So, what else do you like ironed?

Going back and re-reading a post at the end of last year (which involved freshly ironed sheets and pussy cats I think) I was reminded of when we moved into our new house. Of course 7 years ago it was new^*1 and now we are well settled and it isn’t new at all but just occasionally stuff happens in your life which makes you reflect on the past few years and so you do…

When we moved in, the removal men said to us “you’re not thinking of sleeping in there are you?” The house was – well – how can I put this politely – um – grubby. That’s a lie, it wasn’t grubby, it was filthy – had fleas and smelt of cat pee and dead mice (at least that’s what I think it was – anyway, at least you get the picture). We bought it intending to do it up and its surprising how quickly you can get rid of smells by throwing out all the carpets, liberally applying bleach to every surface and giving it a fresh coat of paint!

One of the things that needed doing was the kitchen (you knew I’d get round to the ironing eventually, didn’t you?) and so for a little while after we moved in, we had no kitchen and therefore no washing machine. I was very lucky, with the new house within a few miles of the MIL, when she offered to take in my laundry (bless, how nice is that?). Well, apart from the fact that there are some things that you’d rather wash by hand than let the MIL (or anyone else for that matter) see, she took all the washing. There were one or two hiccups in that I have a lot of cotton stuff and she has a lot of synthetics so a slightly too-hot wash meant I ended up with a substantial number of crop tops (just as they were coming into fashion so how lucky is that?) – but apart from that it was a godsend. One thing that I was surprised by though was the fact that she irons everything. Now when I was growing up, my mother did sheets, duvet covers, tea towels and school shirts (my dad didn’t have the kind of suit job that needed button up shirts) and just about nothing else. The MIL does everything, right down to the socks, bras and pants. I do pretty much the same as my mother with the addition of hubby’s shirts, polo shirts and some t-shirts (ones with embroidered designs especially). HLW does all the shirts and stuff but doesn’t do the sheets (biggish family means she’d be forever ironing) so we all seem to be different. It got me to wondering, what does everyone else do? And why? Do we really just follow on from what our parents do, or what?

Strange isn’t it, this wondering brain of mine…

^*1…to us of course as the place was actually built in 1896 and although I sometimes feel old, its never quite that old.