Aptly named Instructables user growerman has an excellent overview of houseplant care:
Keeping plants alive indoors can prove next to impossible to some, but it really isn’t all that hard to do. Plants need light, water, support, nutrients, and an adequate air supply. Like anything in this world, excessive amounts of any one thing is often a bad thing, even if that substance is necessary for survival. Just because you think your plant might want more of something, doesn’t mean you are doing your plant any good. The fact of the matter is, unless you know what you are doing, you may very well be killing it. Plants can’t scream in pain like the rest of us….
