<p>My mom used to get so mad at my father’s mother when grandma would give my dad a half dozen 100% cotton dress shirts for his birthday or as a Christmas gift, shirts that had to be ironed to be worn. Granny did it to bust my mom’s chops because she knew my mom didn’t like to iron–my mom would just throw the shirts in the back of the closet to rot.</p>
<p>I don’t hang anything to dry. Our HOA doesn’t allow a clothes line and frankly our laundry room is placed between the kitchen & garage; no real place to hang wet clothes. I do use fabric softener in every load though. Like starbright though, I make decisions when buying clothes to buy permanent press, non wrinkly type things.</p>
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<p>There’s a whole underground night-time world in Sactown that no one knows about… ssshhhhhh!!</p>
<p>Everybody here seems to think this is a thread about IRONING vs. OTHER WAYS TO ELIMINATE WRINKLES. It’s actually a thread about why people (mostly women and Felix-Ungerish men) can’t live with a few wrinkles, especially in casual clothes (could also include underwear of various types).</p>
<p>Some people here seem to think wearing clothes with a few minor wrinkles is as unthinkable as wearing clothes with fresh dog doo smeared onto them. I’m asking why they think that. What is so freaking scary about a wrinkle?</p>
<p>H was in the military and that’s where the underwear-folding came from. So at some point I jumped on that bandwagon.</p>
<p>Iron sheets? No. Take them out of the dryer and put them on.</p>
<p>H irons his work clothes every night, for the next day. I don’t iron anything unless it’s REALLY BAD. </p>
<p>For anything that’s just “kinda” wrinkled - now I just stick it in the steam dryer on the wrinkle release setting for a few minutes, works like a charm. Anything leftover after that, it adds character.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t think of going out without makeup, or be “dressed,” and that would include matching shoes and bag. For other people it is not that important. </p>
<p>People should be comfortable with what they wear and how they look. When I was in high school, my BF thought I was too uptight with the way I dressed, he thought a bohemian look was better. I tried, but just felt very uncomfortable. </p>
<p>I don’t care so much about wrinkles, I have a thing about stains on clothes. Sometimes at meetings, if a guy has a stain on his tie or shirt (usually happens after lunch), I would end up staring at it. People have joked about cleaning themselves up before they come to my meeting.</p>
<p>I just thought about it…wrinkles bother me, not going to lie. H is the same, so it’s a good thing I married him.</p>
<p>I iron almost everything. I like to have the creases on the sleeves. I used to iron my kids play clothes too! One guy that I work with always comes in with wrinkles in his shirts. I just can’t figure out how he can go out of his house looking like that! I think it was how I was brought up. My mother loves to iron. I think it relaxes her. My kids know how to iron and S1 says that every Thursday he irons all of his work clothes. His GF doesn’t iron anything and thinks he is crazy! Both boys are like me, can’t stand wrinkles!! When S2 went to Australia in HS my sister told us about Downey Wrinkle Releaser. S2 said it’s the best thing they ever invented. He doesn’t iron at school, but uses a bottle of the Wrinkle Releaser every two weeks. He also told me that he found out if he hangs his shirts up right from the dryer they aren’t bad. I think one of the worse things to iron is cargo shorts! S1’s GF has said that she has used his Wrinkle Releaser a few times without him knowing!</p>
<p>“H is the same, so it’s a good thing I married him.”</p>
<p>You ARE lucky. I’m in a mixed marriage…wrinkles don’t bother me at all, and wife is from Spain, where the aesthetic favors the sleek and the slick. When I was bouncing around the world in decades past, I theorized that each culture has an iconic figure that it gets its fashion values from. Like in Spain it’s the bullfighter…elegant, pristine, slick. In much of the US, it’s the cowboy…rugged, practical, blue jeans adapted for every occasion. In England it’s the royal family…traditional, outdoorsy, cuffed pants, waxed cotton coats. </p>
<p>I also noticed that although every culture wears blue jeans, they often wear them in a way that reflects their style icons. For example, when I lived in the UK in the '90’s, it was fashionable for college students to wear their jeans loose and with the cuffs turned up about an inch…which I inferred was a nod to the royals and their cuffed trousers. The Spaniards wore them tighter and shorter…emulating the lines of a bullfighter.</p>
