DIY Life

Funny thing about men: when it comes to choosing what to wear, you can be just as vain as most women. Surprisingly though, unlike women, most men have no problem wearing those same clothes with the 'just-slept-in-look'. For whatever reason -- cultural, spiritual, X-chromosome deficiency -- men don't like to iron.

Here's why you should make the effort:

Wrinkles can make clothes look cheap, and the way you dress speaks volumes about who you are as a person. Let's face it, clothes talk. Whenever you enter a room for the first time, it takes only a few seconds for people you've never met to form perceptions about you and your abilities. You don't have to utter a word; people peg you one way if you're dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, slacks and a sports coat, and yet another if you're wearing any style in a wrinkled mess.

Take my word for it; it's time to learn how to iron your own clothes. Let's start with a button down shirt.

Here's how:

1. Begin with the inside and outside of the collar. Start at the tips and work your way to the back.
2. Do the cuffs -- you'll have high visibility with these so make sure you do them well.
3. Slide the shoulder onto the end of the board and do the sleeves. Start new the cuff opening then move to the top.
4. Iron the body. Start at the top and go down. The back is low priority -- it will wrinkles from sitting against the back of a chair or in a car.
   
5. Slide the tip of the iron between the buttons.

You're done ... although, you might want to learn how to iron a pair of pants too!

Tip: Moisten your shirt first, dry wrinkles are set wrinkles and difficult to get out. Use a spray bottle or a damp sponge. If you're in a hurry (as I suspect you will be), place aluminum foil under the cover of the ironing board. It'll speed things up by deflecting heat upward, so you're hitting the cloth from both sides.

If nothing helps, and you just can't get it ... invest in a steamer! Steam is the wonder vapor. If you just let a steam iron huff and puff around a shirt on a hanger (this I know you can handle), you'll erase lots of wrinkles without risking a hot steel iron (in your hands) on your defenseless fabric.