Wanting to Become More Handy/Practical

[Kiwi Mustache]

My father never taught me things like how to service/maintain a car. How to fix broken things around the house. How to build a fence, drive a manual car, etc.

I really want to be one of those guys that knows how to do this stuff. I just did a woodworking course at night school and found it fun and useful.

How do I learn more about doing these things? Books and Youtube or finding strangers that know about it and just asking them?

[AZDude]

All of the above. And of course, not being afraid to try to do it yourself, knowing it might not work out the first time you try. Most people learn by doing.

[bogart]

I had good luck taking some auto mechanics classes through a local community college.

Should work for carpentry (etc.) too; another option is to volunteer with an organization like Habitat for Humanity.  When I was able to do so (volunteer) on weekdays, I found that that was when the "skilled" volunteers (e.g. retired tradesmen) went in and did a lot of work that required, well, skills (as opposed to fairly unskilled tasks such as "wield hammer" or "paint" on which large volunteer squads are often deployed on weekends).  They were typically happy to have a willing helper interested in learning what they did and why. 

[ketchup]

1. Be an enthusiastic ignorant beginner.  Research, research, research.  Jump in with both feet.
2. Become a disillusioned learner after you realize it's harder than you thought.
3. Become capable but cautious as you figure shit out.
4. Become a peak performer and kick serious ass.  Now you're "that guy that's really good at x."

Applies to most things I've found.  Basically figure it out as you and try not to get too frustrated as you learn.

[bobechs]

Take everything you own apart and mix up all the disassembled parts.  Then put it all together again.

If all the stuff still works you are a natural and don't need any coaching.

If not, you have learned several valuable life lessons.  Plus you will soon have the essential stuff all new, so repairs will not be required in the immediate future.

[Retired To Win]

My father never taught me things like how to service/maintain a car. How to fix broken things around the house. How to build a fence, drive a manual car, etc.

I really want to be one of those guys that knows how to do this stuff. I just did a woodworking course at night school and found it fun and useful.

How do I learn more about doing these things? Books and Youtube or finding strangers that know about it and just asking them?

I learned by doing, and by assisting /gadflying contractors that came to do work on my place.  I've ended up tackling projects such as installing wood siding, putting in a laminate floor, laying down a wood parquet floor, building a fence, doing a hanging ceiling, setting up a bath sink and its plumbing, and even converting an outside deck into an enclosed fully finished patio room.  One step at a time.  Plenty of mistakes.  But eventually I got there.

As the saying goes: just do it.

Good luck.

[GuitarStv]

+1 to learn by doing.  Just expect that the doing will either take you much longer than it would an experienced person, or that you will do a worse job.  (Rarely both.)

[2ndTimer]

My way of teaching myself to be more handy is to learn first on cheap stuff.  I wasn't terribly concerned about failure when I ordered a $20 kit and refoamed my yard sale speakers.  The knowledge that I had them to practice on gave me the courage to spend $40 on fancy speakers from Goodwill.  The knowledge that I made the new speakers work is giving me the courage to buy a can of Deoxit and clean the potentiometers in my yard sale receiver.  The confidence that I am beginning to understand the workings of  my audio system means that I can talk to people in the field and ask questions knowing that I may sound stupid but I won't sound REALLY stupid. 

Final tip:  Whenever I talk to somebody about my audio system, the last question I ask is, "Where would you advise somebody like me to go next?"  I have gotten several good tips for books and websites that way.

[trobertson79]

Learn by doing with youtube in front of you (if you can't assist an expert).  E.g. the other day garbage disposal stopped working.  Youtube showed me what to do.

[bobechs]

Learn by doing with youtube in front of you (if you can't assist an expert).  E.g. the other day garbage disposal stopped working.  Youtube showed me what to do.

Throw stuff in the can?  Must have been a very short video, but I'm sure the camera was jumping around a great deal, so there's that...

[zolotiyeruki]

All of the above. And of course, not being afraid to try to do it yourself, knowing it might not work out the first time you try. Most people learn by doing.

First post nailed it.

The reality is that you're not likely to make things worse, and if you dig yourself into a hole, you can always call an expert.  There are a few exceptions, especially when working on cars, but if you follow the instructions, you'll be fine.  And there's no shame in trying something a second/third/etc time in order to get it right.

For example, I learning how to tape/mud the gaps in the drywall in our mudroom. The first couple times it looked awful.  The third time it looked alright, and after the fourth time, it was good enough to sand and paint.  And all it cost me was a few hours of time and a gallon of joint compound.

[Bobberth]

My Dad could do everything but was of the mind, 'It's easier for me to do it than teach you' so I never learned how to do anything until we bought our first house: a 1894 3 story Victorian. I used internet resources and the Home Depot book to figure out how to do things. I messed things up but I also learned a lot from those mess ups. I'm the only person that noticed the droopy spot in the ceiling but I now darn sure know now that you need to end your drywall piece on a joist/stud to make sure it looks good! It drove me crazy looking at that every day. In the end I re-wired and re-plumbed the entire house along with some new windows, learning little by little. We bought the house in 2002 so the videos on the web are more prolific and more in depth now than they were then.

It probably makes me an asshole, but my guiding principle was thinking to myself, "I've met_____(trades person), and they aren't very smart. If they can do this, I bet I can figure it out." I know I can't do it as well or as fast as someone with lots of experience, but most of the time, it doesn't have to be done that well and sometimes I can do it better as I am doing the entire job instead of just a piece of it.

[Mother Fussbudget]

+1 Bobberth. 

I learned from handing my dad tools, and watching him do the jobs he wouldn't let me touch.  Also, I watched "This Old House" on PBS starting in season 2 (and off-and-on ever since).  I only saw season 1 in reruns during season 2, and found that first season unwatchable.  I wish I would watch season 2 again, and see the sequence that made me put it on my DVR ever since - Norm Abram decided a rotten wall in one of the building units was too rotten to repair, so he tore it out.  He then laid a bunch of 2x4's on the ground, marked them up as pieces for the wall, walked from one-end of his 2x4's to the other with a nail gun, assembled a wall, and slipped it into place in no time.  Mesmerized, I was hooked.

For home repair:
Today, I recommend watching ATOH - "ASK This Old House" - the PBS show where the contractors who do the main TOH show walk through common (and not so common, but needed) home repair jobs.  The ATOH website hosts lots of how-to videos taken from the weekly show, plus additional projects that never made it to air.

For car repair:
Car companies have made it so car repair is extremely difficult - you need to be a specialist to do many tasks on today's cars.  HOWEVER... if you have an older car - especially something like a VW Beetle - you can not only find parts for it, but repair EVERYTHING that could go wrong with it yourself.  With the help of a book, and YouTube videos.  I learned how to replace a brake master cylinder, brake lines, rotors, drums, disc brake pads - all from YouTube, and by doing. (Hint:  wear rubber gloves).  I already knew how to change the oil, oil filter (always changed together), and spark plugs.  I leave more difficult tasks to the pros because I know a good shop in my area, but it's nice to know I could do the repairs if I had to.

[seattlecyclone]

I second the recommendation for Habitat for Humanity to build up a general comfort level working with tools. I've volunteered several days with them and have done a whole bunch of different tasks, with people supervising to make sure the job is done right.

Also, just don't be too afraid to try something yourself. I've done a bunch of work on my own house (electrical upgrades, new windows, insulation, drywall, painting, and more) with no previous experience with those exact tasks. I watched videos and read books and just gave it a try. It works out better than you might expect!