Too Much for Shirts

Our Sages advised us to live in the type of house we can afford, skimp on food but overspend a little on clothing.  I never really heeded that wisdom, eating a little too much, buying too many goodies at the expense of my health but shopping for discount clothing that would get me by.  One luxury I afforded myself, after years of drudgery with my steam iron in the basement trying to make my shirts wearable, was to take them to the cleaners.  Over the years I've sampled a few, but always gravitated back to the one around the corner.  On occasion I would get my suits and jackets cleaned, and recently got gouged restoring a down comforter.  My new pants always needed the hem placed in the optimal place so I let them do it. Always did a good job.  But by far, my most important business were dress shirts.  While working I would stop off on my drive to work when I accumulated 20 or so shirts, which did not take that long, drop them off and on my way home a few days later, divert myself slightly to the parking lot to pick them up.

Retiring and now Covid-19 has changed that dramatically.  The dress shirts rarely get worn.  I used to take one out for shul, but even there I've often substituted a knit or mock turtle under my jacket or sweater.  No shul, no office, no dress shirts, or hardly.  Somehow I still accumulated about 25 over a very long time, maybe a year.  I took the stash to the dry cleaner only to find the price has zoomed to about $3 a shirt, which is way too much.  They served me well over the years so I politely accepted the new reality, particularly since this Ace cleaner is probably also hurting with people either working from home without the dress clothing they depend upon, or not working at all.  But that's the last trip there.  Too much.

I have a number of options going forward.  The easiest is to not wear shirts that need professional laundering.  I have ample knits and flannels.  I could find a less expensive laundry.  Not working anymore means fewer shirts but also no incentive to stay on my daily travel route to incorporate drop-off and pick-up.  I could restore my iron.  It won't take long to learn how.  I know where the iron and ironing board are.  But I gave up this task for a couple of reasons, partly it was tedious and partly I did it a lot less well than the pros.  But for now dress shirts needing professional attention are no longer my wardrobe staples.