You have a friend who asks for a lot. Rides to the airport at 5am, twenty dollars they'll get back to you on, help moving every single time they move, your professional opinion for free because you happen to do the thing they need. And you keep saying yes, because saying no feels unfriendly, and each yes costs you a little more, and somewhere under the niceness a low resentment is building that the friendship can't see.
Here's the part that's easy to miss when you're annoyed: your friend probably isn't a villain. They ask because, somewhere along the way, they learned you always say yes. You taught them that. Every time you swallowed the irritation and drove to the airport, you reinforced the idea that you're available for this, so they kept asking. A boundary isn't punishment for that. It's just new information, delivered late.
The fear, of course, is that setting one makes you a bad friend. It's the opposite. The resentment you're quietly stockpiling is far more corrosive to a friendship than a clear, kind no could ever be, because resentment leaks. It comes out as coldness, as a slow pulling away the other person can feel but can't name. A boundary said out loud is cleaner than a grudge you never mention.
So say no to the specific ask, warmly, and without building a legal defense.
Not the fake unavailability:
ugh I'd totally help but I think I'm busy that weekend, let me check...
which is a lie you'll have to maintain and an opening for them to find another weekend. Try the honest version:
I can't take this one on, I'm pretty tapped out lately and need to protect my weekends. I hope the move goes smoothly though, and I'm around for a coffee after if you want.
It's a warm, clear no, and it doesn't pretend the problem is your calendar. You don't owe a reason beyond "I can't right now." The more you explain, the more threads you hand them to pull, and a simple boundary doesn't need a paragraph propping it up.
For the friend who asks constantly, you can name the pattern, gently, once. "I've noticed I'm the one you come to for tech help, and I love you, but I can't keep being on call for it. Happy to point you to someone." That's not cruel. It's honest, and it gives them a chance to adjust, which most decent friends will, because they didn't realize they were leaning so hard.
And brace for a flicker of pushback, because someone used to a yes will feel the no. That's normal, and it isn't proof you did something wrong. A friend who can only relate to you as a source of favors, who gets angry the moment you finally decline one, was running a service arrangement, not a friendship. The good ones absorb a kind no and stay.
You can love someone and still not be their unpaid assistant. Say the no warmly, and let the friendship be the kind that can hold it.