How Many Of These 20 “Basic Adult Life Skills” Do You Know How To Do?

Adulthood often involves a lot of learning that goes beyond what we were taught in school. From managing finances, cooking, and home maintenance to navigating the workforce, managing your personal life, and dealing with complex social situations — there’s so much we have to figure out along the way.

However, learning all these things are essential life skills that we usually end up using for the rest of our lives. Below is a list of “basic life skills” that almost every adult should know how to do, and I am curious if you are in the majority or the minority in knowing how to do them:

  1. 1

    Can you make pasta on the stove?
    A pot of boiling water with a fork lifting a portion of cooked spaghetti noodles

    2

    Can you cook eggs (any style counts)?
    Close-up of a carton of eggs arranged in an egg carton

    3

    Can you make rice on the stove?
    A black bowl filled with cooked, fluffy white rice

    4

    Can you bake something (easy or hard, it doesn’t matter)?
    Person holding freshly baked loaf of rustic bread

    5

    Can you cook a meal without following a recipe?
    A man in glasses, wearing an apron, tastes soup from a pot in a modern kitchen with various ingredients around him

    6

    Can you cook at least 10 different meals without following a recipe?
    A woman wearing a striped shirt smiles while cooking vegetables in a pan in a modern kitchen

    7

    Can you sew a button onto a shirt?
    Close-up of hands sewing a button onto a striped shirt with a needle and thread

    8

    Can you sew a basic hem to a pant?
    Close-up of hands using scissors to cut the hem of blue denim jeans on a table with sewing accessories

    9

    Can you destain clothes?
    A person holding a glass of red wine has spilled some on their white shirt

    10

    Can you properly fold a fitted sheet?
    A neatly folded white bedsheet placed on a light surface with a blurred green background

    11

    Can you properly iron your clothes?
    A person wearing a striped shirt is ironing a green garment on a patterned ironing board at home

    12

    Can you maintain a regular cleaning schedule for your entire home?
    A blue cleaning bucket holds a mop, spray bottles, and cleaning cloths. The bucket is placed on the floor of a modern living room with a grey sofa in the background

    13

    Can you measure out the square footage of a room?
    A tape measure fully extended on a white background, showing measurements in both inches and centimeters

    14

    Can you unclog a toilet?
    A modern toilet with a tank and bowl, shown against a plain white background

    15

    Can you figure out what you would need to do to turn off the water to your toilet or bathroom sink in the case of a plumbing emergency?
    A clean, modern bathroom with a toilet, toilet paper holder, and a shower curtain visible in the background

    16

    Can you turn off or restart an electrical breaker in your home?
    Person using a flashlight to examine electric circuit breakers

    17

    Can you wrap a gift (not just toss something into a gift bag)?
    A person with short hair wraps a gift at a table, surrounded by wrapping supplies and plants in the background

    18

    Can you stick to a grocery shopping list and not buy anything extra 99% of the time?
    A person is seen from behind, holding a phone with a shopping list while pushing a shopping cart in a grocery store aisle

    19

    Can you write a check to pay something (if debit cards or digital transfers weren’t an option)?
    A close-up of a person signing a check for $975 with a pen. The signature is partially visible

    20

    Can you correctly address an envelope?
    A sealed white business envelope with a U.S. postage stamp featuring the Statue of Liberty and the American flag in the top right corner

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *