Ironing Board Question

I don't know if you are right or wrong, but I do it the way you do.

Me too! It's just easier to use with the iron stand at the right as I'm (mostly) right handed. The only person I know who does it the other way is left handed.

Modern irons with a centrally fitted cable are great for both, and the way you set up the board is how it's convenient for your use. Now I have the steam generator that doesn't fit on the stand, I'm thinking of removing it, as the cable gets hung up on it.

Mine is square on both ends. But the end that would be tapered if it were tapered is to my left -- most of the time. I tend to walk around it when sewing.

It's what works, for what you do the way you do it. It's probable she is so accustomed to having the tapered end to her right that she can't use it the other way, and is very uncomfortable when watching you do it the "hard" way.

If you iron a lot of men's shirts, do try ironing them on the square end of the board -- it fits into the shoulders and you can do more before moving the shirt -- particularly if you were forethoughty enough to make your ironing pad a little oversized, so that it covers the edges of the board and you can iron the top of the shoulder even though it isn't quite on top of the board.

(This brings up issues with my swiss-cheese memory: I distinctly recall turning the board around when I got to the shirts -- but I didn't have shirts to iron until I got married, and the square-ended board was a wedding present -- a very good board, by the way, which is still going strong forty years later despite having served as a sewing-machine stand, typing stand, etc. during the years when we were moving twice a year and didn't have any furniture.) (Having an adjustable stand all those years left me very fussy about having my keyboard and sewing machine at exactly the height I prefer.)

Joy Beeson

What difference does it make how you set the board up to iron? If you are doing the ironing, then it should be set to your comfort, which ever way that is. I have never noticed how I set my own up, and would never tell either of my DGD or DGS that they have it incorrect. My goodness, they might not want to do their own pressing(ironing) anymore. Emily

This is starting to get my funny bone. If someone were eating her peas on her knife, I could understand MIL or mother speaking up -- but ironing with the board in the "wrong" direction? Will the gossips run with this? Will these women be able to show their faces downtown? I can see it now, the whispering behind a hand - "She puts the tapered end of her ironing board on the left! Can you believe it?" Oh, the humanity! ;-)

Anyone who has enough energy to decide I've got the board set up right way or wrong way has enough energy to take over the ironing from me. Say something like that, and I'll hand you the iron and go get my book so I can relax while you finish up.

Just like anyone who cares about whether the end of the toilet paper goes over the roll or against the wall when hanging it is now in charge of making sure the supply is renewed. Forever more.

De minimus non curat lex, and de minimum non curat Kay.

This question is sure to start showing up on those forty page coop apartment applications before the end of the year. Possibly on pre-school applications as well so it's known just what kind of home the child has been raised in.....this is only the beginning......~nanada, nanada

As a friend put it, 'You care? You do it!' ;)

Play dumb and ask for a demonstration of the right way. Continue to play dumb until all the ironing is done.

I use an ironing bench (1200 X 2000mm). So what am I supposed to do - stand on my head and use the underside? LOL

It's your ironing, and your board. Do what you want. Why ever would it matter?

This looks like a variation of the old "my way is better than yours" game, as practiced by women on women. Topics include: the roll of paper, over or under?; the crochet hook, held like a pencil or not; the knitting yarn, held in the right or left hand.

The "correct" way is ALWAYS done by the one who begins. Been there, and the "winner" usually loses some credibility.

Oh, you just reminded me of my beginning efforts at crochet, which I taught myself out of a Coats & Clark leaflet. One day I took my project, whatever it was, to my new bank job so I could work on it during lunch hour in the employee break room. Right in the middle of my total absorption (probably with my tongue stuck out of the corner of my mouth), a very loud voice informed me, and everyone else in the room, that I wasn't holding my crochet hook properly. I was so embarrassed (too young to realize *she* was the one who should be embarrassed).

It was the head teller, from the next table over, setting me straight...she was a real stickler for doing things *right*. This was a very good trait to have when training new bank tellers, but not to govern absolutely everything in life.

I turned out to be a fairly proficient crocheter anyway.

Doreen in Alabama

you don't think men ever do that?

Taria

snipped-for-privacy@pennswoods.net wrote:

This could change everything!

I never had any intention of changing the way I iron, I was just curious. And she did inform me that the oven door was supposed to be partly open when using the broiler, after I had been cooking for 20 years. Checked the manual and she was right.

As a rule she is a great MIL. I am not intimidated by her at all, and can joke with her and give her grief. In fact I was teasing her about the ironing board thing, after she "corrected" me. She is 80 and her Sicilian born mother was apparently a tyrant. She just can be rigid and stubborn about things sometimes. But, 21 years ago, when her oldest son turned up with me, a tall skinny Irish redhead, she never said a word, and loves me to death. She has taught me how to make all her traditional dishes. She even kept her tongue when we told her we were not planning on having children! Judy

She's a Fairy MIL! Better than a Fairy Godmother - they only give you poofy pink ball gowns and tell you to be home by midnight! ;)

I'm sure that they do, but I can only speak as a female.

The WORLD IS COMING TO AN END!!!!

Congratulations, sounds like a keeper to me. I was also very fortunate in my choice of MILs. In 43+ years she was 100% loving and supportive.

Beverly