Do many hosts iron the sheets and bed linen?

Spurred on by this thread and total boredom as the snow comes down outside, I ironed two queen top sheets today. This endeavor represents 2 hours I will never get back. First off, queen sheets are large. My ironing board is in no way equipped to manage so much fabric. To prepare, I watched videos which showed people quickly and easily ironing sheets that hardly appeared to need ironing. Martha folds her sheets lengthwise into quarters before ironing. Clearly she has minions since there is now way I could ever fold a sheet like this by myself. Other videos kept the sheet flat and did the ironing in patchwork. Both of these methods were total fails.

Is the sheet nicer after ironing? Kind of. Are they perfect? Why no. By the time I finish the bottom of the sheet, assuming you start ironing at the top, the top has gotten ruffled again and needs to be touched up.

If you ironing people of the forum are willing to describe how you iron a queen, cotton sheet so that you donā€™t want to stab your own eyes when you are done, I would be most grateful.

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@anon67190644 donā€™t regularly iron sheets but when I do I always to it on the bed, not an ironing board. I agree that itā€™s not a good use of my remaining life.

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There is no way Iā€™m ironing sheetsā€”Iā€™m just too lazy. I use 100% cotton sheets, and I put them on the bed ever so slightly damp. I think my big ā€œsecretā€ is I buy king-sized sheets and blankets for a queen bed. I do this to cover for my laziness and so guests always have enough sheet and blanket. Someone always ā€œstealsā€ the sheet and blanket, so this helps in that area.

I fold the sheets back about a third of the way and tuck everything in tightly. This gets rid of most of the wrinkles. I then fold the blanket down and back up to just cover the edge of the sheet. This covers any wrinkling on the edge. If it is bad, Iā€™ll use the steamer on the edge. For the pillows, I wash or turn the pillowcases inside out, stuff queen-sized pillows inside (inside out makes it easier to stuff) and tuck the ends of the pillowcases inside. This makes for a fluffy pillow with clean edges.

Now, wasnā€™t that as clear as mud??

While weā€™re on the subject of pointless household tasks, what about folding fitted sheets properly? Who does that? Iā€™ve never mastered it. I sort of just bundle it up now and stick it in the cupboard until itā€™s time to use it

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I have watched several videos about how to fold a fitted sheet properly, but I remain an abject failure at this task.

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Me, too! They make it look so easy but I have yet to get it right.

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Always easier to did with two people!

Stupid question, probably, but for those who iron sheets on bed: how does that not harm the mattress/topper? Can you do this on any kind of mattress? What temperature? Anything else I am missing?

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Under the fitted sheet I have a polyfilled mattress protector. (Under that is the waterproof/bedbug proof encasement). So if something got damaged it would be the first protective layer. However, I donā€™t think it gets hot enough to damage it.

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Not me, but Iā€™m really good at hand ironing (lol) and folding things (retail experience), so bedding looks good anyways. I always invest on a good bedspread so the actual sheets are barely visible because I add double pillows plus decorative pillows, so it all looks comfy and elegant anyways.

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OMG, I CANNOT do this properly!! Iā€™ve watched umpteen videos in slow motion, and practiced on twin fitted sheets thinking the smaller size might be easier. It still doesnā€™t turn out right. Iā€™ve given up on mastering this.

Managing multiple properties for us means that we just do not have the time to do it ourselves. However, we have all of our linen washed and ironed by our linen suppliers :slight_smile:

No need to iron. After two years of fighting wrinkles in cotton sheets and steaming wrinkles out of just the areas that show, I went to YouTube and found the solutionā€¦ā€œHandā€ pressing! Go toā€¦

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=how+to+release+wrinkles+in+cotton+sheets&&view=detail&mid=0922C894FA2D47E7F8EE0922C894FA2D47E7F8EE&&FORM=VRDGAR

ā€¦to see how she does it. I guarantee your sheets will look and feel much, much better than ironed. It takes maybe 15 minutes and are so beautifully smooth I hate to cover them with the bedspread.

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I must add, I wash my sheets using fabric softener, dry them on gentle, remove them before they are completely dry and put them directly on the bed. This prevents wrinkles from setting, and just stretching them on the bed takes many wrinkles out. Then I go back with the misting bottle and hand pressing. The ceiling fan helps with the final drying.

Then you must do a break between guests? For me, this is not an option. Someone is sleeping/using that bed when I am washing and drying the alternate set of sheets. The backup set of sheets sits waiting, patiently, in case there is a sheet emergency.

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Yes, I have at least 3 hours between the leaving and arriving guests, but more often a day or two.

This does take more discipline than Iā€™m used to; now I have to be available to catch the sheets before they are bone dryā€“instead of letting them sit in a hot dryer and wrinkle. But I am retired :-).

There is an ironing board and Iron in the unit. I did have a guest once say she thought the sheets were wrinkled. She wanted me to change the bedding, I went and got her the extra set of sheets and handed them to her. She looked a bit miffedā€¦

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I iron everything; but I live in Italy, land of no tumble dryers and women who are hired 2 hours per week just to do all the ironing.
We iron everything here!
I donā€™t have a personal
"stiratrice" so I do it myself-It gives me a chance to catch up on bad tv :slight_smile:

I had never heard of this technique prior to your post. Iā€™d done something effectively similar by putting dampish sheets on the bed and stretching them tight. But quite often the sheets are already too dry and have some wrinkles. So Iā€™ve now tried this method and Iā€™m very pleased with how itā€™s working. Thanks for sharing.

I iron all my beddingā€¦