DO YOU IRON YOUR SHEETS?

NO WAY do I iron my sheets.  And I don't know any one who does but I am sure there are some people who do.  I have heard of such a thing.

...this gave a laugh!  Mainly because I NEVER iron my sheets.  In fact, I do as little ironing as possible.  My hubby irons and starches his own dress shirts for the office, because he's extremely fastidious about them.  And since I'm not an excellent ironer, he bought me a steamer (the kind that's used in retail), so that I can hang garments up and wave over them with a magic wand that knocks the ugly %$#% wrinkles right out.  It's much more efficient than regular ironing... but then, I think I'm straying off the subject here. 

What really struck me as funny about your question is that my dear, saintly mother-in-law *snort* does iron her sheets.  In fact she irons everything - down to the socks.  Guess you could call her iron-happy.  Anyway, she's the only person I know who irons her sheets.  So, Natalie, it'd be my guess that it's an unusual habit, and would be an equally tedious task for your H to require of his housekeeper. 

Sounds like a humorous story in the making, Natalie.  You've got my curiosity piqued, that's for sure.

Thank goodness that mine lives far away and rarely bothers to come visit. When our oldest was born, the crib was in the master bedroom. We kept the kid's clothes in baskets underneath the crib. I just tossed the clean ones in. Basket full? Toss into the one next to it. I think that we had three baskets. It appalled my m-i-l. Hello? The fabrics are all knits, it's not like they're going to wrinkle. And it's not like the kid cared if they were folded or not . . .and it's not like at the newborn stage they were worn for more than a few hours before too much spit up or a diaper blow out caused them to be changed before the end of the day . . . and really, has it ruined the kid for life? No, don't think so.

Of course, maybe she was just appalled at my housekeeping in general. I really cleaned hard once before they came, and then I heard the f-i-l complaining about his allergies and how if I vaccumed (sp?) or dusted better or something . . . after that I figured, why bother for them? For the record, almost everyone in Texas has a problem with allergies at some point -- lots of pollen or mold or cedar -- so much so, that the counts are included with our weather reports.

Back to being on topic, my grandma who ironed sheets ironed everything, including unmentionables (well, maybe not bras, maybe not girdles if there were any -- she was skinny, probably didn't have girdles), but other unmentionables. Or maybe just the guys' unmentionables. She just put everything through those rollers on that big ol' upright iron contraption thingy.

Penn

PS -- didn't mean to make you feel guilty, but I've wondered since you blog regularly why you never book reviewed. Hey, even 6 books would help. And as an author, you can get away with real short reviews, b/c we understand not wanting to critique a fellow author (not in public, anyway . . . )

are very useful.  It still is a bit of work but sometimes I do iron my better sheets - but 2- 4 layers at a time (I didn't in the past but circumstances brought me into contact where this was required for special guests)

If sheets have hung out I feel they don't need ironing (I am starting to make sure i get those nice high thread count cotton sheets and those shouldn't be tumble dried).

I have lived in accommodation-decades ago- where freshly ironed (and I suspect starched) sheets were supplied weekly and it was wonderful.

I would expect a very wealthy  person would expect sheets to be ironed as a matter of course  but I would also expect

1) that they were done outside

or

2) the housekeeper had better equipment than a hand held iron.

I wouldn't expect anyone to do it  with a hand held iron.

I think it all depends on how wealthy the H is and what the housekeepers hours and conditions are.

However I might add that as I work (I am not wealthy but I do need to look after my time) I actually have someone come into help me with my cleaning washing and ironing for a few hours a week  ( though I don't let her do sheets with the normal iron even though she wants to and she won't use the press. BTW it is her wish to do the sheets- not mine)

The mother of my first BF in France ironed everything:sheets, T-shirts, jeans, underwear.  My grandmother used to iron sheets, but she had one of those contraptions that Penn was talking about.  I used to when I was young (around 12) and did the ironing at my mom's house.  I even ironed (and starched!) my Dad's undershorts. (He was not pleased.)  But since then, I've slacked off.  I don't iron.  I took work clothes to the dry cleaners and only ironed the front of my blouses, the part that could be seen with a jacket.  But now, I work in my jammies, so I don't iron ANYTHING!!!

need dry cleaning as far as I'm aware.

