to wonder if ironing should take this long

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Have NC from usual name and come here from a very different part of MN: just to ask:

Maybe I am being mean but I just wanted people's opinions on how long ironing should take. The reason is that I employ a cleaner/ironer for a certain amount of hours per week and she sems to be telling me that the amount of hours I think the ironing should take is not enough for her to finish it (I would add that I have never really ironed, so don't really know first hand, but my DH does iron and thinks we are being perfectly reasonable, in fact generous).

The ironing is basically only my clothes and DS's (he is five, but I do put him in a clean collared shirt for school every day, so that has to be ironed although his trousers are not). I wear a clean shirt every day to work, and have some jackets, cardigans etc, and wear probably two pairs of trousers a week which need ironing, then maybe another pair on the weekend. DH's clothes do not need ironing, except for maybe one collared shirt every two or three weeks. The older children do their own ironing.

We think four hours a week allocated to ironing. Are we being mean and unreasonable?

I can iron clothes for the 4 of us - which includes uniforms, Dhs workwear and my clothes - in 2 hours a week.

You mentioned she's not very good with English. Does she know how to use the iron properly on all its settings? e.g. if she's trying to remove stubborn creases in cotton clothes without steam, maybe using a damp teatowel, that would add loads to her time.

If she can't do it in 4 hours, apologise and just take it to an ironing service where you pay per item

2 hours more than ample.

We have a lady down the road who we drop ironing off with. Usually about 10-14 adult shirts every fortnight. She used to charge £1 a shirt, now charges £10 per hour. It varies slightly as it depends how badly creased they are but 10 shirts is £10-£12 so taking her just over an hour.

4 hours for that lot is way to generous. 2 hours max I'd say.

Thanks so much for the feedback. I was fearful I was being really mean and cheap, but I think I can rest easy on that score. We pay 10 an hour, but that is whether it is ironing, cleaning, or childcare, which she does a bit of (after school/holidays etc). I have recently told her that because DS is going to be at school more now (has special needs so school hours flexible) we don't need her for as many hours as we used to, and she has become all grumpy about this, including saying that she cannot complete the ironing in the hours we felt she should.

When I say starching I just mean a bit of spray on the collars, not a full-on starching.

I did not know about ironing services (and as we live in pretty central London area I would imagine we ciould easily find one) so will keep that in mind if she really does not feel able to do the ironing.

here's an idea....do it yourself one week and time yourself!!!
yes, i am a genius

The problem with that is that the time I would take would not really be a good indicator, I have pretty much never successfully ironed anything!

But I suspect it will still take you a lot less than 4 hours which will be useful information!

I think I might persuade DH to do it! But in any case, I think the overwhelming advice on here is convincing me that I am not being a meanie!

That should't take four hours!

I don't mind ironing, I'm easily distracted though, but even I can do this in less than two.
Your local dry cleaner's will do it cheaper.

4 hours is plenty. It takes me about 2.5 hours to do DH, DD and my stuff and that includes 5 collared shirts for DH and duvets.

We have a cleaner/ housekeeper 10 hrs a week (5 hrs x2 days). In that time she changes, washes, irons and replaces all bedding once a week. Irons any shirts/ odd bits. Does most the laundry in general. Plus cleans house and bakes us some bread and cakes :). I would say she probably spends 4hr a week approx out of 10 total doing all washing/ folding/ ironing/ putting away. And 6hrs cleaning/ baking/ whatever that week

Wow that is really helpful. I can see we have been anything but mean regarding the hours we have allowed for both cleaning and ironing!