<p>Ironing would be #2 in my book of the goofy things some people do to blue jeans. #1 is paying over $100 a pair for them, especially for deliberately distressed or super-skinny, uncomfortable, “designer” jeans. </p>
<p>Blue jeans are supposed to be cheap, comfortable, and casual. A few wrinkles are what you get with 100% cotton. It’s part of the look. </p>
<p>You can buy a pair of Lee men’s regular fit jeans for $25 bucks or less on Amazon. On an average adult male body, they look and feel fine straight out of the dryer. Women may need to pay a little more for a good fit, but if they don’t look great on your body straight from the dryer or off the line … and you care … then sorry, but ironing probably won’t fix the problem.</p>
<p>I used to work with a professional woman who loved clothes. She bemoaned the fact that over the years professional dress (in our area, anyway) became less formal. She loved to wear expensive wool, silk, and linen business suits with high heels, and wished women still wore gloves and hats to the office.</p>
<p>I am just the opposite. I hate thinking about what to put on every day. My fantasy ideal would be for everyone to just wear plumber coveralls to the office, so you could grab a pair out of the dryer and get in your car! Needless to say, I don’t iron anything unless I am forced to. My underwear is tossed in the drawer, and my sheets go straight onto the bed from the dryer.</p>
<p>I am an artist, my iron gets used to melt wax for sculptures.</p>
<p>I wash new clothes prior to wearing them, and I iron and/or steam new clothes that cannot be washed prior to putting them in my closet. With so many hands touching these clothes on display, you never know what is going to come into contact with your skin. It is not germaphobia (I do not rush to refrigerate Thanksgiving turkey as soon as everyone gets their piece), it is just common sense.</p>
<p>Now back to the original purpose of the thread. :)</p>
<p>Mama2two, I like it!</p>
<p>The posts above discussing work attire remind me of a teacher friend who does a ‘careers’ unit with her middle school classes. Work attire is one of their discussion topics. The boys all hate the idea of wearing a tie every day of their lives and half the class decides they want to be phys ed teachers so they can wear shorts and sneakers to work every day!! All kidding aside, there is something to be said for taking work attire into consideration when making those decisions!</p>
<p>I am a person who irons or has my housekeeper do it. I don’t like to wear wrinkled clothes. If others have another preference, I have no problem with it. One of my daughters likes the pressed looked–the other hates it and has no clue how to iron. I get the impression from reading through this thread that some folks here believe ironing/pressing your jeans/Ts reflects some psychological shortcoming. I don’t buy that. Different strokes and all that. </p>
<p>I take shirts to the cleaners as well as jeans (ask them not to put creases in the jeans). I take sheets there too–they come out beautifully and feel wonderful. The only time I do otherwise with the sheets is in the summer when I can hang them outside outside to dry. They smell so good that I am willing to overlook the wrinkles.</p>
<p>*I wouldn’t think of going out without makeup, or be “dressed,” and that would include matching shoes and bag. For other people it is not that important. *</p>
<p>That would be me.
the thing I do try & pay attention to though is matching w H. I won’t wear my levi 501s & Converse, if he is wearing his!</p>
<p>masslou, I see these kids going into engineering and science ;)</p>
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<p>A regular clothes iron works well for waxing X-country skis :)</p>
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<p>Oh, I’m not saying it’s necessarily nuts-o (OCD, AR) or anything like that. I just think it’s un-American :)</p>
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I don’t think it’s un-American. It’s more regional. People around NYC tend to get dressed more, and I think people down south are also more formal. Whenever I am in NYC, my favorite pass time is to people watch.</p>
<p>oldfort, that is my observation as well.</p>
<p>What do I think of people who iron their jeans and t-shirts? I think that they need new dryers with de-wrinkling cycle. :)</p>
<p>I have no problems with jeans and tees without creases, but I cringe when I see folks wearing wrinkly cotton dress shirts and other garments that are designed to be worn perfectly ironed.</p>