Another day chasing my tail as a handyman in north jersey

North Jersey winters got me driving 2 hours between jobs today, spent $80 on DeWalt blades just to cut through some rotted joists on a 1950s ranch house that shoulda been condemned. Me and the apprentice showed up for a simple shelf install but the homeowner kept adding crap like 'fix the squeaky floor while you're here' and 'patch that drywall hole too,' turning a 2-hour gig into 8. Saw a similar rant in the Handyman Nation Facebook group last week, everyone's dealing with scope creep killing their day. By noon we're starving, no time for lunch, and the customer's yapping about how her neighbor got it done cheaper with some TaskRabbit hack. Finally wrapped at 7pm, but now I'm pissed because I underquoted the add-ons and only cleared $120 after materials. Tommy Mello talks about setting boundaries on his Instagram, but damn it's hard when you're solo. FML, who's got tips for shutting down the endless requests?

Finally had a week where I stuck to the quote and sent the extras as change orders. Made an extra $500 on what started as a basic door hang.

Quote everything in writing first, even the 'while you're here' stuff. Use a simple app like Jobber to snap pics and add line items.

Customer calls at 6am: 'My cat knocked over the shelf you just fixed.' Meanwhile I'm still in bed covered in sawdust.

SharkBite fittings for plumbing side gigs? Nah, stick to soldering if you can. Those push-fits fail too often on handyman jobs.

Document EVERY change with photos and texts. Had a client try to stiff me on $300 add-ons last month, but my trail shut that down quick.

Same BS every day, these homeowners think we're magicians with unlimited time.

Man, I feel that. Scope creep ate my whole afternoon yesterday on a fence repair that turned into full yard cleanup.

Us handymen are basically therapists half the time, listening to their life stories while patching the third bedroom.

This is why I block out buffer time now. No more back-to-back jobs.

Don't touch the drywall without a signed add-on. Seen too many 'quick patches' turn into lawsuits.

How do you even quote for unknown add-ons like that?

Insurance companies are loving this chaos, claims through the roof from half-assed handyman work.

PE firms buying up handyman services? Next thing you know, we'll all be employees with quotas and no say.

Proud of my setup: I turned down three scope-creep jobs last week and booked two full-price ones instead. Boundaries pay off.

TaskRabbit is killing us all. Undercutting prices and leaving crap work for real handymen to fix.

Jersey traffic on top of it? Brutal. Hang in there, brother, better days ahead.