Ironing question (stay at home dad)

[UKchap]

Hi there, my wife goes out to work and I stay at home. I've found that I quite enjoy ironing and would like to start an ironing service. I am thinking about collecting clothes from customers in the morning and returning them in the evening, but wondered whether a morning pick up would be popular? Do you think people would like their clothes picked up in the mornign (say 7am to 9am) and returned in the evening (same day) or do you think people prefer would prefer me to pick their clothes up in the evening? My wife thinks that a morning pick up would be very popular, but I just wanted to ask you guys. Thanks.

Price sounds reasonable, even up North.

I'd think people would prefer to go without plastic and hangers but pay less.

I'd also be happy with 20 minimum.

I'd prefer collection one evening, returning the next evening :)

I pay by weight so I don't know how that compares. I get all mine back on wire hangers and in plastic. It's a faff putting it all away, taking it all off their hangers and rehanging it, so from that point of view providing my own hangers might be better but I'm not sure how feasible that would be.

I think it needs to be in plastic as you will be presumably carrying all around in your car, or a van or something. Then if it is in plastic it's probably much easier to pack if everything is on skinny wire hangers rather that people's own plastic or wooden ones.

I think the price is reasonable, I pay £30 for my stuff (London) though.

I provide my own hangers and she used to put each shirt in plastic but I asked her not to worry about it any more as I ended up over run with
plastic every week!

I reckon approx 7 items per kg so by that comparison you are expensive and I am in the Thames valley, this week 6kg and that was 37 items. Hangers are supplied and I return some each time.

SorryB, sadly i live down south not in Scotland, otherwise I would be happy to oblige. really i was thinking that since so many people seem to hate ironing and i enjoy it (i listen to the radio while i do it) i thought i could make some pocket money at the same time. i will look into this plastic stuff, maybe i can buy it cheaply, same goes for the wire hangers - if i buy enough of them it will be cheap. i will have a look at this one day turnaround as well. any other bits of advice you can give me? how should i advertise it? should i put a leaflet in peoples' doors, or should i use some other method? thanks?

Most important thing above all...do you smoke? Awful awkward incident with my friend when ironing smelled of fag ash, ironing lady claimed to smoke outside, not near the clean washing...it stank, had to be washed again.
BIG no no.

Sounds like a great idea. I wonder if 20 items is a lot for a minimum though? I'd struggle to get that much together ago would prefer 10 as it's really just dh's shirts. Price sounded very competitive. Re hangers and plastic covers, I'd be happy to supply my own and would be fine with one plastic over over everything rather than each item having its own cover.

By the way, how about a porch collection and drop off service? That way you wouldn't need to worry about the person being in.

Good luck

I am also looking into doing this (Am in Scotland so am not competition :) )
You can get rolls of polythene garment covers on ebay, also boxes of wire hangers.

Though from my research, customers will prefer to provide their own hangers.

If you are going to be out and about in both morning and evening, You can pick up/deliver either or, let the customer have a preference.

When advertising, stating that you have a smoke & pet free home helps.

Use vistaprint for cheap business cards & marketing tools.

Also amazon have good clothing rails.

I found my ironing lady from the local board at my DCs school, half the school use her now.

I live in London and use a wonderful ironing lady. She charges £10 for a bag of ironing (she supplies the bags, I think they are 40L sacks). I think this is incredibly good value - it equates to a basket+ of washing or a big stack of shirts, or two sets of double bed linen if I concentrate hard on folding it up really tidily in the bag .

Her house is utterly immaculate and I think she must have an army of ironing slaves or a big ironing machine / press type thing in a dedicated room as she takes in a lot of stuff, she is very well organised. She does pick up within a certain radius, I'm just outside so drop it off and just arrange a vague time (ie around 10.30/11am) to drop. Sometimes she has it done by the afternoon, mostly I come back a day later.

Anything foldable comes back in a zipped bag with my name on it, and I take that back each time. Anything on hangers is held together with elastic bands over the hanger hooks and one plastic cover per however many items fit under easily. I give the hangers back when I remember - they are either v cheap plastic or just wire ones, which is fine though I prefer the wire ones. I also much prefer just one bit of plastic - more environmentally friendly and much less faff.

20 pieces is a lot.
Start small- don't overstretch yourself at the beginning as if you take on too much, you'll get unreliable, and an ironing service is about reliability not just ironing. I wouldn't complicate things with different prices for different times just a flat 48 hour+ Friday collection- Monday delivery, and really really think about whether you want to do it over a weekend.

wow, that's some great info guys. thanks. we don't have any pets and neither of us smoke so the house is completely smoke free. i will remember to include that on any leaflets.

DestinationUnknown, that's a good point you make about bags with customers names on them, I will try and find some on the internet, or if anyone can already recommend some then even better.

lambethlil, i totally undertsand your point about reliability. my wife has told me the exact same thing. maybe i should have a 15 pieces minimum? and chareg a little bit more for them? say £1.05 an item. i don't know. would that just annoy people? this has given me a lot to think about.

YourFanjoIsNotaBag, that's a good idea about the school message board. i'll look into it.

No advice, but I think a really good idea!!

Hi again - she uses bags like these cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?VISuperSize&item=221009607415 and puts a key ring fob on with the name.

Thing about fixed price per item is that a man's shirt is likely to be much bigger than a woman's shirt which may put people off. With the bag I put in anything to fill up the space, after ive put in e stuff i really want ironed, so quite easy t shirts or skirts as well as shirts and bed linen.

Good luck!

Sorry just to be clear - I put my unironed stuff in a 40l bin bag she provides, it comes back folded in the linen bag with my name on. She puts a new bin bag in with the ironed stuff.

Take a look at this for inspiration: I've contacted him today for the first time...
www.ironman-ironing.co.uk/

The only one I've seen local to me charges around £25 for a binbag of clothes to be ironed, this to me seems a better option and would mean people can put kid's clothes in as well, I'd never pay the same for DH's shirt to be ironed as for DS's tshirts!

I wouldn't necessarily have put a minimum number of items.

I have my ironing done - sometimes is 10 work shirts, other times it's shirts plus some other clothes. I'm certainly not organised enough to wait till I've got "enough" or count items.

I think you'd probably do very well.. I wouldn't over charge to start with though... check out what other local firms charge, get yourself a proper commercial type iron, and some insurance in case you burn anything pricey!

Good luck

Get yourself a steampress mate, they're the dog's danglies.

(dirtymistress's oh)

My ironing service picks up on Thursday morning (I leave it outside on the doorstep in a zipped laundry basket) and she delivers back on Friday morning. She charges £13/hour and does masses in an hour. Worth her weight in gold!

My cleaner is now doing ironing. She will take it home with her and drop it back for £7 per hr.

Our ironing service charges per weight bands, so we pay a fixed amount up to 3kg and them mulitples thereof, so generally if we only put in 4 or 5 items we still pay the same as more. You can do the odd single item. Evening drop offs would be great.

How would you be paid? Can you set up paypal or similar? my ironing lady takes cards, i never remember to have cash and have no idea where my cheque book is, so ease of payment is key to me. But sounds like a great idea.

They use wire hangers and plastic covers, we do give them back from time to time as they build up, to be honest, would prefer to use own hangers and pay a little bit less