Ironing - For or Against?

moonship - I score two out of three on the hobo checklist.

this was a little npr-ish, but good:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00g48pz/Book_of_the_Week_How_to_Get_Things_Really_Flat_Episode_2/

another link found on the right-hand column here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml

ironing on a sunday morning while listening to something good is one lifes small pleasures.

[ie. i am 'busy' doing chores, but still able to check out a good album or 2]

Home steamer wand thingie as an iron alternative: For or against?

ironing on a sunday morning while listening to something good is one lifes small pleasures.

[ie. i am 'busy' doing chores, but still able to check out a good album or 2]

― mark e, Wednesday, 31 December 2008 18:34 (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

3 years on and it seems that the local mums are interested in me doing this household chore for them.

for a fee of course.

could this be the beginning of a new life for me.

sod all that software shyte and show me the creases.

I HATE IRONING SO MUCH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
― Johnney B (Johnney B)

johnney B otm

Home steamer wand thingie as an iron alternative: For or against?

― яσσʍ♭ⱥȵℹҁᔔ ᴗȵȴℹʍℹȶ∊∂ (libcrypt), Wednesday, December 31, 2008 6:57 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

FOR. I have a Rowenta garment steamer that I bought cheap on Craigslist and it's great. Ironing is such a pain in the ass, and this is easier, plus it works well on sweaters and knits that get wrinkled in our small closet but wouldn't iron easily.

I like ironing WHEN I do it, it just takes a dire emergency to get me to ever do it.

but a good Rowenta iron and a nice sturdy ironing board are the keys to ironing happiness

there is so much more in life to be angry at than being able to spend an hour or 2 in the sweet spot with the stereo on max

xxpost Mark you are IRON MAN, lol -- awesome!

i hate it. i have to wear somewhat dress-like shirts every day, and half of them are prone to extreme wrinkles. no matter how quickly i take them out of the dryer, they're completely wrinkled by the time they get upstairs. iron them the night before to save yourself some time in the morning - no, that won't work. the next morning they're somehow wrinkled again. washing clothes takes an hour or two - ironing the 7-10 wrinkled shirts that comes out takes me another 2.5 hours and also puts me in a terrible mood, no matter what kind of music i'm listening to or how drunk i am. in conclusion, I HATE IRONING SO MUCH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

i want to know more about this Rowenta garment steamer.

For the love of god, man, take those shirts to the cleaners and let them launder and iron them for you.

Fuck a garment steamer for button down shirts. That's what the cleaners is for.

After a few years without, I ordered a (super-fancy!) ironing board on Sunday. Inspired by all the linen shirts I seem to have and that it had been warm enough to consider wearing them - they hang dry okay, but nicely pressed linen is a joy.

I was checking out vintage mangles over the weekend, too. mark e, I wish you luck with your pressing.

i can't! the closest cleaners is about 9 blocks away and i don't have a car!

had no idea this was such a hated chore.

no wonder my wife sat with a grin from ear to ear as i sorted out the pile every week.

f*ck, should have cashed in those brownie points better.

rayon shirts can git tae fuck . and microfibre and all those bullshit polyesters.

ZS, have you tried taking the shirts out of the dryer when they're still partly damp? Depending on the fabric, the dampness might help ironing, and the iron will do the rest of the drying for you. If they're super-dry they can be impossible to iron no matter what you do.

i guess the alternatives are
1)asking a friend to borrow a car twice (once to bring them there, once to bring them back)
2)walking a really long way with a bunch of hangers (maybe i should just do this, but god dammit)
3)riding a bike with a bunch of hangers, circus style (might die)

Steamers won't put creases in where you want them, like the "ridgeline" crease down the arms of shirts. For getting wrinkles OUT, though, everyone seems to love them!

As someone whose laundromat has been about 8 blocks away since I moved in June, I do feel your pain. I iron at home if necessary, though.

That's cruel, ZS. Just cruel.

Well, I have this thing:

http://www.sewforless.com/products/31189.jpg

Rowenta IS8050 Commercial Grade Clothes Steamer

I think it cost about $50 on Craigslist. I went for a pro model because the consumer models are prone to breaking/not working. I've had it for at least five years now. It just stays up in a corner and I give things a steam. I do steam my own dress shirts and it works fine, although it's not going to give you that crisp result that you'd get with an iron.

