So DP says to me this morning....Can you iron some of the clothes you have hidden in black bin liners in the spare room because....

[kidcreoleandthecoconuts]

I have shirts I got for xmas, have worn once and not seen since!

I pointed out to him that there was nothing stopping him from doing some of his own ironing now and again....It is pretty embarrassing though. I just cant seem to keep up with it all and only ever seem to skim the surface iykwim. Its not like I iron EVERYTHING like some people do.

I iron...

Trousers, jeans,skirts, dresses.
T-shirts, shirts, jumpers.

I dont iron....

Bedding, underwear, nightwear etc.

What about everyone else? What do you iron and how do you keep on top of it??

Yes, but shouldn't that reflect more on the man than the woman?

How do you not iron jeans? Mine come out so wrinkled.

I send my ironing out.

I don't iron.

Tell him you don't iron. If he wants to iron that's his sodding lookout.

Cheeky bugger.

I make sure I don't spin the clothes too fast, then fold them while wet in a pile and leave for a couple of hours or overnight, then hang them on the airer to dry. I swear they look ironed.

Xenia, there are plenty of relationships where that simply isn't the case, though. Thinking now of my own parents where my mum (a teacher, intermittently, often at home bringing up children) never did any ironing for my father or indeed much of any other housework. Father did v high powered job but had plenty of time to iron his own shirts and indeed anything of ours that needed doing. He has never complained nor expected my mother to do it for him. It's about being a grown up who takes responsibility for your own stuff not about who earns the cash, surely?

I totally agree, horton!

I don't iron, or only very very very rarely (a couple of times a year, perhaps). DH does his own shirts and anything of mine that needs doing (there isn't normally anything of mine, but he tends to ask). And somehow we achieve this even though he earns more than I do

So why hasn't he seen them? Hasn't he worked out the iron yet? Awww didumms.

I had a Toyota Steam press when we had the hotel - It was fab, I'd sit there watching eastenders obmnibus ironing the sheets on a Sunday - I loved it! Would deffo recommend

I agree, Horton. In the 1960s when my mother's breastfeeding failed my father did all the night feeds even though he wa working full time as a doctor. he drove us to school every day until we left school at 18. He came home for lunch every day of his life (as did we until we were 11). He emptied wastebins at the weekend and did most of the hoovering at weekends. The important point is my mother wouldnt' for one second have lived with a sexist man. There are far too many women who tolerate being treated like dirt whetehr housewives or otherwise and they need to ensure they aren't.

Oh, and before we married I remember my chdilren's father showing me his system for his shirts - he had his own house (good test actualyl before you get involved with someone is check out their house or whetehr theyare at home and their mother does everything) - he had a system of leaving them on hangers in the air cupboard area so they dried without creases which seemed to work.

If you have got behind with ironing, I highly recommend you either get an ironing lady in on a one-off for a morning to get on top of it OR you give it all to an ironing service.

Do not hesitate to think that you might need to do this several times a year!

Ironing and I have a weird relationship. I quite like it really, but spend a lot of time screeching 'look at that ironing, it's up to the ceiling'.
I iron for half hour on Wednesday or Thursday, then iron for an hour at 6.30am on Sunday mornings. This is the weird part, I actually enjoy my Sunday morning ironing.
Then I make a cup of tea and take my book and the biccies back up to bed for an hour.
Wake DH up whilst getting in and tell him loudly that I've done ALL that bloody ironing. Up he gets, does everything else and deals with the dc and does the fry-up.

Xenia, you manage to speak sense while winding me up.

Nothing I currently fit in requires ironing.
DH irons his own clothes as and when he needs it.

I'd quite like to do ironing, but it's very low priority and takes forever.

Have only read the first page, but glad to see that the "don't iron" camp is getting stronger. My line is if we are in the 21st century, we have space travel, mobile phones, the internet, washing machines, dishwashers... why the f we still rubbing hot metal over our clothes before wearing them?
(I do realise some things look better ironed, but I just don't buy them, or if I make a mistake and they look awful unironed I get rid of them). Also "D"P lives elsewhere and gets his work shirts done by the dry-cleaners.

I have one of those swish steam blower things that I got from the nice wardrobe mistress at the local theatre...it's just fab.

DH does iron when required, but it's painfully slow.

I used to do ironing for extra cash when a student so I'm quite good at it.
Shirts and skirts only though!

Anyone going to admit to starching anything then???!!!!!!

Just in case Xenia blows a head gasket I shall add that I earn more than my husband does. And I pay the cleaner.