I hate hand washing and air drying and shaping sweaters so much. I've gotten rid of all sweaters except for 1 expensive ( for me) cashmere sweater that I never wear because then I'd have to wash it and dry it and shape it
First I must say that if our letter writer’s outfit is only 2% viscose 98% polyester it likely needs very little coddling and is probably fine with a home steam!
Though I often prefer an iron (I grew up in dc, chalk it up to a love of crisp dress shirts worn with suits) I work professionally with clothes and steamers are the default, so I wanted to come here to defend them a bit. They’re great in a lot of circumstances! There is no faster way to get clothing wrinkle free. The burn risk is real, but a little care in handling and/ or practice can help with that.
For best use, you want the steamer inside the item of clothing with the steam pointed upwards and out through the fabric, and move downwards as the wrinkles release, keeping skin clear of the line of fire. You can move at a 45 degree angle as you draw the steamer down and toward you to keep the steam against the fabric.
If your steamer tends to spit water, you can pull a sock over the part that emits steam (ideally in approximately the color of the garment in case of lint— light with light, dark with dark). The sock will absorb the water while letting the steam pass through. You’re likely to get more water if the angle of the steamer or its hose (if yours is a floor model) isn’t trapping/ blocking steam from releasing.
My industry uses the J-2 Jiffy Steamer if anyone is curious! Those things are the best. Hope a little insider intel helps! Jolie, you’ve taught me so much about cleaning I hope some of this helps the steamer be less loathed/ feared/ banished in your home.
Cleaning the shower is TERRIBLE!!! It’s hard to reach, your body blocks out all of the light so you can’t see, there are so many nooks and crannies, and moisture means stuff gets gross fast if you’re not on top of it. It’s absolutely my least favorite cleaning job and I loved years ago when I lived with a roommate who hated cleaning the toilet and she cleaned the shower and I cleaned the toilet and we were both happier.
I used to have (notice the past tense?!!!!) one of those fancy-looking grates at the bottom of my sink. When I moved into this apartment I saw it as a real upgrade… like only famous YouTube cooking stars have those! And then. Sigh. After several weeks of use it started to collect the most disgusting black mold at every intersection. It’s a wire grate, it has like 200 intersections of wire! I begrudgingly cleaned this for two whole years because I could not let go of the idea that I now had a “fancy kitchen sink.” I went in there and scrubbed each little point where wire met wire, top and bottom side. It was about a 45 minute task. Well, eventually my husband asked if I might just be better off without it. The happy ending is that the grate now lives in the garage and we will return it to its place when we move out, but I will never clean it again. (Note: he often offered to clean it but my controlling side wouldn’t let him touch it)
Steaming wouldn't be that bad to me, except that my hand steamer drips and splotches all over the fabric. At my job, I have an industrial steam iron (with a boiler and connected water line!) that I use a lot and love. So my home set up will always be lacking.
One thing I like about steaming is I can stand up and not have to be a contortionist or hunch over. I get terrible headaches when my shoulders are in weird positions (working on it with PT). So much cleaning involves bending over, but top of my hate list is vacuuming the car. No matter how much I contort, there's always corners of dirt left behind plus a headache on the way.
Also, as a textile engineer, the description of viscose was great!
Yeah, having the right steamer really helps. I got this little travel steamer at The Container Store because I wanted something compact. I really hated using it. I left a polite but honest review on their website. They emailed me, thanks me for being a valued customer (I go there…a lot$ and apologized that I had a bad experience and offered to send me the upgrade version!
Every time my kids leave a sticker on their shirt and I miss it and it goes through the wash.....out comes a circle of sticky residue that is impossible to get off. Please, what is the secret???
Oven cleaning. So labour intensive. Always much dirtier than I thought it was. The cleaning stuff stinks. And taking off the glass from the door so I can clean it is irritating (I have to get a screwdriver!) and I always manage to scrape some part of my hands or get a giant bruise.
I will die on the hill that steamers are useless and it's easier to iron almost everything. I can see the allure if you're working in a retail store (I'd 100% be the person volunteering to steam things in the back room vs. dealing with customers).
Washing walls/baseboards are my most hated chore and are generally only done because pets/children have left smudges that I can no longer avoid. I also procrastinate heavily on cleaning grout. Out of frustration during the pandemic I identified the one product that actually works miracles on my heavily molded shower tiles ("GELIVABLE" mold/mildew cleaner). I still hate cleaning grout but at least this stuff actually works.
Also, the thing that is killing me is my stupid apartment sink. It is stainless steel and rectangular with perfectly square corners, how am I supposed to get the corners clean??? Also, really that annoyance is tied with the solid charcoal quartz countertops that just love to show how hard the water is in my apartment. My kitchen and bathroom are just constantly water stained. I wipe multiple times per day, but it’s really a Sisyphean task.
I don’t have the hard water problem but I have lamented that my charcoal speckled countertops perfectly camouflage both ants and coffee grounds/loose tea. It’s really quite amazing!
- outside dirt off my windows and doors: I live on a car traffic-heavy street. There’s a lot of grime. So I don’t clean the windows often because it’s hard to keep up with but when I do I also question what the heck I’m supposed to use.
- dusting fans. Annoying
- dusting baseboards. Sticky dust?
- cleaning the inner rim of the wash machine. How?
- cleaning behind the toilet. I feel like my face gets too close to the toilet.
