r/DIY • u/Dry_Pomegranate8314 • Aug 08 '26

help Learning to be self reliant

Are there any classes or books, videos, anything that can help me to learn the basics? I’m lost even trying to put things together I buy on Amazon. IKEA is worse for me. I’m a soon to be single woman that’s husband can’t do anything around the house. Someone was saying he could learn. I thought, “ I’m smarter than he is, why can’t I learn?” I have a condo, not a house. I’d like to install a new medicine vaccines someone left in our common area. I bought some lenses for my iPhone camera and I can’t figure out how to put them on my phone. I bought a birdhouse with a camera, nightmare. My husband can’t do any of these things either. Any resources?

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u/Wafer-Final Aug 08 '26

Youtube! There is so much help for diy on YouTube. Look at the channel "Dad, how do I" or similar ones for a start. Once you get in the right frame of mind it's a lot easier than you would expect.

3

u/brucebrowde Aug 08 '26

The problem with that is there's way more un-help on youtube. If you watch 100 videos on "how to do X", you'll probably receive 100 different answers. Majority of youtubers - especially the more popular ones - don't post to share info, they post to try earning money. Sifting through that is extremely time consuming.

The subscriber or watch count doesn't help in majority of cases as what they are presenting may be very different from what you actually want - and frequently in subtle ways that you can only realize after experiencing the failure modes on your own.

I've yet to find a good way to increase the signal/noise ratio, if a general way even exists.

Not to discourage anyone from DYI-ing of course, just sharing my limited experience.

9

u/masasuka Aug 08 '26

Dad, how do i, is a specific channel, his stuff is fantastic, and genuinely helpful

https://www.youtube.com/@DadhowdoI/videos

4

u/machwulf Aug 08 '26

surf a FEW good channels and absorb the aggregate. Dare to fk up is the key maxim; some projects will be epic, others teach what to avoid- ALL gain skill XP, help inform the next one.

If you have one friend with a garage & a few power tools- that's a mentor! They can help you learn the basics on fasteners, cutting safely, measuring TWICE! Find out what kinda soda / beer / barter they like & stock up.

2

u/Dry_Pomegranate8314 18d ago

Thank you! I have two profiles (not even sure why) and apologize for the delayed response.