I’ve been living on my own since July and have successfully kept myself alive since then. Thankfully I’ve had two great resources: Google and my parents. I haven’t been keeping an extensive list, but here are just a few things I’ve Googled or called my parents and asked about since moving out.

Googled

Can aluminum foil catch fire in the oven?

It was my first time baking something in the oven that needed to be covered with foil and just wanted to double-check to make sure it wouldn’t catch on fire.

Can you eat the casings on sausages?

I usually take the casings off Italian sausages before cooking them, but this last time I forgot until I had taken them out of the air fryer.

Toilet keeps running?

The toilet in my main bathroom was running on its own after having been flushed, and I didn’t know enough about toilets to go poking around in the tank to figure out the problem. I did Google what could be causing it, but I ended up asking my dad to take a look at it.

How long can you use milk past its expiration date?

I only use milk for my tea in the morning, and even though I buy a quart-size bottle of milk, I don’t go through it very quickly. I need like an elementary school milk carton-size of milk for my tea because the quart is sometimes too big.

Called Home About

How do I set the air conditioning again?

I know that the number you set it to is the temperature, but for some reason to me, it just seems arbitrary. My dad had to explain the central air to me a handful of times, and I’m still not 100% sure if I could explain to someone how to set the thermostat.

The washer gave me an error message—what do I do?

Apparently, my washer didn’t like that I tried washing my sheets and all of my towels at once and gave me an error message before the spin cycle. I panicked and called my mom and then after doing some Googling, I figured out that I had to wash them separately. So that meant taking the damp sheets out of the washer, putting them in the sink, and then washing the towels by themselves.

Can you eat the casings on sausages?

As you can see above, I had already Googled this, and I couldn’t get a definite answer so I called my mom to ask.

How do I wash X?

My mom did my laundry when I lived at home, so now that I’m on my own, there are a few pieces of clothing that I have—work-related clothes—that I wasn’t quite sure how to wash. This included me texting my mom a picture of the article of clothing and asking “How do you wash this???”

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What are some weird things you’ve had to Google or call someone about when you’ve lived on your own?