Mara Reynolds

I missed all my son’s games because...

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I SO HATE HOUSE CHORES, that I recently timed how long I spend ironing on a Sunday. Two hours and nineteen minutes. I genuinely thought the timer on my phone had to be wrong. That did include sorting everything, waiting for the iron to heat and putting the clothes away, but still. More than two hours of every Sunday, standing in the laundry room. Meanwhile, my husband Daniel plays football on Sunday evenings. I do not mean this as a husband-bashing post. He works hard and I stopped working outside the home when our second child was born. That arrangement made sense at the time. The problem is that, over the years, everything in the house quietly became my job. Not because we had a big conversation and agreed it. It just happened. Our son Lucas is fourteen and our daughter Sophie is twelve. Between school uniforms, Daniel's work shirts, basketball clothes, dance clothes and normal laundry, there is always something waiting. Daniel gets ready for football and leaves. I unfold the ironing board. I normally do his shirts first, then the uniforms, then everybody else's clothes. Mine are last, assuming I still care by that point. The reason I finally timed it was Lucas had a basketball game one Sunday and asked if I would come. I said yes, of course. Then the ironing took longer than expected. Daniel needed shirts for Monday, Sophie had put two blouses in the laundry at the last minute and I discovered Lucas's spare uniform crushed under a towel. I arrived near the end of the game. Lucas saw me come in, gave me a little wave and carried on playing. Afterward he said, ""It's okay, Mum. We lost anyway."" He was trying to make me feel better, which somehow made me feel worse. I had missed most of the game because I was ironing clothes for people who had all been relaxing while I did it. So I tried to make the routine faster. I bought a steamer. It spat water on one of Daniel's shirts and took almost as long as the iron. I used the anti-wrinkle setting on the dryer, which ran for forty minutes and still left lines across the cotton shirts. I tried hanging everything immediately. That helps when I remember, but sometimes a load finishes while I am cooking or driving somebody somewhere, and the clothes sit in a basket. Then one Wednesday I was at the supermarket and noticed the cashier using a small spray bottle on her green uniform top. She had just come back from lunch and the fabric was creased across the middle where she had been sitting. She sprayed it a few times, pulled the bottom straight and smoothed it with her hands. I asked what it was because the creases were already looking better while she scanned my shopping. It was called IronLess. She said she kept it beneath the till because her top always looked slept in after lunch. There was no fragrance, which mattered to her because she hated scented laundry products. The supermarket did not sell it, so I took a photo of the bottle and ordered one later. I started with one of Sophie's old cotton shirts. I tested the inside hem, sprayed the front lightly and smoothed it out with my hands. When I checked it later, the normal laundry creases had relaxed. The fabric did not smell or feel sticky. The first Sunday, I only used it on three items. I still ironed everything else because I did not quite trust it. The next week I used it on five shirts and a couple of everyday tops. After a few weeks I worked out which things actually needed an iron and which things were just wrinkled from the dryer or basket. I still iron formal trousers, stubborn creases and any collar Daniel wants very sharp. IronLess is not magic and it does not make every garment look professionally pressed. But most of our weekly pile did not need that. It just needed to look neat. The next time I timed the whole routine, it took forty-three minutes. I actually sat on the bed afterward trying to remember what I had forgotten, because there was no way I could be finished that early. I had not forgotten anything. So I messaged my friend Anna and asked if she wanted to get coffee. I had not met her for coffee on a Sunday in years. Not because Daniel had forbidden it or anything dramatic like that. There was simply always a job that seemed more urgent. We sat in a café near my house and I drank the whole cup while it was hot. Daniel phoned to ask where the coffee was kept, which tells you quite a lot about how our house had been operating. When I got home, he was confused that the shirts were already done. He checked the laundry basket and asked if there was a catch. There wasn't. For the next couple of Sundays, he kept inspecting shirts and asking whether something felt different. Once he complained that a sleeve was not as crisp as usual, after he had already worn the shirt all day without noticing. What had really changed was not the shirt. It was the fact that I had an hour left over. The following Sunday he suggested I use the extra time to reorganise the hall cupboard. I said no. Lucas had another basketball game and I was going to watch it. That turned into a slightly uncomfortable conversation, but it was a conversation we probably needed to have. If I finished one household job early, another job always appeared. I realised free time was not going to be handed to me because the list was complete. The list is never complete. I went to the game. Lucas noticed me before the warm-up and asked afterward whether I had seen his first basket. I had seen all of them. I still use part of Sunday to get everyone ready for the week. IronLess has not abolished laundry, unfortunately. But the ironing board is no longer open for most of the evening. Some Sundays I meet Anna. Sometimes I watch Lucas play. I have also started helping at the café for a few hours when they are short-staffed. I worked in hospitality before the children were born and had forgotten that I was actually quite good at it. This is not a dramatic story about a spray changing my life. It saved me around an hour and a half on a job I had been doing every week without questioning it. What I did with that time was up to me. If you also spend Sunday ironing school uniforms, work shirts and normal everyday clothes, have a look at the demonstration. IronLess is a fragrance-free fabric-smoothing spray for most everyday clothes and household fabrics. Spray lightly, stretch and smooth the fabric with your hands, then let it dry. I suggest starting with one ordinary shirt and keeping the iron for anything that genuinely needs a formal press. I went to the supermarket for milk and came home with a photo of a spray bottle. It turned out to be the first Sunday shortcut that actually gave me the time back instead of creating another job. Link below P.S. It is not suitable for wool or silk. Check the clothing label and test a small hidden area if the fabric is unfamiliar. P.P.S. I still iron the items that need a sharp finish. IronLess is for the everyday laundry, storage and suitcase wrinkles that do not need the full board-and-iron treatment.