OK, you've been warned, this is a message that GFY says shouldn't be posted.

When I saw the title to this thread it brought back memories of my great aunt, Nan. She didn't do laundry. Sent everything to the laundry to be washed, starched and ironed. They would pick up all her linens and bring them back all nicely ironed and folded. My goodness, I wouldn't know how to act!!!

And no, I don't iron my sheets, but I am looking forward to my new built-in ironing board that will allow me to iron my cotton dish towels I get from RH. My ironing board was ruined in the Katrina flood and I just refuse to buy another ironing board that I won't be able to use for the next 10 years.

but I am looking forward to my new built-in ironing board that will allow me to iron my cotton dish towels I get from RH

I have fantasies like that too, but somehow it never works out that way : ) -- What was I thinking!!

squirrel, no for real, I have a built in ironing board at the new house. I'll get you a photo so you can be envious. I can't afford kitchen counters, but I'll be darn if I'm without my built in ironing board. LOL

Actually I don't mind ironing and as a young girl, would iron my same great aunt, Nan's embroidered and lace scarves. I'd also polish all her antique furniture. Do you see where my taste in certain decor comes from?

I do look forward to having an ironing board right there in the wash room so I can press things as soon as they come out of the dryer such as my dish towels and some pillow cases that do wrinkle. OMG that new house is going to have me so domesticated I won't be able to stand it.

This thread brought back some unpleasant memories! My ex husband used to swear that he could not sleep on wrinkled sheets, so for over 20 years I dutifully ironed the sheets for him (and his mother when she came to stay)!
When I finally left him....I left him the iron! :)

brutuses - who ARE you???? ;-P

Is an intervention needed?!!

My childhood friend's mother used to bring the basket of clothes from the dryer to the ironing board in the kitchen and iron every single item before folding. She'd iron and chat to us. I thought it was kind of weird, but they were so used to her in the kitchen ironing everything that it wasn't anything unusual.

As an adult....I LOVE to iron!!!! I love how things look ironed, including the pillow cases. I set up the board in the living room on Sunday nights and iron while watching TV. It's comforting to me.

I don't iron the sheets, though.

I do not iron my sheets, but I love to sleep under ironed sheets. I sort of do like to iron, though. Once I get started on it, I find it's kind of relaxing. I really try not to buy clothes that must be ironed, but we do have a few things that can't go without it. Hubby's shirts go to the dry cleaner.

I'm also one who loves the smell. It reminds me of my grandmother, who ironed everything. She used one of those bottles with the perforated silver stopper in it. She would shake the little drops of water onto her clothes and iron while we watched old movies or her game shows or her "stories". Ahh, I can smell it right now. Man, I miss her.

Sis wrote: "... for over 20 years I dutifully ironed the sheets for him (and his mother when she came to stay)!

You ironed his mother?

I don't blame you. If my MIL trained my DH to sleep on ironed sheets, I would iron her too.

Is this a joke?
April fool's day was 12 days ago!

I don't even know where my iron is!! I bought the cutest ironing board cover - got it home and didn't have a board!! I must have given it away.

With so many dry cleaners that charge a little over a $1 for a piece of dry cleaning - I send it alot out!! But not my sheets - they are lucky to be washed 1x week:) Maybe I should send them to the cleaners, thou.

But MIL has the housekeeper iron sheets, nightgowns, FIL boxers, undershirts and when he was working his doc coat and dress shirts. It is getting harder for her to find a housekeeper that irons, thou!! Gawd, the life of luxury must be nice:) I'd just be happy with someone other than me scrubbing the toliet.

Smiles:)

LOL mclarke! I may have been guilty of some dark thoughts about my MIL from time to time but I never thought of ironing her! If I had I can imagine her saying "Look, youÂve missed some creases, you just donÂt know how to iron a MIL properly, do you!"

Our housekeeper is an ironing fanatic. She irons everything, including the sheets. Ironed sheets are wonderful; they feel and smell better!

Hey!

Here's another one with a heated mattress pad ----- oooooooo ---- just lovely on cool nights to slide those icy cold feet onto a warm pad at the end of the bed .........LOL!!

Jan who likes her sheets very very soft and crumpled .....

Doesn't it take forever for the housekeeper just to iron all that stuff? Are we talking staff or daily made service? : ) Wow.

Who needs their boxer shorts ironed??? I have heard it before, though : ) I'm back to the sanitizing thing, mentioned above.

Johnatemp -- I tried a $1.99 cleaner around here and I'm not sure it was really cleaned. Pressed very poorly it was, and kind of funny looking compared to the old days when I had a lot of dry cleaning done and things would come back looking so perfectly cared for. Are you saying your dry cleaning gets done for $1+ or just the pressing part? I'm wondering what goes on between $2 and $14, or I should say what doesn't go on : )

nope, and never will.
Life is too short!!

ahhhhhh.....noooooooooo.

I remember having to iron my dad's boxers when I was growing up. My mother used to take his dress shirts out of the washer and roll them up and put them in plastic bags in the refrigerator until she could iron them. I guess that it worked better to iron them damp.

