15 shirts a week

[theonlygirl]

DS2 starts big school in September, meaning there will be 15 shirts in the laundry each week. DH 5, DS1 5, DS2 5.
no issue washing and drying them but it will be a cold day in hell before I stand ironing their shirts. I don't use a tumbledryer so they all definitely need ironing.

Option 1 - make them iron their own.
Option 2 - drycleaners

Curious to know what others do

My ddad (who would have been older than the queen if he was still alive!) use to iron his own shirts & he worked long hours. His generation fought ww2 & learnt to iron & clean shoes to perfection via their service so it was perfectly normal for them to do this. (he also use to clean all of our shoes & make our school lunches when dm worked).
That was in the 1960's - have we gone backwards?

As PP have said, if they stay in the machine after it's finished it seems to make the creases worse. Also I reduce the spin to 800 - that seems to work too. Then I do the shaking and tweaking.

I always remove the washing from the machine as soon as it has finished. However, you may be right about reducing the spin speed.

Of course you could just be more particular than I am

Yes, I probably am
I don't want a wrinkled face and wrinkled clothes. I can't do anything about my face, but I can about my clothes

How so? It’s hardly going to give you Ebola.

OK so big school = secondary, apologies for confusion. I'm not gonna make a 5 year old iron.
DS1 is nearly 15.
DH is supposed to do the ironing Was hit and miss before new job, now definitely not gonna happen, working 18 hr days at present & won't change for foreseeable. (yes I have a DH problem).
I have always taken care of the family, and am happy to do the rest of the laundry(and all the other tedious domestic bollocks), and yes there are currently 10 shirts but another 5 has pushed me over the edge. If it was only 15 shirts I'd get them done in no time, but there's the rest of the clothes.
I do dry on hangers but the kids shirts aren't these M&S non iron ones so I will hunt them down. DH's need to be ironed one way or the other.

This isn't about me not being arsed to look after my kids, it's really about having 2 boys and wanting them to be functioning adults and not grow up believing that women should do this stuff for them.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

When I was a child, "big school" meant secondary.

Errr…this is MN OP. Just don’t iron them 💁🏻‍♀️

Yes I recognize this.

If DH works such long hours can he afford to send them out for ironing? That or he just doesn't get clean shirts.

Also do you work?

Another one asking if they need a new shirt everyday?

My 14 y/o definitely needs a new shirt everyday.

She showers and puts on deodorant but the underarm parts are still not very fresh and if she wore it twice it will probably start smelling of BO.
In an emergency she could wear it twice but she has 5 shirts and they all get washed together so it’s not extra work.

OP I get not wanting to do everything for your sons but I would pick my battles.

If the shirts needs ironing then I would do them myself but get them to do other things like putting the washing on, hanging the wet clothes up etc.

The 15 year old irons his own, the youngest dies his when he turns 15.

Life skill they need to learn.

Back to DH doing his own?

This isn't about me not being arsed to look after my kids, it's really about having 2 boys and wanting them to be functioning adults and not grow up believing that women should do this stuff for them. - But if that’s the case then why are you ironing your husbands shirts? Even if he works long days, surely he can manage half an hour to iron his own shirts once a week?

This isn't about me not being arsed to look after my kids, it's really about having 2 boys and wanting them to be functioning adults and not grow up believing that women should do this stuff for them.

You haven’t worried about your 15 year old not ironing until now. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Now 5 extra shirts is suddenly an issue. All the other clothes were always there.

18 hour days for your husband isn’t sustainable , especially with children. He needs to be a parent too.

we did 30 a week at one point dh myself and 4 kids in schools that all needed shirts

We took turns. including the kids 1 Sunday iron in 6 I prefer shirts ironed personally.

My 2 older kids were taught to use the iron as soon as they started comp. My youngest will be the same come September! I've not ironed a uniform in years! Husband has always ironed his own shirts...single man for years and is fussy about how it's done.

If you get non iron shirts they dry without creasing if you hang them neatly on the line. Or teach your kids to iron!

Small ones do not need ironing. Man can do his own.

I ironed my own from 13. DH should definitely iron his own. Depending on age, so could ds1. Then you only have a few to do!

Do one wash with all the shirts in and nothing else. Straight out of the wash as soon as it stops and into the dryer. Straight out of the dryer as soon as it stops and onto hangers. The creases only develop when they sit in the machines.

I have 3 (adult )sons plus a DH.
I only iron if it's as a favour, and make it clear it's a transactional thing.
DH irons his own shirts regularly. DS1 irons his on need only basis, he wfh mostly so only needs one presentable shirt a week. Mostly darker coloured shirts look sort of OKish if pulled about a bit before they are hung up to dry (inside or out, depending on weather). We have a Kitchen Maid dryer in the upstairs hall).
DS2 & 3 never iron anything and don't care.
When they were younger, I offered ironing lessons at about 10 years old, and stopped ironing myself shortly after I found a bunch of ironed school shirts on the floor.
Non of them followed up on it, so they had lightly creased school shirts for most of secondary. Nobody cared.
At primary school, they had polos. The polyester mix ones didn't need ironing, the nicer pure cotton ones looked better if they were ironed, but again, nobody cared. They had clean clothes every day ( they needed them) but were unironed the whole way through primary. It was never ever remarked on, and they didn't look much different to anyone else .
As they got older it became a bit more obvious, but by that point they were old enough to iron themselves if it bothered them. It clearly didn't.

DH irons his own
DS 15 irons his own
DS 5 has mum iron his.
Your DH needs to iron his own shirts at some point. The example is being set to both the boys already that it's a woman's job. 18 hour days is hard.
But it's HIS work clothes. He should take some responsibility somewhere.

18 hour days for your husband isn’t sustainable , especially with children. He needs to be a parent too.

I assume it’s not a choice though.

OP hasn’t said if she works and if she doesn’t then he’s going to have to work more hours to provide for the family.

Get the oldest one to do his own. You do the rest. It takes less about a minute to iron a shirt.

I used to have similar amounts of shirts for years. I didn't iron them but I'd wash them and not spin them much, just on say 400/600. Then put them on coat hangers as soon as they were finished in the washing machine. They aren't perfect but good enough, especially if they also have a jumper/blazer.

I didn’t wear a different shirt every day at school, wasn’t necessary, and I didn’t smell! Had friends and boyfriends and everything
only other suggestion is to lower the spin cycle. The wetter the shirts when they come out, the less creased they’ll be as they dry.