Browse
Kind things that cost nothing
No money at all. Attention, a few minutes, and occasionally the willingness to say one slightly awkward sentence. Most of the best things on this site are in here, which is not an accident — money is rarely the scarce ingredient.
Showing 91–120 of 275 ideas
Ask again the person who always says no
People who decline every invitation are usually not uninterested. Often they are waiting to be asked a fourth time.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Notice the deadline someone is drowning in
People rarely ask for help at work because asking reads as not coping. Offering removes the admission.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Return the thing you have had for two years
Everybody is holding something borrowed and mildly embarrassing. Giving it back is easier than the story you have built around it.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Say the spare room is available before they need it
People leaving bad situations often have nowhere to go for two nights, and cannot bring themselves to ask.
5 minutesFreeA friend1 person did this
Not rated yet
Correct your own mistake where you made it
Misinformation spreads further than corrections. Correcting yourself in the original place is the only version that works.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Find out who quietly fixed the thing
Something broke, then it didn't. Somebody did that, usually out of hours, and nobody has said anything to them.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Scan the box of photographs
Boxes of prints are one house fire or one house clearance from being gone. Scanning them takes an afternoon.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Offer to be the one who tells everyone
After a diagnosis or a death, repeating the news to each person in turn is its own exhausting job.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Let the car out
Someone has been waiting at that junction for four minutes. It costs you eight seconds and they remember it.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Notice the teenager who is doing the caring
Hundreds of thousands of children care for a parent or sibling, and most are invisible to their school and neighbors.
OngoingFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Be the person who holds a spare key
Almost nobody has a local key-holder any more, which turns a lost key into a locksmith call and a few hundred pounds.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Hand in the thing you found, properly
A dropped wallet or phone handed to the right place is the difference between a bad afternoon and a ruined month.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Sit in the waiting room with someone
Waiting rooms are where people rehearse the worst version of the news. Company changes the hour entirely.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Do the garden of a house that has stopped managing it
An overgrown garden is usually a signal — illness, age, or a household with no spare capacity at all.
An afternoonFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Ring at the same time every week
A call that arrives predictably becomes something to look forward to. A random one is just a call.
OngoingFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Send the message that needs no reply
People in crisis stop answering because every message is a task. One that closes itself is a gift.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Answer the question that has been sitting unanswered
Someone asked in a channel two days ago and nobody replied. The silence is worse than a no.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Invite the child everyone stops inviting
Parents of disabled children describe the birthday party invitations drying up as the loneliest part.
5 minutesFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Write down the thing only you know
Every job has undocumented knowledge living in one head. Writing it down is a gift to a person you will never meet.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Fill in the benefits form with them
Carer's and disability forms run to dozens of pages and are refused on technicalities. Help with one is worth real money.
An afternoonFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Reply to the post with nothing under it
Posting something you made and getting silence is worse than not posting. One reply changes the whole experience.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Visit the resident nobody comes for
Every care home has people who receive no visitors at all. Staff know exactly who they are.
OngoingFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Do the bins for the house where it is getting hard
Wheeling a heavy bin down an icy path is one of the small tasks that quietly becomes dangerous with age.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Review the tradesperson who did it properly
For a small trade, online reviews are most of the marketing budget. One honest paragraph is worth real money to them.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Take back two trolleys instead of one
Collecting trolleys in the rain is somebody's whole shift. Two at a time halves a specific, miserable job.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Fix the wrong thing on the map
Wrong opening hours send someone across town for nothing. Anyone can correct them and almost nobody does.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Learn the name of whoever cleans your office
They are in the building every day and structurally invisible, often working before anyone arrives or after everyone leaves.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Take the paperwork pile away for an afternoon
There is a pile of unopened post in most overwhelmed households, and it grows more frightening the longer it sits.
An afternoonFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet
Stand up before anyone has to ask
Asking for a seat means announcing a pregnancy, an illness or a disability to a carriage of strangers.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Talk to the person, not over them
People who are ill or disabled are routinely discussed in the third person while sitting in the room.
5 minutesFreeA caregiver
Not rated yet