Help me give up ironing please!!

[Piratepete1]

I waste so many hours each week ironing and rarely get to bed before midnight trying to catch up with house jobs. I have 2 children under 5, 1 of which has a severe speech disorder and needs focused speech work every day and well as ferrying to hospital and speech appointments. Add that to sports clubs and looking after an ailing grandfather and I am exhausted.

Now DH has suddenly been made redundant so I am going to have to find part time work. I cannot imagine fitting anything else in so something will have to go and I hope it can be the ironing.

I've heard tips like hanging to dry on hangers, not over filling the machine, not tumble drying etc.

Has anyone got any advice to stop us all looking crumpled?

Two methods which will work.

Method 1: "hen the wash is done, take out, hold sensible (shirts/t-shirts by the seam between arm and main body of item, skirts/trousers by top seam). Give one or two HARD, VIGOROUS shakes.

Put on a hanger in same way, leave to dry. No need to iron.

Method 2 - your other half with newly acquired time on his hands does the ironing.

Or a combination of both the above. If you have to get a job, you can't keep up everything you currently do. This is one job you can definitely shed!

Good luck with everything.

= no creases and no need to dry.

OP- if your husband is being made redundant and not working he needs to do more in the house - including the ironing.

I don't iron anything, not one single thing.
I take washing out the machine as soon as it's finished and give everything a good shake before hanging it up seems to work for us.

Don't buy anything that needs ironing. The only thing I iron is karate suits and they take bloody long enough for me to refuse to iron anything else at all!

I tumble dry and smooth and fold whilst the clothes are warm. Not a thing of mine gets ironed. Dh does tend to iron his shirts.

What speed is your washing machine spinning at? I think the faster the spin cycle, the more creases you'll get. Our machine has an adjustable spin speed.

I'm with Babysafari

I just don't. If it's crumpled, I don't notice. No one has ever commented. I may iron the odd smarter item, kids winter shirts, specialist sports kit etc but that takes less than an hour a week (and isn't every week!).

Life's too short and does it really matter?

Ps I have friends who iron jeans, pants, bedding...

Sorry, forgot to say good luck. Sounds like you have a lot going on

No tumble dryer here - washing either dries outdoors on the rotary dryer, or indoors on the two ceiling pulleys, radiator airers or hanging from over door hooks.

We only iron work shirts and school blouses. School dresses get spun at 400 rpm and hung on hangers immediately so there's no need.

When ironing I sit on a comfortable chair and watch a programme of my choice on iPlayer whilst doing so. Makes it more bearable.

I never iron. Ever. Off the line or out the tumble dryer and fold. Job done.

I think I'm the only person in the history of MN who rather likes ironing (in the context of household tasks, not as a hobby or anything ).

Shake hard, hang flat, don't buy linen!

Get DH to do half the tasks - if he's not workin he'll have plenty of time to help out

Another non ironer here apart from schhol/work shirts - creases drop out as you get warm

Ironing ahh I tried that once, it gave me back ache took me ages and has sat in the garage untouched ever since

What's ironing?
Get a ceiling mounted pulley op rated clothes dryer known variously as a rack or a kreel.

hang stuff on there straight from the machine.

Simple.

Nope, don't iron here either. I gave the ironing board and iron to DS when he finished his GCSEs and said now he was at college if he wanted to wear stuff that needs ironing he needed to do it himself. I live in tshirts and jeans mostly, have a couple of shirt/skirt combos that I occasionally have to use for client meetings and they just get shaken and line-dried after washing and are OK to wear when I need them next.

Before ironing, I ask myself one simple question: am I attending a job interview / christening / wedding / funeral today?

If yes, iron. If no, do not iron. Consequently, I have ironed precisely once so far this calendar year.

Wash, don't tumble dry (that's expensive anyway) then hang up on hangers to dry. Works a treat on 99% of garments.