedback to brands or companies based on their products, apps, or websites.

While payment for these jobs can be quite low, anywhere from receiving a product for free to getting paid $10 or more, I find it worthwhile, especially on cold winter weekends when there's nothing else to do.