What's up with ironing everything?

[ms.peachy]

OK so on this other board I was just reading, which is a forum for parents (mostly mums, but there are one or two dads), some of them are having a whine about how hard it is to find time daily to do the ironing. Apparently, these women iron, like, everything, including the kids' clothes and such.

I mean, I will occasionally press a dress shirt for mr.p or myself for work or for a more formal occasion or something, but what is up with ironing all the laundry daily? Why would anyone do that???

[faz]

A friend once told me that her dad use to iron her pajamas and her bed sheets. Whatsup with that?

[Lyman Zerga]

some iron towels and socks

too much free time

[AdRockGRL]

OK so on this other board I was just reading, which is a forum for parents (mostly mums, but there are one or two dads), some of them are having a whine about how hard it is to find time daily to do the ironing. Apparently, these women iron, like, everything, including the kids' clothes and such.

I mean, I will occasionally press a dress shirt for mr.p or myself for work or for a more formal occasion or something, but what is up with ironing all the laundry daily? Why would anyone do that???


MY MOM!!! MY MOM!!!! She irons everything...also underwars sometimes!! And she shouts if I don't do the same... anyway I never iron my jeans... I hate ironing with this temperature... we have 32°C we suffer...how can we iron?

[na§tee]

your complete wash daily? fuck that.
me, i iron what i'm wearing on the day in my underwear on the floor.

[enree erzweglle]

I iron much more in the summer than I do any other time of the year because I wear a lot more cotton then and after I've done the washing, I air-dry just about everything (outside on a rack) and everything gets wrinkled.

I have a very vivid memory of my mom ironing during the Vietnam war when they were announcing the draft numbers callup and she was waiting for them to say my brother's number. The entire day, she ironed a sheet--one sheet--and she never ironed sheets. She ironed it over and over and over until after his number was announced.

[Yorkshire~Rose]

A friend once told me that her dad use to iron her pajamas and her bed sheets. Whatsup with that?

My mum does this. I neither have the time nor inclination to spend half my day chained to an ironing board. I iron stuff as i need it and not everything of mine needs ironing. My mum almost has a heart attack when she sees me in a shirt with a slight crease in it... :rolleyes:

I used to work with this woman though who irons DUSTERS and TOWELS. Whats all that about?! Mind you, she also used to clean every skirting board in the house with bleach and water every saturday.

Sod that.

[Dr Deaf]

I have a very vivid memory of my mom ironing during the Vietnam war when they were announcing the draft numbers callup and she was waiting for them to say my brother's number. The entire day, she ironed a sheet--one sheet--and she never ironed sheets. She ironed it over and over and over until after his number was announced.

wow. that's chilling. your description of the event paints such a vivid picture; i feel like i was there. if there were music in the background, what song would it be?


my pick: chamber brothers / time has come


on topic: i hate ironing, only because i'm terrible at it. i have only 3 shirts that occasionally need ironing. everthing else, is wash and wear. :cool:

[monkey]

my mom used to iron everything, because my dad likes everything (EVERYTHING!) pressed. all his clothes need to be ironed. he's gotten very good at doing it himself lately, considering no one else will freakin iron his shit anymore.

my mom made sure my brother and i learned to iron (and learned to love it!) since we wuz littles. i can iron people's faces, im so good.

[Bob]

i like my waffles ironed

[Keith Richards]

i like ironing. but i see it as a luxury. there's nothing quite like ironed and starched pillowcases.

[Videodrome]

i don't know how to iron nor have i ever ironed anything. i just throw it in the dryer for like 5-10 mins. i got that whole white trash thing going on.

[enree erzweglle]

wow. that's chilling. your description of the event paints such a vivid picture; i feel like i was there. if there were music in the background, what song would it be?
I don't have a whole lot of memories from my childhood, but I can see that one in my mind's eye like it happened yesterday. I think I just sat on the couch and stared at her the whole day. Which was probably creepy for her but doubtless not as much as the draft and the war.

The song...one of those overused 60s counter-culture songs that they play when they're depicting the Vietnam war in war movies (Crosby/Stills/Nash/Young's Ohio) or the turning of the tide in the 60s (The Byrds' Turn Turn Turn). Something like that or maybe Peggie Lee's "Is That All There Is?" which I always found to be so, SO depressing.

[Lyman Zerga]

in my life i probably ironed only 5 or 6 times

[cookiepuss]

my boss told me that if I was going to wear blouses or collared shirts I have to iron them first. so I stopped wearing them all together and I only wear tops that don't require ironing. I'm sure that's not what he had in mind, but he's a moron if he thinks any 20 something girl actually knows how to iron. I can't iron well. I usually iron more wrinkles into the shirt than I get out.:( So anyway, if my boss wants to pay for my dry cleaning and pressing I'll be happy to wear blouses again.:rolleyes:

[abcdefz]

I have an iron, technically, but I don't use it very often. By the time I'm done with bus rides and a desk job, my shirt gets pretty wrinkled, anyway.

But if I want to look really spiffy -- yeah, I'll do it.

[enree erzweglle]

my boss told me that if I was going to wear blouses or collared shirts I have to iron them first. so I stopped wearing them all together and I only wear tops that don't require ironing. I'm sure that's not what he had in mind, but he's a moron if he thinks any 20 something girl actually knows how to iron. I can't iron well. I usually iron more wrinkles into the shirt than I get out.:( So anyway, if my boss wants to pay for my dry cleaning and pressing I'll be happy to wear blouses again.:rolleyes:Where I work, there was talk about a dress code, but they wound up not doing it for a lot of reasons. (I heard that to enforce it in our department, they'd have to enforce it across campus. And that would never happen.) At a point when they were telling us what was appropriate for work, they said that at the very least, we should always be cleaned and pressed. Which a lot of people took to mean dry cleaning. I didn't take it that way. I just make sure to iron whatever I'm wearing if it's wrinkley or prone to get that way. I wouldn't want to have to find room in my budget for dry cleaning.

