Today I was faced with a dilema. My basket of ironing was spilling onto the floor. I am not good about getting to the ironing. My husband has to iron his own shirt and pants every morning before heading to work. Each Sunday morning I iron shirts for my boys and maybe a dress or skirt for Sophie but never seem to really make the pile shrink. So rather than just keep piling more and more into that already full basket I decided to tackle it.
My kids were occupied with Legos. Some building a new robot with the Mindstorms and others building a new landscape with the regular old legos. I decided to flip on a movie to make my task easier. I pick a good long movie. The 2008 BBC version of Sense and Sensibility is always a good choice. (I just recommend skipping the first few minutes if younger kids are anywhere nearby. This particular screenplay has a little scene at the beginning that is not G rated).
My kids came in to make sure I was still here every once in awhile but then would head right back to their legos when they saw the film and my ironing continued. I didn't quite finish the basket before the movie ended. Yes a three hour movie didn't give me enough time to finish the job. But I made a huge foray into that basket. My boys now have shirts enough to make it through a few Sundays. My husband has enough shirts to make it about 2 weeks without having to iron any shirts. Even Sophie, Molly and I had some things make their way to our closets that we have forgotten about.
I really should come up with a better solution than doing a ironing marathon when the ironing gets out of hand. I really should make more of an effort to teach my kids to iron. I have taught them but everything they iron ends up with more creases than it started with. I guess I haven't taught them well enough yet.
But at least these three hours went by very quickly and I have quite a bit to show for it! At least until the laundry get folded and the pile starts to grow again.
3 comments:
At least you still make an effort. I gave up years ago, and just hang everything up. I did however take my ironing board out recently in hopes that I might, just maybe do it again. Really, I took it out for a sewing project...but I just might decide to iron something. I used to iron as a little girl (age 10ish) for fun...
That used to be my problem. I would let the ironing go until there were no more clothes to wear. NOW i have made it a rule to iron whatever is in the wash that day. I decided that just washing and drying the clothes was not enough: I had to iron shirts and whatever else came through, and I had to do it on the day it was washed. Now I spend about 10 minutes only! on the ironing, even when I have tablecloths and white shirts. I first heard someone tell me about this rule when I was a young married, and I thought at the time, "How can seh do that?" Now I think that's one of the best rules of housekeeping. I still have to press things occasionally when they are wrinkled in the closet, though.
I only iron for sewing projects. The newer no-iron dress shirts are amazing and look great straight out of the dryer. They probably cost more, but I can get by with fewer of them since they don't sit around waiting to be ironed. I know I'd never do it until it was absolutely necessary, or later.
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