Since the early days of America, children were taught this simple rhyme:
“WASH on MONDAY,
“IRON on TUESDAY,
“MEND on WEDNESDAY,
“CHURN on THURSDAY,
“CLEAN on FRIDAY,
“BAKE on SATURDAY,
“REST on SUNDAY.”
With more casual apparel and wrinkle-resistant fabrics, is ironing still necessary?
“It’s a lost domestic art,” my neighbor Faye Matthews says. “I used to iron bed sheets and pillow cases as well as clothing, but not anymore. I liked it. It gave me a genuine sense of satisfaction to have crisp pillow cases and a distinctive crease in my husband and son’s trouser legs.“
Kris Lewis is glad that wrinkle-resistant clothes are prevalent. “I hate ironing,” she says. “If something needs ironing, I’ll take it to DI (Deseret Industries, a nonprofit thrift and training store in Utah) instead. I live in a contented and knitwear world!”
Despite its current mixed reviews, ironing has a long history dating back to the fifth century B.C. for upper class Greek and later Roman dignitaries. Beginning in the 1700s, heavy flat irons weighing anywhere from 5-9 pounds and heated over a fire became commonplace. Most pioneer women in the 19th century used this same type of iron — often a cause of injury — sometimes called a sad iron (another word for “solid”).
It wasn’t until 1882 when Henry W. Seely patented the first electric flat iron that the process changed. It changed again in 1926 when steam irons were introduced by the Eldec Company. While not widespread, some families had in-home “manglers” (developed by the Steel Roll Mangle Co.) with steel drums and rotating cylinders to press clothing. In 1946, a similar ironing device, called the Ironrite ironer, was featured in a Life magazine pictorial about consumer goods for the typical American home. Sales skyrocketed.
These changes and adaptations in ironing serendipitously prepared the world for a unique sports competition: extreme ironing!
Extreme ironing was started in Leicester, England, by Phil Shaw in 1999. One evening, Shaw came home from work torn between wanting to go rock climbing while facing a pile of shirts in his closet needing ironing. Not wanting to compromise, he ratcheted up the heat on his travel steam iron, grabbed an ironing board and several shirts, and out the door he went.
Shaw liked the activity so much that he spent the next year traveling internationally and promoting extreme ironing. In 2002, the first Extreme Ironing World Championship was held in Bavaria, Germany, with 80 teams from a dozen countries participating. The event showcased different ironing challenges, such as urban (ironing on or around a broken car), water (ironing on a river), forest (ironing on a tree), rocky (ironing on a climbing wall), and freestyle.
Extreme ironing has continued with mixed participation while spawning other ironing events such as ironing on motorways in Britain and ironing while bungee jumping. One of its derivatives, extreme cello playing, does not require ironing but instead combines extreme activities with playing a musical instrument.
The obvious question to many, of course, is why? Answers vary from the thrill of doing something novel to joining in a publicity stunt. Go figure!
While extreme sports enthusiasts are popularizing offbeat uses for irons, the overall market for them continues to grow. About 4.1 million steamers, steam irons and dry irons were sold in North America in 2023. Despite wash-and-wear and wrinkle-resistant fabrics, the market for household irons is projected to grow about 8% per year in the next five years.
Why?
There is some speculation that crafters and hobbyists are responsible for the increased number of irons sold in recent years, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Instead, casual office wear — sans jackets and suit coats — has put a premium on “smart casual.” Since office and casual clothing is now less standardized, it is also more noticed.
Ironing helps an outfit to stand out. Inflation and tariffs on clothing are likely to put even more pressure on consumers keeping clothing longer since longer-used, wrinkle-resistant material will require ironing and upkeep.
Linda Topham liked ironing as a girl and continues ironing even now as a grandma. She irons dish towels, pillowcases and shirts. Ironing prevents fraying and prolongs the life of the fabric, so it has very practical benefits, she notes. Both her adult sons and daughters iron as well. She says ironing gives all of them a sense of satisfaction in addition to the crisp look and feel of ironed clothes.
Here’s another reason. When it’s no longer an obligation, something like ironing can become a leisure time endeavor. Of course, for some people, it even becomes an extreme leisure time activity.
My wife likes to iron because it’s an “easy win” on her weekly “to-do” list. In a topsy-turvy world where achievements can sometimes be fewer and further between, she can point to something she’s completed.
Some days, after ironing, she’ll even grasp both hands and raise them high above her head in a congratulatory handshake and shout “Wahoo!” She hasn’t climbed Mount Everest, but she has finished ironing.
She may even want a new iron for Christmas.