Basic plumbing skills
Know how to shut off a water line. Those knobs under your sink and behind the toilet? That’s your water shut off for that line. Got a toilet that’s about to overflow? Close the line in back quick enough and you won’t have to mop the floor. Or ruin your neighbors ceiling.
Know how to clear a clog. Know the difference between a sink plunger and toilet plunger. Sink plungers are those short deals and terrible for just about anything, their surface coverage is awful and they’re usually too shallow to push a serious clog. You want a flanged or accordion plunger for toilets. They make the best deal and do a lot do the work for you. A larger suction cup plunger, looks like the big boy version of the sink plunger, for sink drains.
For toilets, make a firm seal around the drain, push down once to clear the air out of the cup, make sure your seal is strong, then give several short, quick, full pumps like you’re performing CPR. This will usually clear a paper clog. Repeat if it doesn’t clear. It almost always will after a few tries. If your other drains back up when you’re pumping, you have a main clog. It’s time to call a plumber.
If your kitchen sink clogs, start by running hot water in the line with a little dawn soap. Most sink clogs are fat based, so hot water will help to loosen them by melting them a bit. Drain-o or other line clearer might work, but in my experience, if you don’t clear the clog, you now have a caustic chemical sitting in the line. The chemical burn scars on my right hand say that’s bad, and Tyler Durden agrees. If you haven’t cleared the clog, let it sit a bit and then get back to it. I’ve fought shower clogs for an hour before, but if I don’t see signs the clog is breaking up, it’s time to give up and get a professional in to snake it.
Also, when clearing a clog, don’t keep your mouth open! In fact, pucker your lips in. Trust me, speaking from experience.
Leaky faucet? Usually a 10¢ rubber washer, they only last about 10 years before they start to rot. Try to salvage the washer, bring it to your local hardware store, preferably plumbing supply, and ask someone to size it, otherwise bring the fixture. Toilet running nonstop? Adjust the chain or replace the flapper, again rubber parts only last about 10 years. A universal flapper will cost about $10. They usually just snap right in to place. Toilet base leaking? Replace the wax seal. They cost $5. Shower head clogged? Usually calcium or mold buildup. CLR for calcium, bleach for mold, and a scrub brush. Shower head joint leaking or spraying, remove it and apply plumbers tape, also called Teflon tape, to the threading, costs $1 a roll. In fact, apply it to any threaded plumbing joint you have to unscrew… It’s necessary for making watertight seals.
That’s like every basic water line in your house right there. If I could learn to do it as a teenage apprentice so many years ago, anyone can. If you’re not sure, Google has guides and visual breakdowns for every fixture and how to take them apart now. Just be careful not to strip threads or screws. Knowing how to service these parts could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars over the years.
Lastly, don’t flush spaghetti and meatballs down the toilet… Yes, that’s a thing.
The ability to survive outside / without a roof over one’s head.
I’m not talking surviving solely off the land type of outdoor survival, although that is an excellent set of skills to obtain.
- Learn how to set up shelter, or find shelter if a tent / tarp isn’t available
- Learn how to start a fire in multiple ways
- Learn basic hunting skills
- Learn how to sanitize / store drinking water
- Learn basic first aid
- Always remember the order of operations in a survival situation: Shelter, water, fire, food
I remember learning most of this when I was in scouts, even though I’ll admit I can’t say I remember most of it.
I definitely remember at summer camp once having to take a bunch of wood found within the forest and making a makeshift shelter and for one night having to sleep in it. All for the wilderness survival badge.
The skills you listed are definitely skills people should know just in case they are ever out in an area without cell signal. Although, really, everyone should know basic first aid since even just a little bit of first aid before a first responder comes can be the difference between life and death.
I’ll just use my phone and call someone.
“Specialization is for insects. A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.” – Heinlein
Learning things quickly.
It’s totally its own skill, and you can learn to learn faster. What skills are useful changes with time – the ones used in your career now might age like milk for reasons beyond your control.
Basic social skills. Let everyone talk and try not to disturb while they’re at it. Hear others point of view. I think that would solve a lot of problems.
A skill is too much to ask. I just want people to move out of the way when they get off the escalator so I don’t bump into their asses.
How to not be an asshole. If everyone mastered that, I think the world would be a great place.
Common sense
U mean rare sense
Basic cooking.
You don’t need to be Gordon Ramsey, but in a pinch, know how to make pasta, chilli and a few other things.
Is chilli considered basic? Spicy food is not that common where I live. For me the basics would be to know how to:
-Peel and cut veggies
-Boil stuff
-Fry eggs
But maybe it’s a cultural thing! I’m interested in knowing what you’re doing with your chilli peppers ;)
Basic chili recipe (people from texas can bite their tongue for five minutes one time):
- beans
- tomatoes
- onions
- peppers
A little bit of cumin and salt to taste and you actually don’t need anything else to get something that is recognizable as chili.
I add all sorts of other stuff, but that’s the basics.
Beans?!!
/s
🫘🤠🫘
People should really know how to research. Sure, almost everyone knows how to do a google search, but there are shockingly many people who can’t research, i.e view multiple sources including those that don’t align with your views.
You’d be surprised how many people don’t even know how to do a Google search.
A really good bullshit-o-meter.
So many issues with major media, corporate announcements, government announcements, and probably many other things can be solved with a good bullshit-o-meter.
What I really mean is critical thinking. Because there are vacuous ways to calibrate a bullshit-o-meter that lack logic entirely and tie one into some ideological goal. Then you can still claim to have a bullshit-o-meter but lack the ultimate goal of it, but it’s really not a helpful tool at that point. My original meaning is a true, logic-based bullshit-o-meter.
even a mediocre bs meter would work
Computer comprehension. You should have a basic understanding of what your pc is doing, web certificates, passwords, how to tell when youre being scammed, and how to protect your personal info. Knowledge doesnt need to be deep, just wide.
Despite what the term “digital natives,” I really feel this skill is slipping. Many of my peers woud probably get lapped by a boomer if they had to use an actual PC again
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I am knot tying this rope. I’ll leave that to someone who knows what they’re doing.
FTP. Seriously, it’s a life skill.
File transfer protocol?
Yes.
Self awareness
I wish I could upvote this more than once.
I wish responses like this would stay on Reddit.
