AIBU to ask whether anyone has actually taken in some ironing?

[PearlofWisdo]

Taking in some ironing - it’s standard MN advice when someone needs to bring in some cash.

But has anyone ever actually taken in some ironing? How did it go?

I e never seen anyone suggest that on here, but that by the by. My SIL used to be an ironing lady, she had a fabulous set up, made it so much easier for herself. She made decent money but it didn’t last, new materials don’t need ironing so much.

I don’t know anyone who took in ironing but I do know someone who sent it out. My kitchen looks out at their front door and I occasionally saw shirts on hangers in plastic bags being returned. The person bringing them drove a normal family car so I imagine she was self-employed.

The man who wore formal white shirts for work has changed job to a more relaxed one and I don’t see her any more. To add to what @KojaksLollipop wrote, I think that fewer people now need to go into work every day wearing clothes which are complicated to iron.

Cost of living might be a thing. Lots of neighbours have cut down on cleaners and other domestic help.

I used to have an ironing lady.

We put all our ironing in a bag in the garage before we went to work. She had a key to the garage and would collect it at some point during the day. The next day I left cash in an envelope in the garage. She charged by weight so I would always make sure I left easily enough and she would deliver the ironing back to the garage, take the money and leave an invoice and any change.

Did that for several years but the ironing lady retired in the noughties so after that we did it ourselves. I think as time went on it became less onerous because our office wear was no longer quite as smart and certainly many of my tops for work were non-iron. Also when DD left school and went to Uni there was less to do.

In these days of WFH and less formal office wear I am guessing there is no longer the demand.

I am retired now and probably spend less than an hour a fortnight ironing. DH the same (yes he does his own!)

I used to have an ironing lady and she was amazing but now my mums retired she very kindly does it for me.

We are a family of 6 and despite best efforts I always have a pile that I name Mount Everest.

I used to send it to a lovely lady who charged by weight but realistically now because of rising costs of everything else I just can't afford it.

So from time to time I dip into Mount Everest and occasionally I clear it but it's nearly always there.

😂

My friend does ironing for money, she only has three clients though. She does 6 hours a week, £15 an hour, it’s really just for her savings for holidays /stuff for the house etc..

Well, this is Mumsnet, so nobody takes in ironing, they just send it out. But this would strongly suggest that the people who take it in must exist.

I think you'll struggle to convince the average mumsnetter that anyone would do anything for £15/hr, frankly. Even the ones who employ the people who do.

£15ph is more than I make going to work. I’d quite happily take in ironing for that.

Same, on your first sentence. (Not same, on your second). But a lot of mumsnetters will never believe that people on average - or below average - wages truly exist.

I know someone who did ironing. Worked as a part-time early morning/evening office cleaner and topped up with a cash in hand cleaning/ironing job genrally for the people that worked in the office.

With the declared income, tax credits and cash in hand, pretty sure she was better off than most of us in the office. Bloody hard and boring work though.

I don’t do it but there are two ladies on our local area fb page who do and they are always posting about being fully booked, always lots of comments trying to get booked in so there is a market for it at least where we are!

I’ve always thought about it- as I really like ironing.

My next door but one neighbour did. She now has a massive laundry/ironing business!

I did it when the kids were small, about 25 years ago. It was bloody brilliant, I used to clean four houses during the week in the day when they were at school, and would pick up bags of ironing from other folks whilst on my way round the village. Then I'd pick up from school, we'd come home and I'd iron for a couple of hours whilst the kids had tea and did homework. It worked brilliantly for about five years until they were going into high school and were a bit more independant so I could go back to full time office work.
I don't know if there's such a call for it now though, and part of the village was quite affluent, where it was pretty common for people to send their ironing out.

My friend had an ironing business for a while and also employed my sister.

She had a contract with a kilt hire shop (mostly shirts) and also took in ironing from domestic houses.

I think that the work varied. I don't think that she would have enough work to make a full time living, but both she and my sister wanted part time hours wfh when they had young kids, They also didn't always have much advance notice of what work was coming in as it was a 24 hour turnaround..

They both were paid well for the work they did.

My mil did, back in the day. Money was tight and interest rates were high.

We have had an ironing lady, she was a single mum of 3 and one dc profoundly disabled, she ironed when they were all at school. Haven’t used her since dh retired though

I did many years ago when I was a single parent. I took in all the silk shirts the local pub landlord used to wear. His wife hated ironing silk!

I live in quite a mumsnet type town, everyone outsources everything.... but are forever asking on local fb for "reasonably priced" decorators, carpenters, gardeners, cleaners, cake makers....God forbid anyone doing something practical earns more than minimum wage! 😄