Stopping Doing Pointless Traditional Things

oystercatcher

I stopped buying whites and lights many years ago so most laundry can quite happily be mixed. 
The iron lives in my sewing room I only iron clothes for weddings/funeral type occasions. I have been known to find clothes I have forgotten I had hiding in the ironing basket!
Odd socks go in my holiday bag and I wear them missmatched while away, saves packing!
I didn't send a single Christmas card this year, I will write to the people I want to stay in touch with. The Christmas cards we got sent have just sat in a pile waiting to be recycled, they didn't get put up anywhere, what is the point? 
Maybe I am lazy, I know I am, but I am also disabled and depressed and one of the therapies for my depression was to do things that make me happy and avoid things that stress me ! So I don't feel guilty not doing these pointless things , I am trying to look after myself. 
Sometimes I think some people have very empty lives just running around cleaning and tidying pointless stuff.

olgadapolga

oystercatcher said:

Sometimes I think some people have very empty lives just running around cleaning and tidying pointless stuff.

But maybe those very people find cleaning/tidying satisfying? Surely it's up to the individual how they prefer to live, without being judged by others who have different ways of being?

Whilst I don't clean to an incessant degree, I prefer to live in a clean, uncluttered home. I find an untidy, cluttered home rather stressful.

BrassicWoman

scottish_lassy said:

OK everyone, please enlighten me as to how to stop ironing.  I work so have work trousers, dresses and blouses.  I can't seem to get away with 'not/minimal' ironing - so maybe it's my technique that's not up to scratch.  I'm ready/willing to learn...........

Don't buy pure cotton or linen; don't tumble dry, give things an extra spin. Don't cram your washing machine full. Put things on hangers and dry outside, or indoors with a dehumidifier in winter (heats the room instead of putting a heater on too, and prevents damp mold.)

Brie

@scottish_lassy
We used to get great results when we'd take things to the laundromat (no machines at home).  Very large machines so never packed full, remove them from washing machine immediately as the cycle ends and pop into a dryer.  Get the majority of wet out of the things one might iron (nice cotton shirts etc) and then hang them up while still very slightly damp.  No creases at all.

It's more of a problem for us now that we have a washing machine as it's actually outside so not easy to know when it finishes but I find that if I can catch it asap when it finishes and hang things up the result is still quite good.  Unfortunately the OH has a habit of leaving things in the machine for a few days and then complains about having to iron -- not my problem!!  I'll happily spritz my shirts with a water spray and then leaving them to dry again.

74jax

scottish_lassy said:

OK everyone, please enlighten me as to how to stop ironing.  I work so have work trousers, dresses and blouses.  I can't seem to get away with 'not/minimal' ironing - so maybe it's my technique that's not up to scratch.  I'm ready/willing to learn...........

I spin as much water or as I can. Hang shirts, dresses on a hanger. As trousers are almost dry I fold the crease in and push that way. 

I don't iron anything and was in the fire service and never picked up on uniform. 

newlywed

scottish_lassy said:

OK everyone, please enlighten me as to how to stop ironing.  I work so have work trousers, dresses and blouses.  I can't seem to get away with 'not/minimal' ironing - so maybe it's my technique that's not up to scratch.  I'm ready/willing to learn...........

Before you purchase new clothes, scrunch a handful up, hold tight for a second and release… then decide if you want to iron it or if it might never need to see an iron at all

ouraggie

I too find ironing pointless. Only do it if i have to.
 As for laundry, I look which wash basket is getting nearly full with OH’s plentiful sports gear (dark for cycling, white for squash etc) and then if the white basket is fullest i wear mostly white or pale tops, underwear etc until it’s full, then i start wearing dark clothes to fill a dark wash. I have a stock of dark/ white undies, tshirts and socks.  OH has absolutely no knowledge of my system. I imagine he has never questioned why sometimes the hand towels are grey, sometimes they are white!

bouicca21

My mother liked ironing.  I think it was about the satisfaction of restoring order to the world. I had a cleaner who said much the same - that she got a great sense of achievement from restoring order to a dirty messy house.  I assured her she would always feel that sense of achievement from doing my place as I hate all forms of housework.

Username03725

Silvertabby said:

Ironing is Mr S's job.  (If you want a husband who irons, marry a serviceman).

Or an IT guy. I'm one, have always done the ironing when single and in 25 years of marriage. But it's efficient ironing; only iron what will be seen and what needs ironing so no bedding, no socks or underwear, no T-shirts as they go flat after 10 minutes of wearing. Shirt backs - no as they crumple anyway and away from the summer fronts & sleeves don't much of a look-in either. Once the kids were in their teens I stopped ironing everything of theirs as they just threw the ironed pile onto their floors and worked their way through, so there was no point me ironing their stuff if it instantly became a messy heap on their floor.

Ironing is more of a sorting out exercise anyway, for us two now and the offspring when they're living here. I still don't iron their stuff. If they're that bothered they know how to resolve it.

Username03725

Anyway. A discussion on pointless activities has become a dull thread about ironing.

I rarely wash my car - that's the definition of pointless in the winter living in the countryside. A run through a cheap jet wash every few months will do. Inside is clean, but outside, no.