I Built a Sidebar Remover Because I Was Tired of Browser Clutter

Sometimes the best project ideas come from a problem that annoys you every single day

For me it was browser clutter

I wanted a cleaner browsing experience without unnecessary sidebars and endless scrollbars taking up space on my screen

Instead of complaining about it forever like a perfectly normal internet user I decided to build something that could fix the problem

That is how I created Sidebar Remover

It Started With My Own Problem

When you spend a lot of time working in a browser small annoyances become surprisingly frustrating

Unnecessary sidebars take up screen space while scrollbars can add visual clutter to an interface

Neither problem sounds particularly important on its own

But when you encounter them repeatedly while working the experience becomes irritating

I wanted a cleaner screen without having to deal with those distractions

The simplest solution was to build a browser extension that could remove the elements I did not want to see

Rather than waiting for someone else to build it I decided to create my own solution

Why Not Make It Open Source

Once I had a solution for my own problem I had another decision to make

I could keep it to myself or make it available to other people who might be experiencing the same annoyance

I chose open source

The idea was simple: if someone else wanted a cleaner browsing experience they could use the extension too

Open source also gives other developers an opportunity to inspect the project and understand how it works

I did not want to turn a small utility into some unnecessarily complicated product with subscriptions and premium tiers

I just wanted to build something useful and make it accessible

You can check out the project here: Sidebar Remover on GitHub Pages

The Business Model Is Basically Me Hoping Someone Donates

Here comes the funniest part

I added a simple donate button

That is the entire monetization strategy

No complicated pricing plans no premium features and no elaborate sales funnel

Just an open source project and a small button that essentially says if this helped you and you feel like supporting the developer you can buy me a coffee

Will someone actually donate?

I have absolutely no idea

Maybe someone will find the extension useful enough to support it

Maybe everyone will download it enjoy the cleaner screen and disappear into the internet forever

That is the risk of asking strangers on the internet for voluntary donations

Still I figured there was no harm in trying

If someone benefits from the tool and decides to support its development that would be a nice bonus

If nobody donates at least I still have a solution to the problem that annoyed me in the first place

Why Small Projects Matter

Not every software project needs to become a massive startup

Sometimes a small tool that solves one specific problem is worth building simply because the problem exists

Projects like Sidebar Remover also give me practical experience with development distribution and figuring out what users actually need

They remind me that building software does not always require a complicated business plan before writing the first line of code

You can start with a problem build a solution and share it with people who might find it useful

You can always explore monetization later if the project attracts enough interest

Try Sidebar Remover

Sidebar Remover is available online for people who want to try a cleaner browsing experience

You can access the project here: Sidebar Remover

I also share other experiments and lessons from building software on my build in public journey

The whole idea started because something on my screen annoyed me

I built a solution made it open source and added a donate button just in case somebody on the internet feels generous

That is the project

Now we wait for the donation notification that may or may not arrive