In the winter, I tend to wear a long-sleeved, plain tee shirt with jeans. I have the same tee shirt in a bunch of colors, and since I'm on the casual side, I do iron them to make them look as presentable as possible.

In the summer, nearly everything I tend to wear at work is a plain sleeveless tee with a skirt and sandals. I'm always ironed just because nearly everything I wear this time of the year is cotton. I refuse to buy anything linen just because it's so high maintenance and never stays neat looking.

[Dr Deaf]

I don't have a whole lot of memories from my childhood, but I can see that one in my mind's eye like it happened yesterday. I think I just sat on the couch and stared at her the whole day. Which was probably creepy for her but doubtless not as much as the draft and the war.


what's most tragic; is that exact same scenario could be replaying itself somewhere in america, right now.

silly primitive humans. when will we ever learn?

[b-grrrlie]

I like ironing, but I don't do that often these days. Only things that I iron are my best T-shirts (very carefully over the print), they last oh so much longer like new!
Also I iron everything that gets wrinkly, specially dresses and shirts (but don't wear them much) and some fancy table clothes when I get important guests. Also when I wash curtains (like once every blue moon, maybe not even that often) I iron them. I usually put up my ironing board in the living room and catch up with the sit coms or films I've taped.

Ironing keeps the clothes fresh and whole for a longer time, that's why it's done. The threads wear out much quicker if you don't.

[Lindsey_1535]

I last ironed someting in gradeeeee 10? I dont even think it was a shirt or anything I'm prettttyyy sure it was a ribbon.

[abcdefz]

One of my funniest moments ever just won't make much sense here as I type it. But --

I was working at a book store and a woman named Jennifer always looked so great -- very fresh and neat. I asked her something like "how do you get your clothes to look that way?" and she took pity on wrinkly little me in a very non-judgemental way and said, "I iron them."

I paused, then said in a very careful, I'm-learning-a-new-alien-word-and-mispronouncing-it-slightly way, "Iiiiiiiirown?" and we both collapsed in fits of laughter. Good times.


This was the same bookstore where a guy asked me where the books on sadomasochism were, and I replied, "Do you want me to tell you, or do you want me to NOT tell you and just make you look around a lot?" :D

[ms.peachy]

Ironing keeps the clothes fresh and whole for a longer time, that's why it's done. The threads wear out much quicker if you don't.[/COLOR]
Hmm. This statement intrigued me, so I did a little quick net research on fabric care and could not find any evidence to support the idea that regular ironing increases the life of a garment. In fact, it seems the opposite is true for some fabrics (actetates etc). Care to explain how you've come to this conclusion? I'm not saying it's incorrect, only that I can't see why it would be so, and can't find any explanation.

[abcdefz]

Yeah -- it seems like heat would be inherently damaging. So, if you told me that letting clothes dry on a line was less stressful to the fabric than using a dryer, I'd believe that.

Seems like pretty much everything is stressful to clothes.

[Keith Richards]

they just look a lot nicer. i think it encourages you to care for your clothes and linen better which, in turn, may encourage you to keep things longer -- hence they last longer. maybe that's what bgirl in purple is getting at.

[Keith Richards]

Seems like pretty much everything is stressful to clothes.
yeah, you start wearing them out the minute you put them on!

[beastiegirrl101]

I'm boarderline obessed with ironing. Like Enree I hang my clothes on the line in the summer to dry but then everything is crinkly and stiff, jeans are the worst! Linen is impossible...I have white linen pants that I love to wear, I iron them and the second I walk...they are wrinkled.

my nonnie irons her wash cloths and dust rags...thats bad.

[abcdefz]

Linen is impossible...I have white linen pants that I love to wear, I iron them and the second I walk...they are wrinkled.





I've got a linen shirt that I really love, and it suckers me into wearing it, hanging there all nice. And then by the time I get to work, it looks like it's been caught in a perpendicular accordian or something.

I finally retired it to a different closet so I'll not wear it, and that seems stupid, too.

[beastiegirrl101]

I've got a linen shirt that I really love, and it suckers me into wearing it, hanging there all nice. And then by the time I get to work, it looks like it's been caught in a perpendicular accordian or something.

I finally retired it to a different closet so I'll not wear it, and that seems stupid, too.

I hear in Italy linen is fashionable if it is wrinkled. So we are "in" over there.

[ms.peachy]

I hear in Italy linen is fashionable if it is wrinkled. So we are "in" over there.
Yeah the problem is, you can only pull that look off if you are actually properly Italian. They can get away with a lot of stuff. Damn them.

[enree erzweglle]

Honestly, I don't think I've ever known a guy who has worn or wears linen anything.

I have (had?) a great linen dress and it was expensive as anything but I refuse to wear it because it looks like crap as soon as it's off the hanger. It was a gorgeous dress, though, and was just the right color of red.

[abcdefz]

I hear in Italy linen is fashionable if it is wrinkled. So we are "in" over there.


Well, I'm rocking a belly right now, so shirts are untucked, which is bad enough.

Untucked + wrinkled might work on a beach, but that's about it.

[tracky]

I could count the number of times I've done ironing on one hand

[Documad]

I just KNEW we would lose Ms. Peachy to a message board for new mums. :mad:


My grandma ironed sheets with a bit of starch. Ouch. My mom used to iron shirts for hours for dad and my brothers. She would roll them in damp towels beforehand. MY job was to iron dad's hankies.

[TurdBerglar]

i have never ironed anything


and the last time i ever wore anything that was ironed was when i was 13 for my uncle's facny wedding