September 26, 2007

• I do like that cardboard flapper for folding tshirts!
• How to fold shirts quickly by the girl who doesn't know how to make her bed or pick up her room.
• I can't fold worth a damn. I can usually be seen in the laundromat, making about 10 futile attempts to fold a fitted sheet before I wad it up and shove it to the bottom of a basket. Ironing, I can do. But I hate it.
• I have clothes I haven't worn for two years because they need to be ironed.
• They lost me somewhere around "leave for one hour" and "use distilled water". These people are not living in my reality. My version of "ironing" is: 1. Hang shirt on hanger. 2. Turn shower on. 3. Hold hanger w/shirt under shower. 4. Turn shower off. 5. Hang shirt under under vent. 6. Go to bed. Much, much easier. And sometimes you're also dressed to stop people and ask them for quarters for the bus!
• TLDW
• Never, ever just iron the front. 'If you're wearing a jacket, who's gona see your wrinkled shirt's arms?' you say? Ah, but be sure that day you hurriedly mashed the iron over the shirt and hped nobody would notice, there will be an informal meeting later at a place where you'll take your jacket off and the cute girl from the client's accounting dept. will gaze in horror at your wrinkly parts. DON'T LET THAT HAPPEN TO YOU.
• I just let Mom do it. We're all happier that way.
• I don't mind a bit of ironing. I have a colleague who irons straight creases into the front of his shirt to make it look as if it's brand new and he's put it straight on without ironing out the creases from being packed. If you follow me.
• Muteboy 100% Crease-free* Method 1. Wash shirt with tumbly ball things, small amount of detergent and liquid softener 2. Remove from washer 3. Hang on hanger, fasten 2nd button (easier than first, but keeps shirt on hanger) 4. Leave to dry in fresh London breeze (e.g. around window frame, under door, on line) 5. When dry, shirt will be acceptably crease-free (and needing another wash) *may not provide 100% crease-free shirts I don't mind ironing either, but in the small flat, the ironing board and iron are hidden away, and a pain to get out and set up. Also, being an engineer, the rumpled tweedy look is encouraged. The sharp dressers are usually project managers, and not to be trusted. Dish washing I really enjoy, cos I got all my stuff laid out - rubber gloves, brush, scourer (for tea stains), rack (I have a stacking order - ask me about it sometime), radio tuned to 93.5.
• Plegmund, does he also spray his car with 'new car' air freshener?
• I went through a phase of buying 'no-iron' shirts, but really 'no-iron' is up there with 'the cheque is in the post'. He's strictly a cyclist, as it happens, muteboy.
• I'd be quite tempted by something like this if I had to wear ironed shirts every day of the week. I mostly just iron linen.
• I also am tickled at the cardboard folding machine. I may just have to try that. Yes, Monkeys, I confess it; I'm a laundry nerd. I often make my t-shirts into tucked rolls like they do in the Army, and stack them like cordwood. I've been known to use a sleeve board and a pressing ham. Even though all my washcloths aren't the same size, they're all folded to the same size, dammit. I fold my socks rather than rolling them, to avoid stretching. I measured my dresser so I could fold everything to fit exactly three across.
• No Iron shirts are fine if you take them out of the dryer IMMEDIATELY.
• Mine (Marks and Spencers) say something like "These shirts do not require ironing in normal use. May be ironed if a smart appearance is required." I require a smart appearance, dammit.
• An appearance of smartness is all I've got goin'.
• Captain, will your mother do my shirts too?
• Fergittit. Find your own racket. The price I pay for ironed shirts is cold cuts from Denninger's, and guilt. Oh, the guilt...
• No Iron shirts are fine if you take them out of the dryer IMMEDIATELY. Like we're going to take your laundry advice, stinky!
• My musical salute to this link: I just got an invitation through by chance: "Your presence requested this morning, My office, a dress shirt, a necktie and pants." I'll go to the meeting full of elegance,. Because I'm invited to my boss's office With dress shirt, a necktie and pants. Oh, I'm ironin' my dress shirt, Tyin' up my necktie, Creasin' up my pants. I'm foldin' up my tee-shirt, Hemmin' up my trousers, Gimme half a chance! I'm steppin' out, my dear, To breathe an atmosphere That's neat as any pin; And I guess that you'll pardon the mess, 'Til my eyebrows are trimmed, For I'll be there, Foldin' up my sweaters, Waxin' off my back hair, Buyin' underpants!
