The (Ironing) Ritual

I used to hate ironing. Especially in summer, having to stand on your feet, ironing, for half an hour (at best) and the heat from the steam making the summer heat all the worse... And unable to fold t-shirts properly, they often ended up looking worse than before being ironed. It all seemed like a big waste of time.

So I said to myself: "I have to become that guy..."

Is it different now? Hell, yeah! And it's pretty interesting (yeah, you might need to double-check the definition for "interesting"...) but it happened gradually, with different new things I learnt.

First of all, and this might sound pretty simple but I had no idea, about a year ago a friend of mine told me I should stretch my clothes while they're still wet, right before hanging them to dry. It's pretty simple but a big step because before that everything ended up full of creases, essentially a pain in the ass when it came to ironing it.

I recently learnt how to fold t-shirts, the japanese way, and it's working really well for me. I had seen the video in the past, gave it a couple of tries and gave up but this time I really sat down and did it again and again until I had learnt how to do it. And it's not difficult, after 4-5 t-shirts I'd got the hang of it.

Also helpful for my newfound joy of ironing is my mother's iron which is the best damn iron I've ever used. (And I've used over 2 irons... Yeah...) It's got powerful steam but like my mother says, you can practically leave it on a shirt and it won't burn it. (Haven't really tried that but if she says so...) Anyway, it's making ironing much easier than it usually is.

All those combined, I can say that now ironing is not so horrible and undesirable as before. But still, there's something else that has turned ironing into almost an enjoyable experience that I'm looking forward to. (Did I really just say that? Yes? Okay then...)

It's the ritual. Today, I got up, and after washing my face and making coffee I started ironing for one and a half hours. I had 2 loads of laundry out to dry from yesterday night, and 1 more load of clean clothes waiting to be ironed over a week. So, it was quite a lot of clothes. Most of them t-shirts, a couple of shorts, underwear, one shirt, 2 sheets and pillow-cases and a few towels. And I was happy to do all that.

I'm serious!!
(source for all Friends gifs I'm using: http://fyeahfriendsgifs.tumblr.com/)

My trick to turn an otherwise dull and tedious chore into a fun experience was to combine it with something else I really enjoy so that my mind would be occupied with that while my hands would be doing the ironing. And again, that's not nuclear physics or anything, pretty simple stuff. What's my "something else"? Watching Nurse Jackie.

Big deal, huh? After all, pretty much everyone I know has the tv on the background while ironing. Well, I never said it had to be something complicated. The trick is that I'm not just turning on the tv or whatever, I'm specifically watching Nurse Jackie. It's a show I've watched already, so I don't have to deeply concentrate on it so I won't miss a line, I know the story already. And the actual trick (if you wanna call it that) is that I'm not thinking "oh, I'm gonna do the ironing now, boo..." but "oh, I'm gonna watch Nurse Jackie now again, yay!".

Thank you. Seriously...

I don't watch that show on any other occasion now, it's tied to ironing. (Well, next season doesn't start till next spring anyway) At least until I finish it again. Today I finished season 1, I went through the last 3 episodes. Ha, I guess that makes it 1 episode per load of laundry! Maybe when I finish it all, I'll pick another show. Whatever works, I guess.


Ah, to get excited over such a simple thing, really... It's good. I think there's a bigger lesson to be learnt here anyway. And hopefully I'm gonna be able to use this knowledge in many other things I resent doing. And actually get them done!