Cleaning, organising and pet grooming: How to turn your household habits into profit

Amid the busyness of life and increasing living costs, everyday Australians are finding innovative ways to get household jobs done – and to make money doing them. 

Airtasker, a platform where anyone can offer up their skills or post a task they need to complete, has observed a 46 per cent increase in user sign-ups from early 2022 to early 2023, according to their chief executive and founder, Tim Fung. 

Fung says those performing tasks via Airtasker are a mix of people using it as a side hustle to earn extra cash outside work hours and those who derive their income solely through Airtasker gigs – sometimes while they’re between jobs. 

Sydney resident Heisam Serhan joined Airtasker a few years ago when he lost his job due to the pandemic.

“I just decided to use my talents to see what I could do,” he says. Serhan had been working as a cable installer and had always been a bit of a handyman who is “naturally good with the tools”. 

Fung says “taskers” can be anyone from tradies looking to make extra cash on their drive home from work to parents seeking work that falls within school hours or retirees who only want to work sporadically. Airtasker customers, meanwhile, are generally people who “turn to Airtasker when they don’t have the time or skills to complete a certain task”. 

The most in-demand tasks right now, according to Airtasker, are handyperson jobs (average rate $298 per job), home cleaning (average rate $181 per job), gardening or mowing (average rate $201 per job) and furniture assembly (average rate $169 per job). 

In Serhan’s case, business is booming. He usually does five or six jobs a day – mostly involving installing or mounting TVs, pictures and mirrors.

“It’s been a great experience, and I enjoy it,” says Serhan. “I actually enjoy the work I’m doing at the moment. It’s way better than all the other work I’ve been doing for 20 years. 

“I’m my own boss, first of all, and I get to drive around everywhere and meet new people. And it’s just fun. I look forward to going to work, and every job’s a challenge … I can work whenever I want to work and [choose] when I want to wake up and sleep and go on holidays. I don’t have to ask anyone.”

Taskers bid on jobs, but that doesn’t mean they have to offer the cheapest rate. Customers weigh up their options based on ratings and reviews as well as the tasker’s quote, and taskers negotiate with customers to work out a fair price for each job. 

Airtasker Nikki Facchin’s story has some similarities with Serhan’s. After her catering business suffered a blow during the pandemic, she decided to try to monetise her obsession with decluttering and organising. 

“When I first started, I was really in a bad financial situation, and my home situation was really bad,” Facchin explains. “So … I just started doing on Airtasker what I knew how to do … I just took any job I could do because I was just so desperate to just not have to pay a bill on a credit card … I thought, ‘Well, what’s the worst that can happen – nobody picks me for a job? So what?’”

Facchin, who also runs a decluttering business called Waiting For an Angel, says within a couple of weeks, she had a two-week waiting list, and the work has not only saved her from destitution but is also deeply fulfilling. 

“I’ve been on there for three years now, and I’ve been smashing it. I love it,” she says. “I get a lot of satisfaction … Every house you go to, they’re almost in tears of gratitude. I get to meet new people all the time. I’ve actually made friends out of this … It’s opened up my world [and] I’m earning a wage where I’m not below the poverty line anymore.”

Customers, meanwhile, benefit from negotiating a flat rate for tasks big and small. Airtasker’s website lists countless tasks covering a wide range of areas – everything from cat care and gate installation to home theatre and plastering. 

Rates vary depending on the agreement made between tasker and the client, but for under $500, customers can have a full house removal or air-conditioning replacement performed, for example. For under $250, you could pay to have your swimming pool cleaned or for an arborist report. Under $100 could get you a spring clean for your bathroom or some small home repairs, while you could have your dog groomed or your roller shutter fixed for under $50. 

Facchin says her customers are generally busy professionals struggling to stay on top of the demands of domestic life. 

“[In] today’s lifestyle, everybody’s got at least one job,” she says. “Everybody’s trying to run a house … Do all the sports, do all the hobbies, and then keep their house perfect as well. It’s not possible.”

As far as who can join as a tasker, Fung says all you need is a skill and the valuable asset of time.

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