ZS, have you tried taking the shirts out of the dryer when they're still partly damp?

i have, but if i do that then everything in the dryer comes out super-wrinkly. and that adds to the overall workload, since then i would have to iron even the items that would normally be at an acceptable level of low-wrinklage if they were dried for a bit longer.

why is life so haaaaard? timely thread revive, since i'm doing the ironing doing the laundry tonight and i've been dreading it all day

Is the dry cleaners on a bus line? The trick (that I learned from Jeff), is to have ten shirts that you rotate in and out of the cleaners. Then you're only going once/week to get them/drop them off.

Actually, I guess you'd need 11 shirts so you have one that you're wearing when you pick up/drop off. I think. Math's hard let's go to the mall.

I do steam my own dress shirts and it works fine, although it's not going to give you that crisp result that you'd get with an iron.

oh, i'm not looking for perfection! i'm looking for the bare minimum level of crispness necessary!

There's no crispness whatsoever (like Laurel said, you can't put a crease in a shirt with a steamer), but there are no wrinkles, and that's what matters to me.

yeah, it's the removal of wrinkles that's important to me, too. crispness is a bonus but more like a welcome accidental result than a goal.

Hang your shirts up wet, ZS. Pull all the seams straight and flatten the button plackets with your fingers. Button the top button. Leave overnight. The weight of the water in the fabric helps to pull the wrinkles out. They won't be crisp and perfect, but they are usually acceptable.

i'm skeptical that it would actually work! seriously, the worst ones usually come out looking like this:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AXy8FremNdU/TZ5ezrc638I/AAAAAAAAABo/0Rar7U6hTlE/s1600/wrinkled+shirt.jpg

Do you take your stuff out of the dryer right away?

@ mad god : 'challenge accepted'

5 minutes, and i'd have that in a far better condition.

I've just always lived close to the dry cleaners. And my shirt rotation needs to be a little larger. I think I'm at 12 now. Really should be at least 14 to 16.

ZS, this is how we have done our shirts for the past 3 years. Wash them on Permanent Press, which uses a cooldown rinse and a slower spin. It leaves a bit more water in the fabric. Put the shirt on a hanger (plastic is best), smooth it out, tug the collar into shape, straighten the seams and the plackets, gently flatten the bottom hem if it is rolled. Then just hang it up to air dry. I have a rack of stuff hanging in the basement from the weekend's laundry; will take a picture when I get home from work of the results.

I wear dress shirts constantly and after figuring out that I was spending close to $60 a month at the dry cleaners, I bought a very nice high-end Rowenta iron and a good board. Ironing now has become a perfect pseudo-zen activity and I can get everything done within an episode and a half of Maron's WTF.

I am a terrible at ironing. I'm a perfectionist, which means that ironing pants takes a half hour or more. Dry cleaning when I have the money, which isn't often. Used to get my parents to do my dry cleaning for me.

I choose to never iron; anything wrinkly I just spray down with a serious mist of 50/50 water/vodka (to get out smells, which Mythbusters says is a SURE THING, which better be true or I am teaching eighth graders while reeking of Popov). Works ok because when I get to work I am fucking covered in sweat anyway so who fucking cares anyway oh gos I'm a slob/NB I am a slovenly slob.

i've been ironing shit for years and uh practice does not always make perfect

I just don't wear clothes that require work like this. my wardrobe is all stretch tops and knit jumpers and stuff, fuk a dress shirt.

Yeah I used to think men had it easier in the work clothes dept. but the idea of what is a 'dress shirt' for women can be so nebulous that ultimately it can be an advantage.

Yup. Today I have on a plain black...well, its efectively a long sleeved tee. Over which Ive layered a twin-set style carigan, and teamed with a tweed hobble skirt. So Im not wearing a shred of needs-ironing material but I still look mad men-esqe. I'd hate to have to wear suits.

ZS, do you shake out your shirts BEFORE you put them in the dryer? if you put stuff all balled up, it will cause more wrinkles bc it stays balled up as it dries.

