Not baby related - Help me avoid ironing?

[dotgirl]

My company is moving to a dress code at the end of the month. This isn't too bad, as I think I'm ok, clothes-wise. However, about 90% of my work clothes will now be "delicate cycle, hang to dry". (the other 10% will be dry-clean only.) Anyway, hanging things to dry means I have to iron them ... and I hate hate hate ironing. Hate.

Does anyone have any suggestions? The whole "toss them in the dryer for a few minutes with a damp washcloth" doesn't work very well on most of them. I'm thinking of trying to Downey Wrinkle-Free fabric softner - has anyone used it?

[crl]

I hate ironing too! Not much help for the clothes you already own, but for the future. . . . I've had good luck with the 100 percent cotton, wrinkle free shirts from Eddie Bauer. And I have two pairs of machine wash, hang to dry pants from Talbots that do not require ironing. Also, I have several Talbots cotton sweaters that I machine wash and dry flat and don't iron. . . . With those it helps if I drape them very carefully.

Sorry I can't be of more help! Good luck avoiding the iron!

[RwnMayfair]

I honestly don't iron anything. (Much to my mother's horror.) Most of our clothing comes out relatively well when it's hung to dry, so I guess it's just luck. The few items that don't, usually just hanging them in the bathroom when someone's in the shower and allowing them to be steamed works to get out wrinkles, but none of them are majorly wrinkled when we do that either. Of course, body heat tends to get out non-major wrinkles as well, but I don't know if you really want to go the "just put it on and wear it" route that we do sometimes. ;)

My mother has tried the wrinkle releaser spray that someone makes (I can't honestly remember who, though), and it works relatively well. I'm not sure if there's a limit on what fabrics it can and can't go on though, but it might at least be worth looking at the bottle at the store. I haven't tried the wrinkle-free fabric softener, but I'd be interested to hear how that works if someone has!

-Melissa

Taran Reed - Nov, 20, 2003

[houseof3boys]

I got the new LE catalog today and they have some of those wrinkle resistant shirts in their that would be work appropriate.

I tried the Downey spray for wrinkles and the softener and didn't think it worked well enough for something you would wear to work.

I hate ironing too but when I used to iron work stuff, I did it while watching tv and it helped immensely! I also never ironed more than 5 pieces at a time.

[Marisa6826]

We used the Downey Enhanced (or whatever it's called) fabric softener that supposedly lessens wrinkling. It usually does the trick well, since I'll be damned if I'm going to iron all Jonathan's shirts ;).

As long as you hang the stuff up shortly after the dryer stops, you're good to go.

Our dryer has this trick where it will keep tumbling (if you press the magic option) till you come and get the stuff so it doesn't wrinkle the clothes.

-m

[JLiebCamm]

My husband is a teacher and wears cotton dress pants and shirts every day. I LOVE the wrinkle free lines so much; we mainly have Dockers and Eddie Bauer ones. It takes me 1 minute to iron a shirt instead of the 5-7 that his wrinkly cotton shirts take. And they look every bit as nice; it's not like the wrinkle free quality lessens the appeal of the clothes.

[C99]

I LOVE ironing, so all of my clothes that need ironed, get ironed (this is the byproduct of growing up with a mom who so hated ironing that we outgrew clothes while waiting for her to iron them -- and she wouldn't let us wear them wrinkled)! I've tried the Downy stuff and for as much stretching, etc. that you have to do, I think you might as well just iron -- it takes as much time and is just as effective! Have you tried Dryel? Or you can always take things to the cleaners for pressing only. It's usually about 1/2 the cost of drycleaning, but might be worth it if you hate ironing.

[daisymommy]

If you have ever ordered from Chadwicks catalog, they have a ton of wrinkle free work/career clothes too.