If somebody told me back in the USSR that one day folding would be the most onerous part of doing laundry, I’d just laugh.
If you never washed bedclothes by hand and then ironed them, you wouldn’t understand. I still have nightmares about ironing blanket cases sometimes.
I haven’t. But scrubbing clothes and beating the water out of them takes a long time. I just refuse to iron sheets for the bed on general principle.
My dust allergies are incredibly thankful I don’t have to do this.
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I’ve been so traumatized that I haven’t even owned an iron in 20 years. 🙂 My position is: the wrinkles will even out with use.
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My mother used to iron sheets, before permanent press ones existed. But in DK we just pulled them, stretched them between two people while folding, and this had the ironing function. I think it worked more easily because the quality of the cloth was higher, though.
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We also ironed underwear. On both sides. And towels. Everything, really. There was no practical need for it, just regular Soviet masochism.
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Oh, here, too, until permanent press cloth came in. I cannot remember whether this was in the 60s or the early 70s. Somehow not having to iron sheets any more (or even sports shirts) got people to stop ironing underwear, too. Everything is still ironed in Latin America, or was the most recent time I lived in a house I was not in charge of, which is quite recent. It can actually get the damp out & make things luxurious … so long as you are not the one doing the work.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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