Ironing Shirts

During my working years, and for some time past retirement, the dry cleaner around the corner became my friend.  As a young adult first needing to look professionally appropriate each work day, I realized that permanent press was OK for slacks, not very good for shirts.  I purchased a good iron, which I still have, retrieved an ironing board whose origins I don't really know, and taught myself how to iron shirts.  While the iron had low settings for synthetics, steam worked better.  I got adept at doing this every few weeks.  I didn't mind doing it, though I never advanced in skill beyond good enough.  Eventually I got spoiled by promotions for 99 cents per shirt from a few local laundries, more than worth the time and effort saved.  These were not my around the corner places, but still in proximity of other places I would otherwise drive.  They were probably not profitable to the sponsoring laundries, and eventually disappeared, leaving me to pick a laundry or two either around the corner, en route to work, or in proximity to work as the destination to have my shirts and lab coats laundered regularly and more expensive jackets and suits dry-cleaned periodically.  As I accepted professional employment, the tailored dry-clean clothing exited from the wardrobe and my employer took care of the white coats, leaving me only with shirts.  Shopping for price did not pay, as I was really purchasing convenience, eventually settling for a place around the corner where I could drop off and pick up an accumulation of shirts, often as many as twenty, maybe more sometimes, either on my way to work when they were always open, or on my way home when if I returned before their closing time.  They also became the place to get pants legs hemmed to the right length.

Periodically I would arrive as the owner or his wife were preparing the clothing.  He did not use a hand iron like me.  Instead, he had a professional steamer of impressive output.  With the shirt on a hanger, he would run it over all surfaces, making a uniformly smooth surface requiring only seconds per shirt.

And then the pandemic.  And OLLI.  I rarely wore a full button down shirt.  Sometimes to shul, but even there I found collared knits or mock turtlenecks very convenient, as they did not need a tie.  I could toss everything in whatever load of washing the care label specified, fold it and wear it.  And to a large extent, I went to shul much less, partly due to pandemic limitations and partly to avoid Hebrew School flashbacks generated by the Rabbi's comments.  And my dress shirt wardrobe had accumulated to the dozens.  Eventually I accumulated another twenty or so, returned to my usual laundry after a couple of years, and found some sticker shock.  The going rate for cleaning had soared to $3.50 each, leaving a very big credit card swipe to get them done.   I could buy four new shirts for that sum.  That does not reclassify dress shirts as disposables, but it does cause me to ration their frequency of wear and their professional cleaning.

The casual button downs, those plaids or checks in broadcloth, could just go from the dryer to a hanger.  Anything of Oxford cloth and most solid broadcloth, though, looked wrinkled.  After accumulating and washing eight of them, it was time to restore the iron.  It sits in a nook in my kitchen, retrieved from its basement home some time ago when I needed to apply an iron on decal to something.  The board, though, remained in the basement, where it had become one more flat surface to put stuff indefinitely.  I harvested the surface contents, then brought it upstairs to the den.  I left the spray starch on my workbench in the basement.  

The silicone cover had withstood its time in the basement but the padding did not.  I salvaged as much of it as I could, but it will need to be replaced in the near future.  Then some type of internet How To Iron a Shirt got reviewed.  I filled the iron with tap water, plugged it in, set it to steam mode, and waited for it to heat.  By pressing release, steam emerged from the soleplate as it should.  

Two shirts at a time, four sessions over three days.  Collar first.  Then placket. Then front panels, then back panels, all from the interior surface.  Finally, the sleeves and cuffs from the exterior surface.  Onto a hanger or downstairs hooks.  Ready to go.  Eight restored shirts to wear mainly to synagogue.  Will last a very long time if I get to wear each four times.  Not as good as the dry cleaner man would have done but adequate.  And with the $28 I saved, I can replace the ironing board cover and padding and maybe still have a little left over for a beer or some other treat.

Professional Laundry

Only on rare occasions do I wear dress clothing.  Mostly to synagogue.  Suit for some yom tovim, jacket often, dress shirt usually, all requiring professional maintenance.  I once ironed my own shirts, but as I got more prosperous, the convenience of letting somebody else do it better than me became my norm.  Suits always seemed just a bit more than I wanted to pay, though when I wore them frequently, they needed professional attention about once or twice a year.  I almost never laundered my sports coats, items I would wear to work but remove as soon as I got there or leave it on when rounding in the hospital.  Shirts comprised the vast bulk of what I took around the corner, once a choice of two, now a choice of one.  But in retirement, dress shirts have become a rarity.  Most of my trips to the cleaners have not been for cleaning but to get slacks purchased off the rack hemmed to the right length.

Some sticker shock recently came my way.  I tried to recapture weekly use of a midweight all season green velour jacket.  I knew my cleaner would charge more than I wanted to pay, so I took it someplace else but declined service when told the $14 price.  I can replace it at Goodwill for less than that.  Moreover, parts of the lining already had minor tears.  Just wear as is.  When a major spill occurs, replace it.  Shirts are not so easily discarded.  I accumulated a dozen over the course of a few years.  Casual ones I set aside to do myself, but the synagogue ones went to the laundry.  $41 and change for twelve shirts.  Too much.  At my last submission they were less than $2 each to wash and press.  That I can learn to do myself, or maybe not wear shirts that cannot just be popped in the washing machine and worn.  I have ample knits.  I also have a steamer, bought on sale years ago and still in the box.  Maybe try that out.  

Interestingly, pants have not been an expense, once properly altered.  While I have wool dress pants, they have largely given way to synthetic navy or dark gray slacks that go with anything and look fine after a run in Delicate Cycle.  

Dry cleaners have always had among the highest profit margins of all small retailers.  Big Box investors have never captured that market.  Most that I have used were run and owned by Asian immigrants, all pleasant hardworking people who had to give up quite a lot to relocate themselves halfway around the world.  I admire them, particularly the fellow around the corner, and want to help him succeed.  My guess is that Covid devastated him economically.  People who no longer went to the office each day left their suits in the closet and wore knit shirts.  Most do not have employees, or maybe a clerk, but those that do saw the minimum wage rise.  I do not know about their rents, chemicals, and other overhead.  But with less business and more overhead, price per garment will have to rise.  It did, though more severely than I would have predicted.  For the Wall Street Journal's analysis:  https://www.wsj.com/articles/pandemic-doomed-neighborhood-dry-cleaners-now-survivors-are-raising-prices-11656996034

So pick one or two, perhaps a basic white and a basic blue, that go with anything else I could wear, designate those as synagogue wear, and never accumulate twelve of them to launder professionally.

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.