When I vacuum and the hair gets spun around the brushes and then I have to cut it off. This actually makes me wonder if I am doing something wrong in vacuuming…because how can this be the way? (Please tell me if I am doing something wrong)
I hate hand washing and air drying and shaping sweaters so much. I've gotten rid of all sweaters except for 1 expensive ( for me) cashmere sweater that I never wear because then I'd have to wash it and dry it and shape it
First I must say that if our letter writer’s outfit is only 2% viscose 98% polyester it likely needs very little coddling and is probably fine with a home steam!
Though I often prefer an iron (I grew up in dc, chalk it up to a love of crisp dress shirts worn with suits) I work professionally with clothes and steamers are the default, so I wanted to come here to defend them a bit. They’re great in a lot of circumstances! There is no faster way to get clothing wrinkle free. The burn risk is real, but a little care in handling and/ or practice can help with that.
For best use, you want the steamer inside the item of clothing with the steam pointed upwards and out through the fabric, and move downwards as the wrinkles release, keeping skin clear of the line of fire. You can move at a 45 degree angle as you draw the steamer down and toward you to keep the steam against the fabric.
If your steamer tends to spit water, you can pull a sock over the part that emits steam (ideally in approximately the color of the garment in case of lint— light with light, dark with dark). The sock will absorb the water while letting the steam pass through. You’re likely to get more water if the angle of the steamer or its hose (if yours is a floor model) isn’t trapping/ blocking steam from releasing.
My industry uses the J-2 Jiffy Steamer if anyone is curious! Those things are the best. Hope a little insider intel helps! Jolie, you’ve taught me so much about cleaning I hope some of this helps the steamer be less loathed/ feared/ banished in your home.
Cleaning the shower is TERRIBLE!!! It’s hard to reach, your body blocks out all of the light so you can’t see, there are so many nooks and crannies, and moisture means stuff gets gross fast if you’re not on top of it. It’s absolutely my least favorite cleaning job and I loved years ago when I lived with a roommate who hated cleaning the toilet and she cleaned the shower and I cleaned the toilet and we were both happier.
I used to have (notice the past tense?!!!!) one of those fancy-looking grates at the bottom of my sink. When I moved into this apartment I saw it as a real upgrade… like only famous YouTube cooking stars have those! And then. Sigh. After several weeks of use it started to collect the most disgusting black mold at every intersection. It’s a wire grate, it has like 200 intersections of wire! I begrudgingly cleaned this for two whole years because I could not let go of the idea that I now had a “fancy kitchen sink.” I went in there and scrubbed each little point where wire met wire, top and bottom side. It was about a 45 minute task. Well, eventually my husband asked if I might just be better off without it. The happy ending is that the grate now lives in the garage and we will return it to its place when we move out, but I will never clean it again. (Note: he often offered to clean it but my controlling side wouldn’t let him touch it)
Steaming wouldn't be that bad to me, except that my hand steamer drips and splotches all over the fabric. At my job, I have an industrial steam iron (with a boiler and connected water line!) that I use a lot and love. So my home set up will always be lacking.
One thing I like about steaming is I can stand up and not have to be a contortionist or hunch over. I get terrible headaches when my shoulders are in weird positions (working on it with PT). So much cleaning involves bending over, but top of my hate list is vacuuming the car. No matter how much I contort, there's always corners of dirt left behind plus a headache on the way.
Also, as a textile engineer, the description of viscose was great!
Yeah, having the right steamer really helps. I got this little travel steamer at The Container Store because I wanted something compact. I really hated using it. I left a polite but honest review on their website. They emailed me, thanks me for being a valued customer (I go there…a lot$ and apologized that I had a bad experience and offered to send me the upgrade version!
Every time my kids leave a sticker on their shirt and I miss it and it goes through the wash.....out comes a circle of sticky residue that is impossible to get off. Please, what is the secret???
Oven cleaning. So labour intensive. Always much dirtier than I thought it was. The cleaning stuff stinks. And taking off the glass from the door so I can clean it is irritating (I have to get a screwdriver!) and I always manage to scrape some part of my hands or get a giant bruise.
I will die on the hill that steamers are useless and it's easier to iron almost everything. I can see the allure if you're working in a retail store (I'd 100% be the person volunteering to steam things in the back room vs. dealing with customers).
Washing walls/baseboards are my most hated chore and are generally only done because pets/children have left smudges that I can no longer avoid. I also procrastinate heavily on cleaning grout. Out of frustration during the pandemic I identified the one product that actually works miracles on my heavily molded shower tiles ("GELIVABLE" mold/mildew cleaner). I still hate cleaning grout but at least this stuff actually works.
Every time I hang my bras dry I think “hang it by the Tipper” which I think was a joke made by you and Meredith Haggerty.
Also, the thing that is killing me is my stupid apartment sink. It is stainless steel and rectangular with perfectly square corners, how am I supposed to get the corners clean??? Also, really that annoyance is tied with the solid charcoal quartz countertops that just love to show how hard the water is in my apartment. My kitchen and bathroom are just constantly water stained. I wipe multiple times per day, but it’s really a Sisyphean task.
I don’t have the hard water problem but I have lamented that my charcoal speckled countertops perfectly camouflage both ants and coffee grounds/loose tea. It’s really quite amazing!
More things:
- outside dirt off my windows and doors: I live on a car traffic-heavy street. There’s a lot of grime. So I don’t clean the windows often because it’s hard to keep up with but when I do I also question what the heck I’m supposed to use.
- dusting fans. Annoying
- dusting baseboards. Sticky dust?
- cleaning the inner rim of the wash machine. How?
- cleaning behind the toilet. I feel like my face gets too close to the toilet.
-
When I vacuum and the hair gets spun around the brushes and then I have to cut it off. This actually makes me wonder if I am doing something wrong in vacuuming…because how can this be the way? (Please tell me if I am doing something wrong)