How do you all keep your clothes looking neat and wrinkle free? I hate the time and effort of ironing yet have never had a steamer that really worked. Strategies? Products?
I haven’t ironed or steamed in years. If I have a wrinkled shirt, I throw it in the dryer to dewrinkle it.
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Steamer - from Costco, $10 off, so I think it was $29. It works good enough for me. When I purchased irons I got heavy duty/heavy ones. The little light ones I tried didn’t work well for me.
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Solution: Only buy clothes that don’t need ironing. 
Like @MaineLonghorn, I haven’t ironed clothing since can’t remember. OTOH, my mother still irons EVERYthing–t-shirts, sheets, jeans, you name it. She even does some ironing for friends. Next to grocery shopping, she loves to iron. 
I did not inherit that gene.
Our AZ house came with a professional steamer in the MB closet. I used it once to remove wrinkles from a new sofa slipcover. Worked great, but I’m thinking of donating it as it takes up a lot of room and I’ll probably never use it again.
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I iron for me, my wife and our son every night during the work week.
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I despise ironing. It’s my least favorite chore. As such, I never buy myself clothes that will wrinkle. I’ve even convinced H to get “wrinkle free” dress shirts. I retired the iron long ago and our Conair steamer works just fine for us on the rare occasion that it’s required.
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You need a new hobby 
.
I actually like to iron and have a whole slew of shirts that might need it tonight…
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I honestly can’t say for sure if I even have an iron anymore??? Probably but…
I’m with @MaineLonghorn if something really has wrinkles I throw it in the dryer on cool and bounce it around for a few minutes.
But honestly I don’t think I have any clothing that genuinely wrinkles. Same with H.
When I was little our ironing board was in the basement and I hated being down there alone but sometimes my mom would send me down to iron things like pillowcases or easy stuff. Probably that’s why I hate it!
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Ditto! Except my mom had me ironing my dad’s work shirts and then complained that I was doing a bad job. I was so scared that I just wanted to get it done.
My MIL always ironed in front of her soaps. That would have been much more enjoyable but my mom was pretty rigid and didn’t want the ironing board moved. Scarred me for life ; )
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When my now 21 year old daughter was very little she was gifted a doll house. In the doll house was an iron and ironing board. She had no idea what it was since she’d never seen one used in our house.
We wear very little that has to be ironed but I own both an iron and a steamer. I’ll use the iron if necessary, which isn’t often. I have steamed a few dresses and delicates here and there over the years as well. Mostly I take extra time with my laundry that might wrinkle (dry things part way to get the majority of the wrinkles out and then hang to finish drying) and I guess we maybe are just super casual and somewhat wrinkled in our daily lives. Back when my husband had to wear nice button down shirts to work we found inexpensive dry cleaners to do his shirts - it saved a lot of time and they looked better.
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I haven’t ironed for years but I do own one iron.
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I don’t iron because I hate it. I do have my cleaning lady iron the few things that do need ironing; there are usually 7-9 items a week. I also send clothes that some might iron to the cleaners (H’s shirts and my jeans/pants). I have a Rowenta steam iron–my cleaning lady says she likes it.
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Like many others, I don’t really buy anything that requires ironing. In most cases, I throw the item into the dryer with a damp washcloth if needed.
I do have an iron though and use it maybe once a year on random things that might not be able to go in dryer, like a dress that might need a quick touch up.
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One of the best things about H retiring was no more ironing dress shirts! ( I was too cheap to send them out).
For some reason H buys polo shirts in which the collars “curl up” after washing/drying. I still have to iron then down but it’s pretty quick. I still hate doing it.
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I am allergic to wrinkled clothes, lol. I once asked a Nordstrom SA what they used to get clothes unwrinkled after getting them from vendors. Jiffy commercial grade steamers! One of these steamers now lives in my closet. I don’t use it often, but with online shopping, it comes handy once in a while to get things back into shape if they come out of the package slightly wrinkled.
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For my sewing, I iron every day. I remember watching Queer Eye and listening to Tan say that we spend so much money on our clothes and it’ll take us less than five minutes to iron a pair of pants and make our clothes and ourselves look timeless.
Since seeing that episode, I realized I can iron my white pants and some cotton summer shifts in 5 minutes and I always get complimented on these same old clothes.
Also, I iron my husband’s dress shirts once a week. We do have a very inexpensive, quick dry cleaner, who does it at two bucks per shirt, but to get that, I have to drive 15 minutes from my house. In the pandemic, I got spoiled. I learned that if it’s not within 5 minutes from my house, I won’t do it. Instead, I take a can of Diet Coke, turn on the home channel, and it gets done in less than a half an hour with my Steam iron.
I do iron all of my pillowcases (and that also takes less than half an hour) because I really like the softness and the freshness associated with freshly laundered and ironed pillowcases.
I’ve tried several steamers and was dissatisfied that they couldn’t get the wrinkles out the way the iron did, so I’ve given up on steamers. I may try the commercial steamer.
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Does anybody remember having to sprinkle the clothes that needed ironing, rolling them up and putting them in the freezer? Growing up in a family of 7, that was a major weekly chore.
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@aunt_bea , it’s that appearance of “put together” that prompted this question. I was putting on a (very nice) shirt that is not wrinkled, but also not crisp, and thinking what a disservice I was doing in not upping my game that last bit. It makes a difference…
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I received this dress in the mail yesterday. It is crepe so it should be wrinkle-free, right? It came shoved into the smallest plastic bag possible so it was all wrinkly. Before and after steaming pics - took me 2 minutes to steam the dress.
After:
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As a guy in a customer-facing sales role, I used to love the feel of a really high quality 100% cotton dress shirt with super fine thread that gives a sleek, glossy look. Freshly ironed, those just looked and felt amazing.
All done with that now - I buy very stretchy, no-wrinkle dress shirts. They don’t have anything close to the same luxurious look as the shirts I used to wear, but they’re way more comfortable and carefree.
W requested a steamer last year for touchups. I got her this one which she likes a lot and I’ve seen it pop up as highly rated on various review sites since.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07V91437Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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