• *Astaires at TUM in awe*
• "astaires," heehee
• *starts TUM cult*
• I hate ironing. I'm stuck doing it every night around 12:00 midnight, which could be time well-spent on the Filter. I hate sleeves. Death to sleeves!!
• A sleeve board really helps. Or you can use a rolled-up towel instead.
• I often make my t-shirts into tucked rolls like they do in the Army, and stack them like cordwood. Ah, yes, someone taught me that method for efficient clothing packing when travelling and it does help. And less wrinkles, even after the airport people fondle through it.
• TUM, I think you would probably laugh at my current method for ironing. *lowers head in shame*
• What, going up on the roof in a wrinkly shirt and rubbing up against the chimney?
• I keep seeing the sidebar title for this thread and thinking it's the thread when Madeleine L'Engle passed away...
• > 'Til my eyebrows are trimmed, I had no idea that there's such a thing as an eyebrow brush. Makes perfect sense though. > Waxin' off my back hair, I will be surprised if a lot of men apply a product called "Nads" to their bodies in order to remove hair. And what's wrong with the Mangroomer 5000?
• Laundry neeeerds!
• Monkeyfilter: you'll take your jacket off and the cute girl from the client's accounting dept. will gaze in horror at your wrinkly parts Easily solved without ironing, Flagpole. Next time, WEAR PANTS!! Monkeyfilter: I require a smart appearance, dammit.
• As a child I learned to properly iron a shirt from my mother, who was born in 1939, who learned it from her mother, born in 1916 (and still living). She taught me a few other useful (and, formerly, standard) household tricks and duties before she divorced and went to work outside the home (from whence she taught me far more currently relevant lessons). Later, when I took a (admittedly cursory) look at the economics, I gathered that household tricks and duties had become commodified. Having to hire other people to cook for us, to do our ironing, and all the other maintenance tasks our mothers and grandmothers knew how to manage, but are now outsourced, tells me there's a lot of money to be made in our ignorance of household tasks. Sure, outsource them if you're busy. I think there's a power in knowing how to do for oneself.
• I often make my t-shirts into tucked rolls like they do in the Army, and stack them like cordwood. I just took this advice this evening. All my t-shirts are neatly rolled and stacked. I even separated them by color and type (plain vs. print, clean vs. paint-splattered). I do not expect I will maintain such order.
• How do you roll up T-shirts like they do in the Army? *prepares notebook and pen*
• YoPut a folding board (or a magazine) in the middle of the shirt Fold the sleeve sides in Pull the magazine out Fold up a "cuff" at the hem of the shirt Starting at the neck, roll the shirt into a cylinder Pull the part of the "cuff" that's on the underside of the shirt up over the roll to secure.
• Wow, I may have to try that. Or not. It's only laundry, people
• Funny story -- I went to see 2 Days in Paris last week with Mother Renault, and there was this bit where Julie Delpy's mom (both in the film and real life) came up and wondered if Adam Goldberg had anything that needed washing, and he gave her his jeans, and then his jeans came back, and Julie Delpy's mom had ironed them, and Adam Goldberg was like "Who irons jeans?!?, and I had to laugh, because my Mom does, and she was sitting right beside me, and didn't find it funny at all, which made it all that much funnier, and oh how I laughed. Good times, good times...
• TUM, that reminds me of the Hokey-Cokey... You put the left sleeve in The right sleeve out In, out, in, out You shake the creases out You do the MonkeyLaundry and you hang it up, That's what it's all about! Do, the MonkeyLaundry, Do, the MonkeyLaundry, Do, the MonkeyLaundry... Dry flat or Arms stretch Ra! Ra! Ra!
• Who irons jeans?!? *looks sheepishly at freshly ironed pantlegs... But they're for work, and I'm not ready yet to have my secret identity as the rumpled master revealed.
• A Young Man's Fancy Iffy-quality video of the essential MST3K short about electric appliances. It insipred a long, nostalgi-filled talk with Mom about laundry in the 1950's when I tried to find out what the girl in the movie meant by "electric ironer." Lots of good info and pictures of the ironer (or "ironing machine," or "mangle") here. (Yes, Grandma had one.)
• Did not!