Reflections from Dorothy's Ridge: Do You Iron?

Recently I had dinner with two friends who said they don’t iron any more. Neither even owns an iron! I was surprised. Both are always put together without a wrinkle. Plus, they grew up when well-dressed folks were starched and ironed, cleaned and pressed to the nth degree.

I’m accustomed to the young whose clothes have that pulled-from-an-overnight-stay-in-the-dryer-or-on-the-floor look. I see them everywhere, including church--some are even related to me. I’ve been known to leave clothes in the dryer overnight. But my solution is to dry them again with a fresh fabric softener sheet. (In really bad cases, I run them through a short rinse cycle, then dry again.)

The bottom line is if I’m going out and what I want to wear is wrinkled, I have to iron it. I can’t help myself. Maybe that’s because ironing was one of my jobs beginning in junior high—not all the family ironing—but enough to help my working mother and teach me responsibility. Before I could go to town with friends on Saturday, I was required to iron a reasonable number of items. We may have been the first people on the block to embrace spray starch. It certainly made life easier, and my mother was all for that.

It’s not that I love ironing. I'm always looking for an easier option. Ralph Lauren Polo shirts were in vogue when my children were in high school. With all the clothing changes teens do, there was no way was I ironing all those button-downs. I taught them to iron. They caught on fast and still do me proud in their appearances. I felt liberated when I decided to send Terry's shirts and khakis to the laundry. He certainly looks better for it.

Now I hang up everything when it comes out of the dryer. If something is wrinkled, I iron it when I'm ready to wear it. My dandy drop-down ironing board makes it simple. With all the great no-iron fabrics that isn't often.

But to not possess an iron! No way! There are still things that just look better ironed! Last weekend I pressed a table cloth and ironed crinkles out of pant legs that got bunched up against the side of a hanger. I just couldn’t help myself.

For the record, ironed clothing is my "going-out" standard. If you drop by my house, you might find me less than pressed!

If not, how do you look so good?

“It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of a man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire... Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter.” ― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey