Things you should have in your home after the age of 30

Over a Central Otago pinot at a classy wine bar on a recent Friday evening, because that is what you do when you turn 30, this (alarmingly accurate) Domain article came up about items that should be banned from the house once you’re into your third decade. 

One friend said that the shot glasses on display had been the source of many an argument with her husband: “We don’t live in a share house anymore!” Meanwhile, I confessed that when I moved into my boyfriend’s apartment, the one stand-off we had was over the photo collages hanging in the living room from when he and his friends went backpacking around Thailand aged 21.

Because how do you tell your beloved it’s not that you don’t like photos of his friends – you love his friends! – but that life moves on, and our homes need to keep up. Eventually we replaced the collages with a piece of art – a rendering of New York (a place that we had visited together). And we both really like it.

So in honour of that, and the excellent Domain list of things not to own in your home past 30, here is a list of the things that you should:

1. Proper non-stick saucepans that you spent a decent amount of money on. In said pans, you will now cook meals that don’t come out of a jar and that are nutritionally sound.

2. A dinner table that isn’t a trestle or card table, upon which you will have dinner parties that don’t involve everybody bringing a plate but do involve decent wine. Because once you turn 30, you will become something of a wine snob. Of which you will be awfully proud.

3. Furniture that didn’t once belong to your parents.

4. A piece of art. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but it should be something that you feel a connection to and that makes you happy every time you see it.

5. A plant that you keep alive longer than a week.

6. Once you’ve managed the aforementioned plant, try for something edible – basil on the balcony or some tomatoes in the courtyard. Nothing will give you as much pleasure as eating something you have grown, because you are now careening toward middle age, and that’s just the way things go.

7. A full set of cutlery.

8. Wine glasses for different kinds of wine (see point number 2) because you’ll suddenly care desperately that you drink chardonnay out of an appropriate glass, rather than any available vessel.

9. Some sort of filing system for all the important documents you have suddenly started to accumulate.

10. A copy of the following books: Pride and Prejudice, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Eyre, Love in a Cold Climate, The Pursuit of Love, The Line of Beauty, The Dud Avocado, The Group and Infinite Jest (this final one you will never read, but best keep it there with the thought that you might one day). This is mostly because these are my favourite books and I think everybody should read them. But really, you just need to have books – because not having any is unforgivable. *Though best steer clear of, say, Ayn Rand, a biography of Mark Latham, Fifty Shades of Grey and any book that’s a riff on The Secret.

11. An electric blanket, because this will give you so much unbridled joy. Embrace your inner nanna, because before you know it you will no longer ask your partner to “turn the bed on” with an ironic tone, but with deadly seriousness.

12. A cat? Not my thing, but studies suggest that pet owners are happier and healthier than the rest of us: see here.

13. Some kind of home automation system… because you grew up watching The Jetsons, and also because it is bloody brilliant to turn the lights and heater on via your mobile phone just before you get home.  

14. Really good bed linen, because you will now appreciate it, and because those manky, threadbare sheets from your youth no longer cut it.

15. A decent bread knife.

16. Throw pillows, because apparently these will blossom in your home like fungi, and you’ll never quite know where they all came from.

17. A solution for every conceivable household problem – from mosquito coils to a failsafe remedy for removing red wine stains (see point 8).

18. Cool fridge magnets from places you have travelled to – these are the acceptable alternative to novelty shot glasses, IMHO.

19. A bowl near the door that you put your keys in as soon as you arrive home. This will be life-changing.

20. Board games. You are never too old for board games.

21. A really fancy teapot and teacups, because as you get older having little rituals becomes something that you get a real kick out of.

22. A “feature piece” of some kind – it could be a Scandi coffee table, or an antique dresser, or a truly hideous but prized centrepiece. The key thing is that you love it, and that it’s a conversation starter.

23. Wooden coathangers, and zero tolerance for those free wire ones you get from the dry cleaner. Your adult clothes deserve better.

24. A whizz-bang blender, because you will start drinking green juice and start talking about how you drink green juice. For that, you really need a blender that properly pulverises, you know?

25. Tupperware. No other sign of adulthood is as potent as getting excited about Tupperware and having an organised Tupperware drawer in which every container has a lid.

26. A mortar and pestle, for all the curry pastes you will make from scratch. This will be exactly once. But don’t they look good on your benchtops?

27. A well-curated selection of cookbooks. Here is a good mix: a little Ottolenghi​ (dinner party cred); a bit of Jamie (you’re not pretentious. But you like to say, often, that you like “unpretentious good food”; something a bit Paleo or by someone who lives in Bondi (you’re in your 30s, remember); a splash of Nigella because you like to be a little indulgent and coquettish; and Stephanie Alexander because it will be your reference for life.

28. A tool kit, from which you can name – and use – at least five things.

29. A wine decanter (see points 2 and 8).

30. A copy of Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which will prompt you to throw out everything on this list unless it brings you joy.