30 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do Before Turning 30

Competence. Now in convenient book format

30 must-have life skills every capable adult should perfect before turning 30.

You’re old enough to own property and have a family, but can you safely open a bottle of champagne? Or change a flat tire? 30 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do Before Turning 30 provides idiot-proof instructions for mastering these and other essential, face-saving, and possibly life-saving skills.
You’ll learn how to...
1. wrap a present
2. start a successful fire in a fireplace, at a campsite, and in a barbecue
3. finish a piece of furniture
4. get a raise
5. order wine at a restaurant without getting stiffed
6. parallel park in three breathtakingly beautiful movements
7. dance a “slow dance” without looking like an idiot
8. use a full place setting properly, including chopsticks and Asian soup spoons
9. clean your place in under 45 minutes, when friends, relatives, or prospective lovers are coming by unexpectedly, and soon
10. hold your liquor
11. cure a hangover
12. do the Heimlich Maneuver
13. use a compass
14. change a flat
15. jump start a car
16. open a champagne bottle
17. send a drink to someone’s table
18. cook one “signature meal”
19. whistle with your fingers
20. take good pictures
21. fold a fitted sheet
22. remove common stains
23. sew a button
24. carve turkey, lasagna, and birthday cake
25. hold a baby
26. change a diaper
27. keep a plant alive for more than a year
28. make dogs and cats love you
29. help someone (an older or ill person, a woman you’re trying to impress, your mother) out of a car
30. write superior thank you notes

A competent twenty-something (though she can’t drive a stick shift), SIOBHAN ADCOCK has written for numerous sites and zines, including iVillage and Nerve, and was an editor at Anchor Books. She lives in New York City.