So all of you who don't iron anything - how do you keep from being a wrinkled mess? I know that I avoid a lot of ironing by hanging things up right out of the dryer, but there are some things that still need a bit of touching up, if not a complete pressing.

how do you keep from being a wrinkled mess?

To quote Gordon Liddy when he was asked how he kept his finger in the candle flame for so long -- "The trick is not to mind."

Hanging things up right out of the dryer is good. You can also run a hot shower and wave the item under the spray once or twice -- just enough to get it spritzed, but not wet. Most of the wrinkles will come right out.

Do this the night before, to give it time to dry.

You can just toss things in the dryer too to freshen them up, lol. Maybe a little spritz beforehand : )

One word (ok maybe 2): WrinkleFree.

I used to iron *all the time*--it was part of my routine every morning. When I was single, I do remember ironing my sheets a couple of times...I used the on-the-bed method some previous posters mentioned. However, since the advent of WrinkleFree a while back, my iron has gathered major dust. I love the stuff. (Only one bad experience, using it on some drapes.) There was also a dryer product that came out about the same time, basically a bag that you put your dry-cleanables in to freshen them up via the dryer. Took me about a month to toss the clothes into the dryer sans bag. Works just fine. :-)

dlm2000, an intervention may be called for at a later date. We'll see how I domesticate after I get into my new house with the built-in ironing board!! If I start cooking on a regular basis, an intervention is definitely in order. LOL

Annie and Brutuses and I are I guess in the minority...? I love to iron. I once posted a thread that had a lot of responses..My Momma used to...I was ironing and remembering. Momma passed on April 17 2005, so this thread has a lot of laughs and tears. I was given pillowcases to iron so I could learn the right way to do it. I graduated to my brothers' shirts.

There is nothing sweeter than sheets and pillowcases dried on the line and then ironed and starched. I do the top 1/3 of the sheets and the pillow cases. But really it is the time spent thinking and remembering...guess it is a generational thing...I have never felt "old" til I read this thread.

I ran 13 miles on the Pine Mt trail Saturaday in the rain...so i guess I am not too old ...yet. c

Like Trailrunner, I learned to iron on pillowcases and my dad's cotton handkerchiefs, before qualifying for more difficult things. At my house everything got hung on the line to dry, then dampened and put in a bag overnight, then ironed. Man, I hated that job!! I still don't like ironing, although I'm willing to do cotton shirts.

But I'll admit, slipping between sheets that had been dried on the line and then ironed, with that wonderful outdoor fragrance, was a real treat.

Unlike Trailrunner, however, I did NOT run 13 miles last Saturday! You have my admiration!

I absolutely iron "most"of our sheets. I consider it a luxury, even if it's
something I have to accomplish on my own! We have 100% cotton sheets, at least 300 thread count, 400 is better, but anything over that is just a waste of money, IMO. I always iron the pillow cases and about the top 2/3 of the top sheet. Bottom sheet takes care of itself when it's stretched over the mattress. Everyone should have the experience of climbing into a bed made with fresh laundered and ironed bed linens.

I have ironed our sheets in the past. I adore vintage linens with beautiful embroidery and that should really be pressed to see all of the great handiwork. However, right now my life is such that I simply do not have the luxury of that much time. Not to mention, large items like that draw the attention of my 18-month-old who finds it a great thrill to run through and play peek-a-boo in. I have to say, the Miele mangle is one of my dream machines. I covet it and I hope to have one some day and then I will iron sheets again (and get some tapes to work on foreign languages at the same time).

My mother had a mangle and I loved operating it, I wish I had it today and I wish I had room for it in my home today. I'm guessing that's when It became obvious to me that ironing was something that you just did! And today, ironed sheets and pillowcases are one of the easiest and most affordable little luxuries.

I have a mangle--bought at an estate sale, and I use it often. The new ones cost the earth, but I'd love to have one.

Here is a link that might be useful: Miele Rotary Iron

An elderly neighbor once asked us to help her get rid of her mangle.

We tried to give it away for free in our yard sale, but nobody wanted it.

I had to break it into pieces so it'd be small enough for the garbage can. It took me three days of hard work with a sledge hammer. That thing was SOLID.

omg, I was just wanting one of those things, if I had a basement.

(Falling under Goofy's posting category of 'If you don't have anything to contribute, then don't! waste our precious time and space. But since this site wasn't designed for Goofy's sole delight and swift efficiency, I'm saying it anyway :)) So there! Those things look handy! This thread is makin' me want to iron!)

Nope.

I don't even iron my clothes. :)

I do occasionaly tell myself I'm going to start ironing the pillowcases and the top sheet, only the border part, as that does not lay lay flat for some reason.
When growing up, my mother had us iron practically everything as in those days laundry was hung out to dry, and the wrinkles really showed. Yes, we ironed sheets but only after they were folded into 1/4's.
A mangler would have been quicker, no one we knew owned one. Many of my friends also had this chore but not everyone, even then they were 'the ironers' and the 'non ironers'

after ironing ALL my widow treatments over the weekend i doubt i'll ever iron again! :)

i don't think i'd even do the pillow cases. get them right out of the dryer and put em on!

