Sometimes it’s better to rent something rather than buy if you only need it on a short-term basis, such as a home before you can commit to a mortgage or a car while you’re on vacation. But there’s a whole host of less conventional things that you can temporarily hire too. From fake wedding cakes to grandmas to fine jewellery, click or scroll through a list of bizarre things you can rent.

Why buy eggs when you can hire hens to produce them in your very own garden? Companies such as Rent The Chicken in the US and Hen Pals in the UK, allow people to hire a coop and a couple of chickens for a set period of time. Each hen can provide five to six eggs a week, but there are other perks too. Hens have natural nurturing powers, as they fertilise the garden and eat unwanted insects, as well as give companionship. Rent The Chicken's standard rental package costs around $550 (£395) for two chickens.

From renting chickens to hiring goats. Touted as being cost-effective, eco-friendly and adorable alternatives to traditional weed killers, goats will quite happily chow down on swathes of pesky plants that farmers typically want rid of, including thistles, poison oak and poison ivy. California-based company RentAGoat rents out its herds in packs of 450 animals, and they’re capable of clearing an entire acre in just one day so renters have to have a large amount of land.

One UK-based company allows you to rent your own cherry tree on an annual basis so you can watch it blossom throughout the year and enjoy the literal fruits of your investment when harvest season comes around. Regular newsletter updates are also included so you can keep an eye on your cherries from home. It costs £50 ($70) a year to rent a single tree, and you can pluck as many cherries from your tree as you can carry. However, it's popular and the service has already run out of trees for 2021.

The real cherry on the cake of any day of nuptials is the perfect wedding cake, but prices for bespoke bakes to feed your guests can easily rocket into the thousands. California-based Mary’s Cake Design has a solution: fake cakes that wedding parties can rent. The Styrofoam cakes are covered in fondant and sugar flowers, making them indistinguishable from the real thing – as long as nobody takes a bite. The cakes even come with a marked place where the bride and groom can cut out a slither of real cake for photo purposes. The faux cake is then taken to the kitchen and guests are served slices of a sheet cake and are none the wiser. Prices start at $200 (£140) per cake.

Another key element of the big day is the bridesmaids, but friends and family aren’t always up for the long list of tasks that come with the role. Through Bridesmaid For Hire, brides-to-be can hire women to help them throughout the wedding planning process and on the day itself, including advice on handling rowdy guests to “wedding vent sessions” for when you just can’t stop talking about your special day.

Professional mourners, or moirologists, have been in business since ancient times, when having a large funeral gathering was considered an important status symbol. Those working as professional mourners may cry quietly at services, say kind words about the deceased or comfort guests.

Constantly buying new outfits for big occasions can get expensive, and the environmental impact of fast fashion has also become well documented in recent years. Clothing rental sites aim to tackle both these issues together by offering items for hire at a fraction of their retail price, and plenty of celebrities are weighing in on the trend. Last year famous faces including actor Thandiwe Newton, author Jasmine Hemsley and model Natalia Vodianova (pictured) partnered with rental site HURR to rent off their own clothes for charity. Prices for renting dresses, tops and trousers through the site start at £20 ($28).

Similar sites also let you rent top-end handbags for when you want to impress, spanning all the big names in luxury fashion, from Dior and Louis Vuitton to Gucci and Bvlgari. The cheapest bag currently listed on HURR can be hired from just £11 ($15), while the priciest is this yellow Chanel bag with a rental price of £278 ($387). If you opted to buy the same bag outright it would set you back £2,000 ($2.8k).

And to complete the look, some of the world’s best-known jewellery brands are available for hire through rental sites. Flont is one such company and users choose a subscription plan ranging from a Demi Membership costing $59 (£42) per month, allowing them to borrow up to $1,500 (£1.1k) worth of jewels at a time, up to $379 (£272) a month, which gives subscribers access to jewellery worth up to $8,000 (£5.7k). Hermès, Cartier, Gucci and Tiffany & Co. are among the designer brands on offer.

