"Taking in ironingl"

[shutupbignutbrownhare]

Every so often on MN, a poster asks for advice on how to make a bit of extra money, and "take in ironing" is a common suggestion. It appeals to me because I LOVE ironing and spend every evening at home while my kids sleep.

However, I have never encountered in real life a situation where somebody outsources their ironing to a private individual. I've never seen ironing services advertised. I can only assume it DOES happen, just in other circles perhaps...?

So, if you are the recipient of such an ironing service (or indeed a contract ironer) can you help me out?

How does it work? Does the ironer collect and drop off your clothes? What's a typical 'order' and how frequently - weekly? Monthly? How much do you pay? How do you pay? How quick is turnaround? What else should I know? What would make me a market-capturing ironer for hire?

It's not uncommon round here. There are quite a few that market their services on Facebook, try and do some research on there for your local area.

You collect and deliver. Collection is a bag of wrinkled laundry and delivery is ironed and hung, or folded items.

The posher places put protective bags over individual items and provide the hangers. They also starch shirt collars.

You'd need insurance. If you damage an expensive shirt for example, or iron done curtains on the wrong setting. Could be costly.

Some places charge by the bag, per item, or by weight. Others by hour. You need to factor in cost of electricity to run the iron, insurance, collection and delivery. Also collection and delivery is probably going to be need to be done in the evening, as that's when people are in. Charge extra for fast turn around. Have a contract regarding loss and damage. Payment on collection.

I pay someone to do my ironing. I think it’s really good value. I’m terrible at ironing.

She or her husband collect and drop off. Usually it’s her husband when he’s on his way home from work. Turnaround is about 3 days. I just do it ad hoc - every 3-4 weeks when a decent stack has built up.

Minimum order is £10. Prices off the top of my head:
Shirts: £2.20
T-shirts: 70p
Kids clothes: 50p
Double duvet cover: £4

I think you’d need to whip through ironing quite quickly to make it worthwhile. It takes me an hour to do a shirt 🤦‍♀️

Don’t do it if you smoke. My friend sent a bag of laundry off to someone to be ironed and it came back stinking of smoke.

Wait..what.... people iron duvet covers?!

It's a ridiculous suggestion.

First of all you'd need some form of business insurance.

Secondly, you'd be using your home for business purposes so would need to check with mortgage lender/landlord/insurers if allowed.

Then you'd need to advertise

It's not the 1950s east end.

Loads here, DH is the ironer here so if he's away we send it out. You pay per 10 items I think with extra for bedding

Our cleaners will iron if we have a mountain. I don’t think they take in ironing but stay an extra hour, if asked. I couldn’t be bothered to parcel it all up,p for someone to take to iron at their house.

The laundry irons the bedding far better than anyone could iron with a Morphy Richards.

£11 per load for washing and ironing here. They advertise on local Facebook groups so no costs. Collected and dropped off again within 48 hours.

Definitely not ridiculous.

I know loads of people getting their ironing done. Seems to be the done thing now.

Very common here. I have a wonderful woman who collects and delivers. I've had her for years, some weeks there's a lot, some much less but I just pay the same amount each week. It's £15, which I think is a bargain. I provide hangers and starch for DH's shirts.

Formerbabe are you for real? It's a legitimate idea for the OP to make extra money.
She does NOT to have insurance and she does NOT have to tell her mortgage company. She's not opening a business in her home, she working from home part time.

It's a great idea OP especially if you lime ironing.
Good luck

My Mum does mine. She loves ironing but I didn't get that gene passed down.

If she didn't I would have to do it I guess.

But I didn't think anyone on MN actually ironed anything.

I’m an ironing lady. it is absolutely not a ridiculous suggestion. It was MN that set me off in this direction and gave me advice when I started. Of course you need insurance, that certainly doesn’t make it ridiculous.

How does it work?
Does the ironer collect and drop off your clothes?

I collect and drop off for a fee. Some people drop off at my home.

What's a typical 'order'

Usually clothes. 15-25 items. Sometimes bedlinen with it. I also iron for a B&B which is all their bedlinen.

and how frequently - weekly? Monthly?

I have weekly, monthly and less often regular clients and also one off orders.

How much do you pay?

Average order is £20/£25

How do you pay?

PayPal or cash on delivery

How quick is turnaround?

Standard 48 hours. Can do quicker for extra fee.

What else should I know?

It’s hot in the summer you will not want to do it.

What would make me a market-capturing ironer for hire?

Depends what other Ironing businesses are around you. You need something that is different to catch interest.

Here’s how my ironing woman works.

She is open from 7am to 10pm. I have never actually seen or met her.

You drop your bag of ironing off in her conservatory, she provides labels for you to write your name and number and stick the label on your bag.

She texts when the ironing is done (usually 24-48 hour turnaround) and how much it costs, and you go and collect your stuff from her conservatory - she has lots of rails of ironed clothes in there, there is an A4 sheet of paper clipped to each rail with names on. She provides hangers and she covers shirts and blouses with a plastic clothes bag.

You place the money in an envelope with your name on, and post it through her front door.

A big bag of ironing usually costs is about £15-20. You can drop off and collect at your own convenience.

Eyes open wide .... your cleaners set up sounds like my most sought after job .... not having to actually SEE other people. Love it!!

@Lola999

What if you burn or lose someone's items?

Lots of people round here offer it - they just post on our local FB group.

‘Taking in ironing’ is one of those old fashioned phrases I find really annoying for some reason, like ‘fell pregnant’ and ‘under the doctor’.

My dh gets his shirts ironed. I think it's £25 for a bag.

Lola999 it does sound perfect doesn’t it!

She doesn’t even advertise, it’s all word of mouth recommendations. Someone told me about her and gave me her number. I phoned her up and she explained how it works and that was that. I’ve sent loads of people to her - she’s currently having an insulated summer house thing built in her garden because she’s so busy the conservatory is rammed full of clothes rails and she’s out of space.

We have an ironing lady. She's a local lady and I don't think she works other than doing ironing. She collects and drops off to our door in the evenings.

We text when we have ironing, she collects that evening (we put it in a big ikea bag with some hangers), she returns it 2-3 days later on the hangers and lets us know how much we owe her. We pay her by bank transfer that evening.

We usually use her once every 10 days for about £10-15 worth of ironing, which will be 3-4 jeans, 5-6 shirts, some kids tops, couple of adults T-shirt's.

Just to add to the general field of info to help you formulate your own set up.... our lady collects on Tuesday, we leave it in the shed so we don't have to be here, she returns it Thursday and we leave her cash in the shed.
We pay £10/week and she does 5 shirts. She collects from at least 5 houses in our village on Tues-Thurs, assume she operates a similar rotation in other villages on the other days.
I very much doubt she's told her landlord/mortgage company. And I've no idea if she's insured.

We have an ironing lady , she will collect and deliver. We pay by the item and send hangers for anything that needs hanging . Hanging stuff comes back in plastic bags , other stuff folded in the basket it went in . Turnaround is 24/48 hrs . Costs me between £12-15 per week and is worth every penny .

My friend sent loads of ironing out to an 'ironing lady' and it all came back smelling of cigarettes.

Eww. Ironing people should not smoke. Yuck.

Yes, smoking or own pets presumably.

Friend was gutted as there was loads of it and she was so chuffed to get it all back-until she smelt it!