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How To Not Iron Your Clothes Ever Again

How To Not Iron Your Clothes Ever Again
Carly Jacobs

I don’t iron clothes. Well actually that’s a lie. I have one dress that requires a quick steam before I wear it but it’s very fancy so it only comes out at weddings. I actually don’t know if I still own an ironing board. My iron has been missing for 2 years since my best mate borrowed it for a play. She returned it to me but I somehow lost it on the walk home from her house. Or maybe I didn’t and it’s hidden somewhere in my tiny apartment. Either way, I can’t locate my iron. And it doesn’t matter because I don’t iron.

It’s not that I don’t like ironing – I actually really do. I find it super relaxing. If I had a house that was bigger than a shoe box I could get right into it. What I hate about ironing, is getting the ironing board out. It always sucks no matter where you live, or where the ironing board is kept. It always hurts (either back from twisting or fingers from getting clamped) and it just makes me grumpy. If I could make the ironing board just appear in front me and then disappear again that would be ace.

Because of how much I hate setting up the ironing board, I simply don’t buy clothes that need ironing.

Here’s one on my favourite no-iron outfits…

Dress from Metalicus – it’s really, really old stock but if they made this dress again, I’d buy one in every colour. Get on it Metalicus. I’m tired of begging.

Leather jacket from Vinnies – I bought this a few weeks ago and I LOVE IT! Never taking it off. Dream jacket. It was also $20. I can’t get over it. Literally my best ever op shop score.

Boots from Ecco – It’s almost time to get these guys re-soled. I’ve almost worn all the tread off them!

Here are my tips for having an iron-free life…

Don’t buy clothes that require ironingย 

If you can help it all, just don’t. Go for stretch, jersey and knits. I used to work in an office and I didn’t own even one pair of ‘good’ black pants. I’ve also never worn a button up white shirt outside of a uniform. It’s a myth that you need to own these things. Straight cut, stretch black jeans look identical to pants and they don’t need ironing. A stretch wrap top will be more comfortable and will look just as professional as a tailored white shirt. If you work in an office and youย likeย wearing corporate style tailored clothing that requires ironing, go for it. But there are ways around it if you don’t.

Hang clothes up immediately after washing themย 

I have one or two items that technically require ironing but I just hang them up when they’re wet on a hanger and leave them to dry in the sun. All the wrinkles just fall out of these items and I don’t have to touch the iron. It’s such a pro move. I’ll make sure the collar is sitting all nice and flat and give it a bit of a tug into shape and it’s good to go. Your clothes won’t have that snappy flatness that a good iron will give but it will make your clothing at least look respectable and not like you fished it out of the washing basket 5 seconds before you left the house.

Lower your standardsย 

If you iron something, the second you sit down, the whole thing is ruined. For example, I would never waste my time ironing linen. I’d certainly hang it up on a hanger in the sun after washing it but ironing linen is such a waste of time because it’s goes all crinkly in twenty seconds anyway. I’m all for looking tidy but you don’t need to walk out of your house looking like you have a lady in waiting. You’re not Princess Kate, and the Queen and won’t judge you. Let it go.

Wash your kid’s uniforms less

One of my mate’s mums in high school was always complaining about ironing the pleats back into our winter girl’s school uniform skirts after she washed them each week and I was like ‘Dude. Just do what my mum does!’.ย Which was the tried and true method of getting my skirt dry cleaned at the beginning of each term and then I’d just wear bike shorts underneath it and sponge clean/air it once a week for the whole semester. I swear those things were covered in Teflon. Indestructible. I wore mine for 6 years and only had it cleaned 4 times a year. My shirts needed washing more often but I’d just do the hang it up trick and it worked a treat. You may think I’m disgusting but I’ll wear anything as long as it’s not visibly dirty or stinky. Boom.

Do not iron for men. Ever.ย 

I cannot stress this enough. We women have to literally paint our faces, colour our bodies with fake tan, rip out all out body hair, squish our already totally perfect bodies into shape wear, mince around in stupid high heels and pretend like it all happened accidentally. The one thing men have to do that’s a total pain in the ass to deal with appearance wise (apart from shaving which they skilfully eradicated with hipster beards), is their professional wardrobe and they need to deal with that themselves. If you truly don’t mind ironing your partner’s/father’s/son’s clothes – go for it. If you do mind (and I suspect that’s the majority) tell them to do it themselves. You can even YouTube it so you don’t have to teach them how. It’s not that hard.

So tell me… now that you no longer have to iron every day, what are you up to this weekend? I’m having lunch with my podcast co-host Kelly today and it will be around the fourth time we’ve met each other in person. How funny is that? Then I’m off to Problogger drinks tonight, the proper Problogger conference tomorrow, a theatre day with my mate on Saturday night (JESUS CHRIST! SUPERSTAR!) and then on Sunday night I’M SEEING SEINFELD!!! For real. I’m so excited. I’ve been waiting for him to come to Australia for twenty years. This is a very big moment as we missed him by two days when we were in Vegas last year.

It’s going to be a good weekend.

Do you iron? Do you hate it? Also what are you up to this weekend?

P.S Also you should totally sign up for my newsletter.ย Itโ€™s full of cool stuff.
P.P.S Donโ€™t forget Crochet Coach has a free trial offer period at the moment so make sure you sign up!

