Starter guide

Trash and Bin Cleaning

Scrub the gross bins nobody wants to touch. People pay well for it.

Around $40
Medium

Nobody wants to clean their trash can. It's genuinely disgusting, it smells in the summer, and every adult on your street has thought about it and then not done it. That's the business. The worse a job is, the less competition you have and the more people will pay to never think about it again.

Start for free

Do one bin free and let them smell the difference

This one sells itself, but only after somebody sees it.

Pick a neighbor with a rough looking bin. Ask to do it free. Clean it properly, inside and out, and put a deodorizer tab in the bottom.

Then ask them, and five more houses:

"I clean bins, inside and out, on trash day after pickup. That one on the corner was mine. It's [your price] a bin, or [monthly price] a month for both bins every month. Want yours done?"

The clean bin next to the dirty ones on the street is the best advertising you will ever have.

The plan

Your simple plan

  1. Work on collection day, right after pickup. Empty bin, easy job. Full bin, impossible job.
  2. Sell the monthly plan, not the single clean. One clean is a chore you did. Monthly is a business, and it's the same conversation for far more money.
  3. Do inside and out, then deodorize. The deodorizer is what they notice a week later, and it's what gets you rebooked.
  4. Never dump the dirty water down a storm drain. It goes on grass or gravel, away from the street. Some places have real rules about this, so check with a parent.
The gear

What you need, and what you can skip

A long brush and a strong cleaner do most of it.

Get these
  • A long handled scrub brush that reaches the bottom. Shop this
  • An enzyme or odor eliminating cleaner, which beats plain soap on trash smell. Shop this
  • Heavy rubber gloves, long cuff. Shop this
  • Safety glasses, because you will splash. Shop this
  • Trash can deodorizer tabs or pucks. Shop this
  • A hose nozzle with a jet setting. Shop this
Skip these for now
  • A pressure washer. A jet nozzle and a brush handles a bin, and a pressure washer is a much bigger purchase.
  • A truck mounted bin cleaning system. Those are real, they cost thousands, and they're a business you graduate into.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. We only list gear the guide actually calls for, and the skip list is there because most of it you do not need yet.

The lesson from the book

Andre's whole breakthrough was realizing that the jobs people avoid pay better than the jobs people like. He didn't win by being the most talented kid on the street. He won by being willing to do the part everyone else skipped.

There's a second half to it, though, and he learned that one the hard way too: charge properly for unpleasant work. If a job is gross, that's a reason your price goes up, not a reason to apologize for it.

The full program

Ready to build the whole thing?

The full Young Founder kit walks you through everything Andre and Sophie learned: how to price work people avoid, sell a monthly plan, and build steady income instead of one-off jobs. The book, the workbook, the videos, and more.

See what is inside the kit

Questions about this idea

What should a kid charge to walk a dog?

A kid walking dogs in their own neighborhood usually starts between $10 and $18 for a thirty minute walk. Professional walkers average about $21 for the same walk.

Read the answer

How much money does a kid need to start a business?

Less than almost anyone expects, and for a lot of these ideas the honest answer is nothing until somebody has already said yes to a price.

Read the answer

How does a kid find their first customer?

Ten people who already know them, one prepared sentence, and an easy way for each of them to say no.

Read the answer

What do I do when my kid wants to quit?

Find out whether this is not working or just not fun right now. Those look identical from outside and they need opposite responses.

Read the answer

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Window Washing

Nobody puts it on the list, and everybody notices once it is done. The before and after photo does the selling.

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Driveway Car Wash

Forty minutes, a bucket, and a customer who can see the problem from their front door.

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Young Founder

A program from Founder's Best Friend. Built for kids 8 to 18 who want something of their own.

Young Founder, 2026