Laundry Update
I am just thrilled! Thanks to all of your encouragement and wonderful ideas, and especially to Nichola, I have gone a whole week without ANY laundry pile on our bed or in our room. I have only been doing one load at a time and completely finishing it and it works wonders. My husband is grateful as well.
Now, does anyone have any great ideas on how to stay caught up on ironing? That is one other area I really seem to be struggling in right now. Suggestions would be appreciated. My husband likes to have all of his shirts starched and pressed (he works at a law firm so he goes through a lot of dress shirts per week!) and you think it would be simple for me to stay caught up on, but I just can't seem to do a very good job of it.
posted by Crystal Paine at 4:08 PM
10 Comments:
Ok Crystal, you know me and know my husband is retired from the Air Force and so I am the starch and iron Queen!! Hee hee.
For starching, I suggest this: after you wash the shirts, take and starch them good while wet. I usually took my husbands wet BDU's and shook them out good (less wrinkles) and then hung them on sturdy hangers (you could use regular plastic as your shirts don't weigh 6 or 7 lbs wet like military attire sometimes does). Then I took my starch bottle (a plant spray bottle type) and added Stayflo starch and water. I used 1/2 starch to 1/2 water...you might use less maybe 1/4 to 3/4 water. Spray the shirts really good and let them dry on the hangers. They are pretty stiff depending on the amount of starch you use, but they iron great. Even if they aren't all the way dry - just damp - they will iron great and look really sharp. You might have to experiment as I didn't really ever do dress shirts for my husband.
I would suggest doing all your ironing on Friday morning. That way your husband will have clean fresh shirts for anything that might pop up over the weekend and also for Monday. I used to wait sometimes until about 0430 to iron a uniform for my husband for the duty day....not a good start!!! hee hee.
You can also do this same thing with any of your clothes too. Just make sure whatever you are ironing is barely damp to dry or you will "flake".
If I am wrong about the name of the starch it is in a blue jug that you can get at Wal-Mart. It is pretty cost effective to make your own vs. the bottle starch and it goes a long, long way. I think is around $2 - $3.00.
I work in a resturant and I need creased pants, shirts and aprons. Usually I find myself doing what I call "spot ironing" 15 minutes before I have to leave for work.
The shirts and pants we wear as part of our uniforms are men's. I find that, when I have time, ironing right out of the dryer is best.
I like Cheryl's advice about the starch, athough those white flakes that come from using too much or ironing wet gets on my nerves.
If have one day a week to iron, you should be fine. He needs what, like 5 ironed shirts and maybe something for church? Are you using the wrinkle and stain free dress pants? Sometimes they will keep their crease even after washing. Also, most dry cleaners charge only .99 for men's shirts, if you are in a bind. But obviously that would add up over time.
-Ash
My strategy for keeping up with the ironing is 15 minutes a day. This is when I'm keeping up with it! I struggle with it too. If I leave it all till one time I end up not doing it because it's a lot to do at once. I've found that taking 15 minutes every day keeps me caught up and I know I only have to iron for that amount of time. My husband is a pastor and although he doesn't wear shirts and ties every day, he likes to have his dress shirts ready when he needs them.
My husband is a banker and requires dress shirts daily, too. I purchased Land's End dress shirts, the wrinkle-free kind, not the lowest price but not super expensive. The first time I washed them, I starched and ironed them. After that, all I've had to do is hang them up straight out of the dryer. I listen for the buzzer and hang them on plastic dryers in the laundry room while they are still warm. I haven't had to iron a shirt in a LONG time!
For myself and my two small boys, I only purchase non-iron-required fabrics for our clothes. If the label hints at ironing, it does not belong in our closets! LOL
I'd much rather be baking cookies than ironing (and/or doing laundry) anyday!
To Cheryl: I learned to iron from my cousin who married a military man... yep... lots of starch gets used in those families...
Well, I would just do it ;o) That's the method that works best for me! I mean, he only needs one shirt per day, right? So at the most it is only 7 shirts a week. I use spray starch sometimes, but my husband isn't really fond of starch in his shirts, so I just iron them damp to a nice smooth finish. I iron once a week and it takes maybe 2 hours all in all - I listen to CD or tape books or the radio, and have our son either napping or playing in the room.
This is what my mother-in-law used to do. David's dad had two pairs of pants and two shirts. He would wear a fresh shirt and pants to work and she would wash the dirty shirt and pants, iron them and have them ready for him the next day. Then he would leave home the dirty ones again and go to work in the clean ones. It worked well for them. I have not perfected this at all yet, but I am toying with the idea of something similar. I have a load size selector on my washer and so maybe something like that would work and make things easier? Don't know if that helps you any... *still thinking*
BTW, I am so glad that what I said about the laundry helped you. I read what you said to my husband and he has been just flabbergasted that his idea was able to help someone else.
I got thinking, you could look at it like Mt. Neverest is a virus and is always present in your house, ready to breakout at anytime. :-) The only cure is to never let it get a start or it will take over.
Mt. Neverest: every housekeeper's nightmare and enemy. Hehehehehe!
If you don't work on Sundays, this might not work for you (though you could just pick another night):
I do all ironing on Sunday night, all fiance's dress shirts and my clothes, too; when I wash things, during the week I just separate out the ironing and set it aside until Sunday. So far, this has worked and fiance has never run out of dress shirts. Oh, and I agree with cheryl on spraying shirts while they're damp to get them really crisp.
Now, the reason that I do this Sunday night is that a local radio station broadcasts original radio dramas, which are really fun to listen to. I love listening to them so much that I actually look forward to ironing so that I can tune in! (and the more ironing to do, the longer I can listen!) I think of it as my "reward" for getting the ironing done. Maybe you could have something special to listen to ONLY while ironing to make it enjoyable?
Whatever you choose, just having a good routine will solve this dilemma for you.
:)Alice
I call it Mt. Washmore... :)
Thanks for the ironing tips Cheryl. I think that will help me a lot
Isn't ironing in your Home Management schedule? 0:-)
-Amie
This is probably not the most efficient way but it is the only thing that has worked for me. :)
I iron every night. I get our clothes out for the next day and then while hubby plays on the computer and we talk I iron. I used to never iron but have found I really enjoy doing it this way
Julie
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