Wednesday, September 23, 2015

How I Survive Ironing Day: Tips and Tricks

Back in the day when all clothing had to be ironed, my great-grandmother would take ironing in to make money.  She would sprinkle the clothes with water and put them in a bag together overnight to get them all uniformly damp, so the wrinkles would iron out.  Now we use a steam iron.  My grandmother used to get together once a week with her sister to iron, toting all the kids.  They took turns buying and bringing a pineapple, and would eat pineapple, talk, laugh, and iron their way through the day.  My grandma fondly remembers how her mouth would get sour-sore after a eating half a pineapple. I love the thought of her on ironing day as a young mother and wife.

My own mother likes to iron.  She does it all at once and loves the sight of all the shirts and pants neatly pressed and hanging in a row.  When I was about 10, my mom went to her brother's wedding in Thailand and was gone for two weeks.  Before she left she taught me how to iron my dad's shirts.  Can you believe it? What a responsible girl I was!  The thought of turning my girls loose on the work shirts makes me more than a little nervous, I'll admit.  But I'm sure with the right training they would do a fantastic job.  I just need to work out how to leave for two weeks and make it a necessity...

 I've abhorred the thought of ironing since I got married.  As the homemaker and laundress I feel like it falls under my stewardship.  It makes sense, in a really dreary and terrible way.  For years I ironed Mr's shirts and pants every morning, procrastination-style.  It only takes about 7 minutes, but once the kids entered school it became a really precious 7 minutes.  I have struggled for years to get myself to do it all in one go, and the times I did it was very freeing to have it all done.  So much so that I found myself avoiding wearing my ironed shirts because I couldn't face having to iron them again.

About 3 years ago I decided to get this monkey off my back and do ironing right.  None of this last minute ironing, discovering a stain, and starting over on a new shirt, all while the girls clamor for lunches and help getting hair done.


The first thing I did was invest in a good iron.  I looked at many, some that cost as much as $200, and settled on a $70 iron at Smith's Marketplace.  The Rowenta DW4060.

I have a few requirements, and this iron met them all:

The iron must be heavy.  Another word for iron is "press" and you can't press worth a darn with a light-weight iron.

Image result for rowenta dw4060

The surface of the iron has to be smooth metal, not teflon, not rough, but shiny metal.  This helps the iron glide easily.

The iron must have a large surface area, smoothing more fabric with every pass.

It must have a strong steam function.  Not a squirt/spray function, but steam.  I use starch on every shirt, and steam is vital to starch use.  It is also necessary for ironing khakis, chinos, and everything else that doesn't get starched.  I also keep a spray bottle of water on hand, to moisten those really stubborn wrinkles.

I use Faultless Professional starch.  I've used homemade before, and it was a fun novelty, but I switched back to purchasing it after I realized I had to mix it every time I wanted to iron.  It started to stink if I saved it from week to week.  And it flaked.

It needs to have a variety of heat settings.  This helps press synthetic fabrics without melting them, and makes it great for crafts as well.  Yes, I use the same iron for clothes and crafts.

Bottle of Kroger Distilled Water

The next thing I did was start purchasing and using distilled water.  For a long time I used tap water because I'm the ultimate cheap skate, but at 98 cents per gallon, I can have non-mineralized water that keeps my iron clean and functioning properly.  No more steaming through a cup of vinegar to clear out mineral deposits.  Horray!  And a gallon lasts me about a month.

I have a general problem of dropping my irons.  On my cement laundry room floor (see this post).  I sometimes can catch it by the cord, but not always.  This one has been dropped 2-3 times hard, and the plastic is cracked in a couple places, and the steam isn't as smooth as it was in the beginning.  It spits a lot.  Sometimes in an effort to save money we use something when it is truly no longer useful and suffer through it.  But when we look at the economy of  use, the amount of time spent using an item justifies its replacement on a regular basis when it no longer performs properly.  I have suffered a bit longer with this one because I didn't wear it out, I dropped it.  But I'm ready for a replacement and will most likely repurchase this iron.

I also learned to replace my ironing board cover more frequently.  I like a really padded cover, and have been known to put two on at a time if one isn't sufficiently dense enough.  I had been using the same beat-up, stained, yellowing one for 10 years.  I washed it once every six months but it was really an eye sore.  I was at Home Goods and discovered, much to my amazement, that there are many cute and stylish covers for under $15.  Again, economy of use says I should replace this every two years or so to keep my ironing board functional, have a proper pressing platform, and keep me enjoying this task that is part of my everyday life.

I use a full-sized adjustable height ironing board.  It's only my second one in 20 years, and I got it about 8 years ago, for Mother's Day.  We aren't going to talk about that here, but needless to say it turned out I was grateful for it in the end.  It is sturdy, long, collapsible, and height adjustable.

The last discovery I made was that ironing is soooooo much more pleasant when I watch something on TV.  I am not a TV watcher.  I love to watch movies on the weekend, but the TV is never on during the day.  Until now.  I decided that it would be my reward, my carrot, my incentive to get the ironing done and the laundry folded in a timely manner.  This was a tip from my mom, who loves ironing.  And now I do, too.

None of these things is new, novel, inspiring, or amazing, but it took me a good 15 years to figure them out on my own.  I know, it's really so sad.  So hopefully this will save at least one women the trouble.  The rest of you can just use this to get your laugh in for the day.  Go ahead.  I don't feel judged.

So I now find myself looking forward to ironing day, and to folding laundry.  Some days the girls will chide me about how much TV I've been watching, because I'm always telling them to quit watching it.  But my response is always, "come fold laundry and watch all the TV you want".  And they just grump and walk away.  Their loss.

Image result for white collar tv show

I started watching "Lost" and that lasted a while.  Then I moved to "White Collar" which has become my all-time favorite series.  Such fantastic characters and story line, and it is pretty squeaky clean, approved for my 15-year-old save for a handful of episodes that I tell her to skip due to adult topics.  It really makes me want to live in New York.  The wealthy, privileged, criminal, cool New York.

Image result for leverage tv

I then moved on to "Leverage" which is in the same genre.  It took me a while to love it, but as the characters and story line developed I became more of a fan.  Again, it is atypically clean, complex enough, with lots of humor, and lovable main characters.  I'm two episodes away from finishing the series.  Now what?  Any suggestions?

It is unfortunate that I can't read and iron at the same time.  I could listen to a book on tape...CD...mp3...or whatever, and I may try that soon.  But for now I love whiling away my ironing hour watching an entertaining show.  It turns drudgery into a guilty pleasure, without any guilt whatsoever.  Housework hacked.

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