The other option is hanging clothes on the line! I get the impression no one in america rly does this?

yeah, that stuff is like relegated to 50s movies

i mostly just wear flannel shirts bc i hate this so much. I have a couple nicer shirts but i never wear them bc of all the wrinkles. there are a lot of annoying things about working in IT, but i have to say, being able to dress like a slob is a perk.

Love those vented poly travel shirts (eg Ex Officio, Royal Robbins, and some store brands) intended for travelers who have to do their wash in their hotel rooms. Never need ironing, are colorfast and seem to stay in good condition for years. Pick them up at 1/3 price occasionally on eBay.

Flannel is not an option as I live in a semitropical swamp.

For business attire, the 50/50 shirt has been unfairly maligned.

the shirt sprayed with my 50/50 water/vodka mix? agreed.

I'm not wearing a shred of material but I still look mad.

I iron 5 shirts for the week on Sunday evening, and then work my way through them - depending on perspiration levels endured, might wear one of these a second time at the weekend, because who cares by then? Bottom half is nearly always jeans or chinos so not much ironing needed there, although I'll run an iron over jeans if they come out of the wash with one of those irritating long creases down the leg.

Jaq, I'll def give your air drying method a go, and if that fails then Abbbottt's vodka system as Plan B.

For business attire, the 50/50 shirt has been unfairly maligned.

otm - I used to have a rolling stock of carhartt 50/50 s/s shirts when I did a more tech-focused job and they hardly ever needed ironing. Golden days.

it's not the B&D's fault, though, that this happened. i got overzealous and turned up the heat way too high because i wanted to take a shortcut. "never take a shortcut, son - always follow the righteous path" - my dad, at a point. i am so sorry dad

"don't try to carry it all up the stairs at the same time! just take two trips!" - also my dad. i am so sorry dad

update: i ironed the newspaper at extreme heat. the iron is the same but the crossword is very flat

http://www.amazon.com/Rowenta-DG5030-Station-Stainless-Soleplate/dp/B000MT519O/

isn't it time for you to treat yourself?

god i hate ironing

it is the worst

http://www.amazon.com/Reliable-J490A-IronMaven-Ironing-Anti-Calc/dp/B000OZPQUA/

you've worked hard - you deserve it. only the best for #1.

i love sewing, though, and now i want to sew everything

Reliable J490A IronMaven Home Ironing System with CSS and Anti-Calc Warning System

finally, a reliable ironing system with CSS AND and anti-calc warning system

i've only been able to find unreliable systems with CSS and the anti-calc, or reliable systems with just the CSS or just the anti-calc, but now i can have a reliable home ironing system with CSS AND anti-calc!

what the hell was wrong with me the day i decided to bookmark this thread, i wonder

hahahahaah

im pretty into ironing but no way am i bookmarking this

Ironing is not actually the worst but it rly rly helps to have board & iron conveniently stored somewhere near a television because imo the only possible thing to do while ironing is watch movies that are all dialogue.

see i think i'd appreciate ironing more if i owned an iron or ironing board---as it is now, it's something that happens to me in hotel rooms, usually 20min before i have a meeting or something and oh god how the fuck does any of this ~work~ *googles 'how to iron shirt'*

It's not fun, don't get me wrong. But it doesn't have to be a hellish altar on which you sacrifice perfectly good shirts.

In a different life, I used to own an iron and ironing board. I ironed my working clothes regularly. I was never any good at it thought, despite having read several instructional articles and websites.

There were days when I missed an area. There were uneven creases. There was calcium build-up. There was much burning.

Always my most despised household chore, for all the usual reasons. (Couldn't get creases or collars right, and frequently burned myself.) Plus I hate that scorching-metal smell. I haven't ironed since '99 and never will again. Let the cleaners do it when necessary.

I saved a lot of money this summer by washing and ironing my own dress shirts

but it is very time consuming in the future I will bring my shirts to a cleaner

Ironing seems to be based on the topological impossibility that an asymmetrical 3d object can compress to a flat surface

beating the creases out of a plain t-shirt (which would probably not need ironing anyway) is just about OK, but once there are frills and ruching and buttons and darts and seams and... no

plus my iron hates me and likes to do things like suddenly deposit large quantities of limescaley water down the front of the coloured shirt I should have left the flat wearing five minutes ago, or trip the fuses for half the flat including the freezer, etc