25 bank holiday projects

Become an antique dealer

You don’t have to be a fusty old man in a cardigan to make money out of antiques. Nor do you need an orange tan. Scour online listings and auctions for deals, don’t be too hasty and stick to things you know about (vintage hi-fi, say) then invest in things you’d buy for yourself (just don’t forget to sell it). Broken kit that can be easily fixed can be a quick earner.

Clear the clutter

Haven’t you heard? Decluttering your life is ‘the thing’ to do this year. Give your dust-gathering stuff away on Freecycle, and invest in some new minimalist kit – this new B&O telly hangs from the ceiling, leaving more room to fill with future clutter.

Move to the cloud

Your pictures are on Facebook, your music’s on Spotify, your videos are on YouTube… now it’s time to commit your hard drive to the cloud and be done with primitive local storage. You won’t thank us when your router blows up, but it’s still worth having a gander at our guide to the best free online cloud storage. And keeping a local backup, perhaps.

Build a back yard grill

Sure you can head down to Homebase and pick up a Jamie Oliver-branded barbecue… but you will collect zero man points. For the hairy-chested griller, the only proper outdoor cooking kit is home-built. Popular Mechanics’ 11-step backyard smoker requires a welding mask, a piano hinge and massive cojones.

Regress to your childhood

When we became men (or were said to), we failed to put away childish things. Which is brilliant, because now we’ve got jobs and can afford some of these supercharged toys. Now then, when’s our next pay day?