How to Iron Clothes Without an Iron
Some people love ironing. It gives them a chance to put on a podcast and chill out as they satisfyingly relieve clothes from their wrinkles. Others find it a boring and surprisingly complicated task which can all too easily result in damaging their favorite top. Whatever your approach to ironing, it's a pretty difficult task if you don't have an iron at hand. Fortunately, it is not an impossible one.
At oneHOWTO, we show you how to iron clothes without an iron. We do so by providing 7 ways to straighten clothes without irons which you can use in a clothing emergency.
1. Using steam
One of the best-known ways of ironing without an iron is to use steam, something which never fails. It is especially recommended for large garments with a long drape, such as a flowing dress or a long linen jacket. Once dry, if you find your clothes are not as straightened as you want them to be, water vapor is your best ally. This is all you have to do:
- Boil around a quart of water in a saucepan or kettle. Once brought to the boil, kill the heat and place a top on the saucepan.
- Hang the garment on a hanger and hold over the saucepan. Step back and take off the lid. It is dangerous to expose your skin to steam, but if you hold the clothing the right way, you can pass it over the water vapor without harming yourself.
- Stretch out the article of clothing and smooth any creases.
Here is an even-easier way to use steam instead of an iron to straighten clothes:
- Hang your dress in the bathroom with doors and windows closed.
- Turn the shower on at a very high temperature and let it run for a few minutes so that the steam dissipates throughout the room. The steam will affect the clothes and you can stretch out the creases with your hands.
2. Hairdryer
If you need to iron your clothes and you don't have an iron at hand but you do have a hair dryer, this can be the emergency solution to remove wrinkles in no time. Spray the garment with water, ideally from a diffuser. If you only have one or two creases, you can wet these areas alone. Stretch out the areas you want to straighten and apply heat from the hair dryer until the creases and wrinkles disappear. Be careful is it not too hot for the material you are ironing.
3. Hair straighteners
This trick is perfect for smoothing out stubborn wrinkles if you don't have an iron. It even comes in handy if your iron didn't quite do the trick and you want to straighten hard-to-reach areas of your garment. It might even be useful if you are travelling as you may want to carry straighteners, but not an iron.
Put a little water in a diffuser and spray water onto the areas you want to straighten. You can even sprinkle water manually and spread it over with your fingers. Next, heat the straightener to a suitable temperature for your garment. Pass the straighteners over the crease and it should iron out the wrinkles.
4. Saucepans
When it comes to ironing without an iron, we have the most imaginative solutions. Some kitchen utensils can temporarily become the ironing tool you need. A pot, a saucepan or any a pan with a flat and thick base can be the solution, as long as it has the right weight. Here we show you how to iron with a saucepan:
- Add a little water to the saucepan and heat it to the right temperature for your garment.
- Remove from heat and empty the water.
- Check that it is not too hot so that it won't burn your clothes.
- Stretch out the garment you want to iron on a flat, protected surface. Pass the bottom of the pan over the creases and add a little water, if necessary.
- You will see that it works almost as well as your iron.
5. Damp towel
A damp towel can also help you iron clothes without using an iron. Place the garment on a flat surface stretch it out as much as possible. Put the damp (not soaked) towel on it and press lightly with your own hands. Go over the entire surface of the fabric with movements from top to bottom and from inside to outside. In this case, the humidity and your own hands can fulfill the function of the iron.
6. Roll method
It may not have occurred to you, but some garments can be ironed without an iron and look great simply by rolling them up. These is most commonly seen with some t-shirts. Try rolling the t-shirts when they are almost dry after a wash. Make a very tight roll and let them finish drying in a ventilated place (not in the drawer). When you unroll, you should see they have no wrinkles, as long as you haven't rolled them in such as way as to form creases.
In the case of wrinkled t-shirts that have already dried, you can do the same but put some weight on them to promote better smoothing.
7. Clothes dryer
If you don't have an iron but you do have a clothes dryer, this can be the answer to your creased clothes problem. By following a few simple steps, you can have completely wrinkle-free clothes. Do not load the dryer too much, otherwise the clothes will clump together and promote creases. Finish drying them with an ‘ironing effect’ program, where possible. Once the clothes are done in the dryer, simply hang them up in the correct shape as soon as the program finishes. This way they should stay wrinkle free.
If you do have an iron and want to find out other ways to help in the home, check out our related article on how to dry clothes with an iron.
If you want to read similar articles to How to Iron Clothes Without an Iron, we recommend you visit our Home cleaning category.