I don’t like to iron. I sold my ironing board on Craigslist three or four years ago when I bought a steamer because I never used the ironing board. I bought a steamer because I used to work at a clothing department, was able to master using one without burning myself, and found it to be an easy and pretty fast way to get wrinkles out of a wide variety of fabrics without worrying about ruining them. Whenever I do laundry I fold what needs to be put in drawers, hang what needs to be hung up, and then move on with my day, telling myself that I will steam the clothes later. And then I forget. And then I do more laundry, and put off the steaming, and do more laundry, and put off the steaming – and everything eventually backs up.
As I was looking at the line of laundry to steam in my closet, I remembered seeing this awesome tip, and thought it would be worth a try. It is a recipe for homemade wrinkle releaser.
Here’s how you make it:
1 tsp. fabric softener and 1 cup water – mix it together in a spray bottle, and you are good to go!
Super easy. I actually doubled it because my water bottle was pretty large and I didn’t want to have to make it again too soon if it worked. And notice how shiny my Pyrex is? It still makes me smile. Back to the spray…
Take your finished product……
…….and find something wrinkly. Like this shirt:
You can see why this was in the steaming line. HAHA. Oh dear. Before you spray, check the label of your fabric softener to see if there are fabrics that you shouldn’t use it with (or check the label of your clothes). I just am paranoid about little stain drops on my clothes. I haven’t had any problems with it leaving stains at all, but I just thought I’d pass that on. When you’re sure your shirt is good to go, just give a good spray wherever there are wrinkles.
I still need to adjust my spray bottle, apparently, but you get the idea. After it is sprayed, you can either give it a good shake, or pull on the fabric a bit to start getting some of the wrinkles out. Then you hang it up and wait for it to dry. This is where you need to plan a little time in, unless you’re good with wearing something that is a bit damp. Or quite damp, like my lovely spray bottle got this shirt.
Here is the finished product:
Wow! That is definitely an improvement. It is ready to wear. Not perfect, but much better than before. I would say that the steamer really wouldn’t get it much better than this, and this is quick and easy. Spray. That’s it. Here is a close-up of a spot that still had some minor wrinkles:
I can live with that. I’ll probably still pull the steamer out for times that it really matters to have clothes that look nice and wrinkle-free, but honestly if you sit down or fold your arms wrong, you take a nice wrinkle-free outfit and give it some wrinkle love anyway. This is a good alternative when you don’t feel like taking the time to steam or iron, and have a long line of clothes ahead of you.
Happy spraying!
