The non-castled side is, depending on the overall position, often a great place to launch a Pawn Storm and that is usually a necessity when the opponents have castled on opposite sides. In GM Keres' and GM Kotov's classic, The Art of the Middlegame, Chapter 2 goes into great detail about when to castle on the opposite side from your opponent - all based on whether your Pawns can get to his King's defending Pawns before his can get to yours. The positions of the Pawns as well as same-color pieces that may get in the way of advancing or enemy pieces that have to lose tempos by fleeing the advancing pawns are the main considerations.
Otherwise when castling on the same side, using pawns to set up Knight Outposts, Bishop Outposts, Pawn Nails, or break up coordination of the enemies pieces and pawns on the non-castled side of the board is important.
Here is an example of a game between a chess.com-friend and me (I had White) where I faced the Modern Defense. My first thought after we had castled oppositely was to storm his King with my Pawns leading the way: notice that after 7 O-O-O then 8...O-O, my first move was to swap-off the fianchettoed Black B in front of his castled King and my next FOUR moves in a row were King-side Pawn moves to bust up his defenses. My friend is an excellent chessplayer and it took me until move 26 to completely strip away the Pawns from his King-side, but after doing so his exposed King made his defense difficult. Note also that if he had castled O-O-O I might have used the same strategy to gain an advantage on the King-side:
I am relatively new to chess. I know that a general rule is to not move the pawns infront of king. I was wondering what are some general tips when it comes to moving pawns in general, particularly on the queens side. I know that I should develop my pieces first, gain control of center, etc. What to do with pawns is my question.