I actually need someone in to organise me more than anything as otherwise things get rather chaotic as I live alone.

Good luck finding your plot solution Natalie.

I only iron material for quilting, and clothes IF (very big if) I have to... which is very rarely.

I once ironed some cotton table napkins I have just because they got so crinkled in the dryer, but now I make sure just to get them out and fold them.

Ironing sheets just seems counterproductive to me -- they get all wrinked anyway. Or, there are more fun ways to press the winkles out, LOL.

Sam 

I guess I am not the only dh that does the majority of the household ironing.  It's a skill I picked up from being single way too long.  Yes, I have done the sheet ironing thing.  No, I don't do it all the time - just every so often.  In fact, I am over due.  Thanks for the reminder.

My vote would be to include the scene.  Many years ago, my wife did house work for a young, very rich, very sucessful, single lady.  One of her jobs was to iron the lady's linen sheets.  She said the lady was one of the nicest people she ever worked for; however, she did work for some real stinkers.

I thought Iron was a 4 letter word!  I have an iron, but do I know where it is?  NOPE!!!  Do I want to know where it is? NOPE!

I make my husband buy Van Huesen Wrinkle Free shirts.  I never have to iron them!  They are by far the best thing ever invented!  When he lost weight several years ago he bought himself a bunch of stuff, and didn't look at the care labels at all!  Oooh...did he get a big talking to about that!

So the answer is no...like someone else said...they'll get wrinkled when you sleep anyway....why bother!

No way. In fact I can go weeks and months without ironing anything. But I'm not super-wealthy with a house-keeper. I'm thinking if your hero's that super wealthy though he can give his tiny pregnant housekeeper time off with pay and get someone else to iron his dam sheets for the time being.

Pat

I don't recall seeing is what decade the story takes place in. I remember ironing sheets for my grandmother with a roller iron when I was a kid in the fifties. After she died in the sixties we did not iron sheets. Some of this is a generational thing and some is the economic level of folks. I don't iron sheets and I told my exhusband when we first got married I don't iron jeans. If he wanted his jeans ironed he could do it himself. Funny but the jeans never got ironed.

The only reason I can think that ironing might make the sheets more comfortable is that it could stretch the weave of the fabric out so that the sheets fit better -- so, you don't have corners pulling up or whatever -- the weave shrinks in the dryer, and then you push it back out to size with the iron. When I iron fabric for quilting, I have to be careful not to let it stretch too much.

I just bought a few sets of new sheets that fit out bed well, and it does make a huge difference in comfort, some of our old ones had shrunk and pulled off at the edges, but I still don't iron them -- there's just no time for that kind of thing, though on the positive end, it does sound like one of those jobs that could allow for creative mulling.. ;)

Sam

not thrown real fast into the dryer (sp?). Still won't be ironing my sheets. Even when I do, it's just the pretty part at the top.

P 

I don't iron sheets but I have ironed pillowcases to make the bed look good.

Well I didn't say I would iron to mull... just that maybe one could... ;)

I only quilt, which is the funny part. I don't sew a stitch of anything else, helpless with anything that would require a pattern like clothes, etc though I will hem pants at gunpoint, though I make no promises of anything coming out even.

This year, I've been writing so much, the quilting has kind of gone out the window, though the machine and the ironing board sit quietly waiting in the other room with 3 unfinished projects -- including the bed quilt I promised dh would be done by this winter. Hmmmm.

Sam

I'd say surely you jest, but I know better!  NO, not now and not ever, would I iron a sheet.  I don't iron clothes, the sheets are out of the question!

But...my former teaching assistant has been know to do so...mostly if she is using the sheet as a table cover for our HUGE island in teh workroom at school, but I agree it is a spoiled little rich boy luxury!

 I bet the custom originated when things were line dried and while everything smells lovely, things like sheets, towels, and jeans get very stiff and uncomfortable...which brings me to my observation...I think, IMHO, that the fun is had in PUTTING the wrinkles into the sheets, but I could be wrong!

TTFN