26 Comments

  1. Claudia 7 years ago

    I put my freshly washed clothes in the dryer in batches for just 10 minutes and then hang them up while still warm. Viola, no wrinkles!

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 7 years ago

      Oh this is a great hack! Can’t wait to try it!

  2. Cheney EarlGrey Brew 7 years ago

    I iron about twice a year, or less if I can get away with it. But my partner does a week’s worth of shirts every Sunday and was doing so long before he met me – his ironing skills are waaaay better than mine.
    Some women in his office refuse to believe this – they make comments instead on what a nice girlfriend I am, to keep him looking so neat. I mean, I am nice, but I haven’t ironed a shirt for that man in the entire 7 years we’ve been together. So I guess the first step to getting a man to iron is… actually believe that he’s capable of doing it? It’s so weird!

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 7 years ago

      Oh I hate it when people think I do things for Ben that he does himself. He packs himself snacks and everyone thinks it’s me doing it!

  3. Simple Abundance 7 years ago

    Genius! That bit about the man training – may have left that a bit late! I iron a massive heap of business shirts for my man. I found a youtube tutorial done by a very proper English guy and learned how to do it well and quickly but I still have to listen to podcasts while I iron to prevent complete insanity.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 7 years ago

      Never too late! Show the Youtube vid to your man – get on it! ๐Ÿ™‚

  4. Kelly 7 years ago

    Totally agree about hanging your clothes on hangers – I still iron but its a much easier task and takes up less space on the clothes line too! I am jumping on the bandwagon to bring that dress back, its a total winner and I would like one too.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 7 years ago

      Oh man we need to start a riot over this dress for real.

  5. Lisa Fourman 7 years ago

    I haven’t ironed anything…well…ever! I don’t see a need to, really. Most of my clothing ends up wrinkled anyway so why bother with it? I have clothes that don’t need the ironing board, thank goodness. But still, it’d probably be a good idea to learn how to use an iron just in case I might ever actually have a need for one.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 7 years ago

      I’d just keep avoiding it the way you have been. ๐Ÿ™‚

  6. MissyD 7 years ago

    Great outfit. ๐Ÿ™‚

    I do iron, but it doesn’t bother me to, I also prefer to wear natural fibres so they do require ironing (even if they wrinkle later, if they never get ironed they just get worse over time).

    I’m also okay about ironing my man’s clothes because he hates it and it doesn’t bother me. Besides, he does other things I don’t like doing, like killing giant huntsmans… which I feel is far worse than ironing. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 7 years ago

      As long as it’s even! Mr Smaggle and I have a similar system where we trade off jobs we like against ones we don’t. I hate vacuuming so he does that and I clean the toilet because he hates that!

  7. Michaela 7 years ago

    The only things I ever used to “iron” where new seams that I would press open after making a garment from scratch. Literally it. ๐Ÿ™‚

  8. Maria Patenaude 7 years ago

    I don’t own anything that needs to be ironed. For the 11 years I’ve been with my guy I’d only ever ironed dress shirts for him for baptisms and funerals and such (and even some of those are “no iron”). He even spent 4 years working from home in sweatpants (yes!). So it wasn’t until last week that I ever bought an ironing board and it’s because he’s teaching now and is meant to serve as an example of professionalism. So he has to shave daily, and I have to iron when I’m too slow getting things from the dryer onto the hanger. Truthfully the only reason I bothered getting the ironing board was we switched to a memory foam mattress and I figured I shouldn’t iron on top of that. Otherwise, I’m 37 and never needed an ironing board until now.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 7 years ago

      It’s harder to not iron when you have a professional dude in your house. Mr Smaggle owns a funky suit and that’s about it. We do the wet hanger thing for almost everything. We iron the most in hotels actually.

  9. Lisa Fourman 7 years ago

    Oh don’t worry โ€“ I will be! I like avoiding stuff I don’t like doing.

  10. J 7 years ago

    I don’t iron very much anymore, but when I did I had a mini ironing board like this that could hang in my closet. Much easier to get out! http://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Tabletop-Ironing-Board/34-2228

    Now I mostly steam my clothes with a small steamer, or put them in the dryer. This only applies to fancier clothes. if not I don’t buy clothes that require lots of ironing.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 7 years ago

      You know what? If I had the space, I’d get a steamer. I love a good steamer.

  11. Kathryn OHalloran 7 years ago

    I never iron but I have a few cotton scarves that need it sometimes. A friend told me to use a hair straighten. That’d probably work on collars and other fiddly bits too.

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 7 years ago

      Oh that’s a great idea! I don’t own a hair straightener though. ๐Ÿ™‚

  12. Hayley 7 years ago

    I NEVER IRON. DOWN WITH IRONING!

  13. Sheree 7 years ago

    Totally agree, no ironing, daughters uniform goes from line to hanger presto ironed…husband does his own (& why shouldn’t he!) he does his weeks worth on a Sunday night. When his mum comes to visit she does it I mean really, come on….

    • Author
      Carly Jacobs 7 years ago

      That would drive me nuts! Mr Smaggle’s grandmother tries to knight him every time he does a load of washing in front of her. Drives me bonkers.

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