Saturday, June 13, 2009

Green Ironing, or not at all!

Well, if I'm going to be a blogger, I probably ought to start getting into habit of it! LOL! Almost a month since my last post. For shame!

Today's post is about ironing. How I hate it! But, I hate buying clothes with formaldehyde and with teflon in them which is how manufacturers make wrinkle free clothing. Hopefully, you too, are buying more natural fabrics, but if you find they are more wrinkly than you like, today I'm here with some tips to lessen the load at the ironing board!

The most important one is VINEGAR! Yup, good ole' vinegar, if you are going green in your home I bet you have already embraced vinegar for some cleaning or hair rinse or replaced something toxic you used to use with vinegar.

Guess what? Sometimes vinegar can keep you AWAY from the ironing board completely!

Hang your clean, dry clothes on hangers, and then just spritz them with a mix of 3 parts water, 1 part white vinegar, and, if desired, a few drops of your favorite essential oil, mixed up in a spray bottle. You can "finger press", that is: pull and shape parts of the clothes as needed. Like the button placket down the front of a button up shirt, or the pocket, or cuff. Just pull them with your fingers to ease the wrinkles out, as the vinegar dries most small wrinkles will come out. On the big panels of cloth, like the front sides, or the back, pull gently first on one bias (fingers on top left and bottom right for example) and then on the opposite bias. It really helps! Don't forget to smooth down the pesky bottom hems too, I find if I don't and if it is slacks or a shirt I don't tuck in when I wear it, then the hem usually folds up looking tacky!

If you must iron anyway, due to bigger wrinkles, or you work in an office where crisp collars are a requirment, use that same spray bottle as you iron instead of starch! Vinegar will help you make sharp creases where needed, also if you used essential oil in your mix, your clothes, and then your closet, will have a pleasant, but slight, aroma. Nothing wrong with a little aromatherapy side effect!

If you pick an EO that you find particularly soothing, (for me it is lavendar!), instead of hating ironing and feeling grouchy while you are doing the dreaded job, you will start to relax and, hey, a person with a steaming hot iron in their hands really is nicer to be around if they are relaxed!

Happy ironing, or not at all if the spritzing and fingerpressing does the job for you!

-Sarah

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