Nope .. no ironing sheets here.

Perhaps the subject line should read:

OCD: Do you iron your sheets?

This thread has reminded me of the absolute worst job I've ever had... One summer between college years, circa 1978... Only job I could find was at a commercial laundry where I spent 4 hours on the 'feeding' end of a humongous (25' long) mangler, took a 30 minute lunch in the smoky, gross break room, and then returned for 30 minutes to man the receiving end of the mangler. There were five ladies stretched across each end, many of whom had worked there 25 years!!!! Oh and did I mention the inside temp was 25 degrees higher than outside? Thank God those days are well behind me. The only savings grace was another college girl who worked with me that summer. She looked exactly like Mia Farrow but had a mouth like a sailor and kept me in stitches constantly. Funniest person I've ever known. Trust me when I say if you'd ever worked there, you would never again put a cloth napkin from a restaurant up to your mouth again...

And no, I don't iron my sheets, but I sure wish somebody in this house would take it up! I love ironed sheets....
Lynn

Well, I would rather be ironing sheets right now than in my office. And that is saying a lot. LOL

OMG, I have tears streaming down my face after reading through the replies here! I tried ironing mine ONCE, the week after I got married. Then I realized that I was nuts to be wasting my time that way . . . heck, I had him already ;~P !!!

Gosh, I missed this entire thread. I was ironing my sheets while y'all were posting.

OK, I admit it......I am a real princess when it comes to my bed. Sheets (must be white and at least 400TC) are washed with a lavender fabric softener from France. Bottom sheet put on bed when still very slightly damp from the dryer and stretched like crazy. Top sheet and pillows cases are ironed while spraying with lavender linen water. It's a pain in the neck sometimes, but NOTHING compares to that silky yet crisp, lightly scented bed.

I don't waste time ironing. I do something else at the same time, watch tv or listen to music. I'd do those things anyway, so why not iron? It's the only chance I allow myself to watch tv in the daytime!

I only iron my pillowcases, it's a small luxury that I appreciate. I doubt anyone else in the house cares :).

I also iron quite a lot of my own clothing. Since I live in Miami and work in a university setting a lot of my office outfits consist of linen or cotton blouses and skirts. Those have to be ironed. I follow Wooderlander's policy and set up the ironing board so I can watch a decorating show while I iron.

Ann

Holy cow! I might iron sheets if that were the only way somehow that I could get internet access. Yikes. I feel pretty good about changing them. Yikes. I am a now-single :( mother with sole custody of my four awesome :) little kids, I keep kids in my home and am going to graduate school. I cannot imagine ironing sheets. I used to iron clothes. Nowadays I use the iron for things like edge-banding MDF shelves and making those little heat-melt bead crafts with the kids..... God, my KINGDOM to be a stay-at-home mom..... with a cleaning lady.... and I might as well ask for a screened porch and a hot tub, and a pony.... sigh.....

SKATIERO: IF ANYONE DESERVED A BEAUTIFULLY MADE, ALL COTTON, IRONED BED, it's you!
It's a struggle, but it's mom's like you that put those little one's out there for the future of us all. Best Wishes; I wish I could help.
Annie

This thread brought me out of lurkdom, lol! I've starched and ironed my topsheet (most of it) and pillow cases for years. I iron while watching t.v. and, for me, is worth the time and effort. There's nothing, absolutely nothing, better than climbing into a bed w/a great mattress, wonderful bedding, good quality starched and ironed sheets.

For me this began while living overseas. A friend of mine hated that her DH traveled so much. She'd keep a set of starched and ironed sheets, done at the dry cleaners, on hand and put them on the bed the day her DH would leave. She said she'd pamper herself w/the sheets, a good book, candles, etc. to make that first evening a little easier. The idea of the starched and ironed sheets really struck a chord w/me and I've been doing it ever since. Complete luxury for very little time (no, it really doesn't take long) or $$$!

maybe not true, but the rumor was that Jackie Kennedy had her sheets ironed after each nap.

I have not ironed my sheets in the past, but I am going to try it after reading some of the descriptions of your beds. I like to iron as well, it is relaxing. I confess-I iron my little kid's clothes! I do agree about the thread count-once you have slept on good sheets, you can never go back~it makes a world of difference and they last so much longer than the cheap ones that come with your "bed in a bag."

I bought so 500 TC sheets for the guest room. I just washed (no soap only FS and vinegar) the out of the package and they came our like aluminum foil and severely wrinkled. I put the bottom sheet on the bed damp and ironed it. Didn't get the wrinkles out! I took the set to the cleaners. I certainly don't want to make a habit of that. Conversely, the very old set that I washed next came out soft and almost wrinkle free.

I use to iron every thing when I was a Stepford Wife.
When I divorced Mr. Stepford (hee hee)I left the ironing board on my side of the bed
with a wig and a see through gown on.
That was 28 yrs ago.

25 yrs with this DH and he just wants me to look pretty.
But I digress. What was the question?

I used to, but I'm OCD