The children have left home, the house is empty and you are left with far more space than you need. The sensible thing to do would be to sell up, move to a smaller house and put the spare cash in the bank.

But what if you don’t want to? Perhaps the property has been in the family for ages, perhaps you like entertaining a houseful at weekends, or maybe you don’t want to leave the garden you have so carefully created down the years.

Whatever your reasons for wanting to stay, you can cash in on doing so. There are myriad ways to make money from a property that is largely empty for at least some of the time.

OPEN A B&B

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Earlier this year, Heather and Ron Dakin decided to sell their stressful Manchester-based childcare company and wind down towards retirement. Their two older children, Simon, 36, and Kelly, 29, have left home, and their son Jake, 18, is about to.

Rather than sell the family home, a four-bedroom house in Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria, the couple decided to run a B&B business using their two spare bedrooms. “We were left with a nice big family house in an acre of grounds, and we were rattling about in it a bit,” says Heather, 55. “Our home is lovely, but it’s too big for us. We couldn’t stay here unless we used it as a business.”

The couple opened their B&B (www.stenkrith-house.co.uk) in April, and set up a tearoom selling home-baked cakes. Ron, 58, estimates the joint turnover for the past six months to have been £15,500, a sum that will grow next year when the Dakins open up Jake’s room as well.

“It’s not rocket science,” Heather says. “The only downside is that, during the ‘season’, you’re working seven days a week.” The couple plan to concentrate on promoting the recording studio they have created in their garage (initially built to help Jake, who is in a band, save money on studio fees). Heather has also started a business creating bed headboards, inspired by those she made for the B&B.

TAKE IN A LODGER

Having guests to stay in your house doesn’t have to be as arduous as running a full-time business. Under the government’s Rent a Room scheme, you can receive up to £4,250 a year tax-free if you take in a lodger.

Ceri and Rosemary Jones, who live in Teddington, southwest London, did just that. After their youngest son, Graham, 24, got a job and moved out earlier this year, they rented a room to a businessman from Exeter, who uses their house as his London base during the week, paying about £70 a week for the privilege.

The couple found him through www.mondaytofriday.com, a website that matches people with rooms with those needing accommodation during the working week. “It works really well, because we have the room back at weekends,” says Ceri, 59.

“It’s an enormous benefit not having to pay tax on letting out a room,” says Judy Niner, the website’s founder. “And you get your privacy back. Somebody isn’t coming in, calling this their home and putting their own pictures on the wall if they’re moving in for four nights a week.”

RENT IT AS A FILM SET

There are other, more unusual ways to make money from spare space. Renting out a home as a location for films and photographic work can pay, although this can be problematic: earnings can fluctuate wildly, and filming involves disruption, some wear and tear, and having your house taken over. Sometimes, you may even need to move out for a while.

Everything will always be put back to how it was initially, however, and you can earn quite a lot: anything between £500 and £1,500 a day for a still shoot, and as much as £3,500 a day for film work, according to Kate Rowe-Ham, founder of the location company Lavish Locations.

HOST EVENTS

Or why not use your house as a venue for one-day events? Jane Kerr, 60, is a potter who works from home at the five-bedroom house she and her husband, Mark, 60, own in North Yorkshire. Now their three children have left home, she has more available space and a more flexible schedule, but is unwilling to sell up because her studio is based at the house.

Instead, she is starting to run creative workshops, kicking off next month with a one-day course in ceramic jewellery. She will charge £80 per person for the day, which includes materials and lunch. Kerr, who is alone in the house during the day, is making use of the available space by running the workshops from her kitchen and dining room.

“The money will go into a decorating fund for the house,” she says. Her sister, Sarah Jarrett, 56, a Bristol-based bookbinder, has done the same thing at her six-bedroom family home now her children have flown the nest.

She runs one-day workshops in her field for eight people at a time, and charges £30 for the day, including lunch. “It’s a great little additional money-spinner,” she says.

Save money on agents’ fees, make money from the house and have space for when the children come and stay. What could be better?

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