Although not applicable during the coronavirus pandemic, in normal times numbers are key at events such as protests, performances and political rallies. That’s where Crowds on Demand comes in, providing actors to fill the gaps for a pre-arranged time and fee. Crowds can also be a cheap alternative to expensive marketing. For example, one tech company that didn’t want to pay advertising fees at a conference in San Francisco decided instead to hire Crowds on Demand actors to hold signs featuring the company logo at the airport where attendees would be landing.

From brand new tech releases to theatre tickets, there’s a whole host of events that require you to stand in line, which can be time-consuming and dull – unless you hire somebody to do it for you. Same Ole Line Dudes is a New York-based company that provides professional line sitters who will queue on your behalf, letting you know when they’re almost at the front so you can take their place. Prices start at $45 (£30) for a wait time of two hours (the minimum spend) and stretch up to $485 (£340) for a full 24 hours. The company also offers a $50 (£35) restaurant wait service, where they put your name down at a restaurant and let you know what the wait time will be.

Pilgrimages to places of religious significance are a key part of a number of belief systems, but illness, a hectic lifestyle and perhaps a little laziness can get in the way of people making the typically long journeys. Portuguese computer expert Carlos Gil decided to help those people to fulfil their pilgrimage pledges by walking for them – for a price. In 2006 it was reported that Gil was charging $2,500 (£1.8k) to walk the 100-mile route from his home in Cascais, Lisbon to the shrine to the Virgin Mary at Fatima in central Portugal which took around a week. The keen walker was taking two trips a year, and stressed that he wasn’t making a profit – the fee only covered expenses and he enjoyed helping others to carry out their religious duties.

If you’re planning on taking a big trip – rather than paying someone else to do it for you – you’ll likely need luggage, and a good set of suitcases can quickly get expensive. Rental sites such as RentLuggage.com have a whole array of duffle bags, hiking rucksacks and travel trollies that you can hire for short periods if you’d rather not commit to buying your own bags. The cost of renting a suitcase starts at around $30 (£22) and varies depending on the length of your trip.

Rent-a-Grandma was the brainchild of Todd Pliss, who appeared on the TV show Shark Tank in 2012. Having tutored up-and-coming stars including the Jonas brothers, Pliss heard complaints from parents who were struggling to find reliable childcare and so decided to start a business that would pair experienced grandma figures with busy families. Pliss has since launched GrandmaTutors.com, which offers families mature tutors who might also bake the odd cookie or two from time to time.

You may think it is only the ultra-wealthy who can afford fine art, but art rental is an up-and-coming industry that makes masterpieces accessible to the everyday person. Curina is a New York-based online platform that enables art lovers across America to hire original canvases and installations for their homes. Subscription plans range from $38 to $148 (£27-£106) per month. Each user “borrows” a painting for a minimum of three months and can then trade it in when their time is up.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, movie theatres were suddenly rendered redundant as stay-at-home orders came into force. Businesses quickly had to pivot and due to the restrictions in South Korea cinema chain CGV was only allowed to have 50% capacity in its screens. And so the chain decided to rent out its auditoriums to gamers for the ultimate big screen gaming experience. Called Azit-X after 'azit', the Korean word for hideout, in the daytime up to four gamers could pay to play in the 200-seat screening room with surround-sound speakers for two hours for $90 (£65), with prices increasing to $135 (£97) in the evening. Gamers had to bring their own consoles, games and controllers with them.

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Believe it or not, you can hire your own group of paparazzi to turn up at events to give it that celebrity feel. UK company Hire Paparazzi sends entire crews of photographers to snap special occasions, and prices start at £150 ($209) for a single paparazzi person to make an appearance.

Hosting a big party comes with the responsibility of making sure your guests get home safely, and so Canadian company Alco Prevention leases out breathalyzers to check how much everybody has had to drink. The price of hiring one machine costs CA$545 (US$430/£309) and the company recommends the devices for use at everything from Christmas dinners and wine tastings to golf tournaments and corporate parties.

As this round-up goes to show, you can rent pretty much anything if you know where to look. French website Zilok is the world’s biggest peer-to-peer renting platform, and it allows users to rent everything from bicycles and strollers to vacuum cleaners and tuxedos. If something is in demand, chances are there’s somebody willing to loan theirs out for a profit. 

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