30 Skills to Know Before You're 30

There's a right way, and a wrong way.

It's easier than it looks! Learn how and you'll be able to organize your stuff in no time.

This is one of those adult skills that's really helpful to know: here's your complete guide.

Save some dough by taking care of loose or missing buttons yourself; there’s no need to pay the dry cleaner to put them back on for you. All you need is a sewing kit and five minutes of concentration to do it RIGHT, so they’ll stay put and work well. And if you think you already know how to do this, you might want to read up on it anyway, unless you already know about the toothpick trick, and the proper direction to stitch your buttons… ThreadButtonNeedleScissors 1.

Common problems with simple solutions.

A nice big piece of art can hide a world of trouble on the wall behind it — and a few of my pieces did until I recently discovered how little effort it took to repair those minor accidents. I’m never really sure what I’ll get when I start working on the walls in my home—might be plaster, might be drywall, might be a layer of each— so my first (and let’s be honest, second) attempt at trying to put a screw in the wall didn’t go so well.

It’s a fact of life that things tend to get dry and crackly in the winter: your skin, your lips, even your wooden furniture. And if you think your apartment feels like a dry, cold, relatively inhospitable place at this time of year, chances are your furniture agrees.

A nice big piece of art can hide a world of trouble on the wall behind it — and a few of my pieces did until I recently discovered how little effort it took to repair those minor accidents. I’m never really sure what I’ll get when I start working on the walls in my home—might be plaster, might be drywall, might be a layer of each— so my first (and let’s be honest, second) attempt at trying to put a screw in the wall didn’t go so well.

The blinds in my room? Sure, I hung them. The shelves in the kitchen? Of course I put those up. The gallery wall in the hallway? Yes, that was definitely my doing.(Lies!)My dad thinks I did all of this handiwork with the power drill he bought me, but I can’t bear to tell him that I actually have no idea how to use the thing. I’ve been hiring people for years to hang things in my apartment while the power drill collects dust somewhere under my bed.

This is the easiest chore ever to cross off your list.

Hair, soap scum, and mineral build-up are all bathroom realities, and at some point in your life, you’ll have to ask yourself, “How do I unclog my bathtub? How do I clear my shower drain? How do I keep them from getting clogged in the first place?!?” These ten methods — listed in order of increasing intensity, from “Keeping Things Clear” to “Renting Power Equipment” — will keep your bathtub and shower truly clean, inside and out.

We definitely just learned a few new things.

Here's the trick to pro-level results.

This easy project adds both style and function, with very little effort.