Hang the shirt in the bathroom while you shower

On light creases, yes; on a shirt that came out of a suitcase folded in four, not really — and people argue exactly that line. In some discussions people hang the garment in the bathroom while they take a hot shower and say the steam relaxes the fibres and the creases fall out; others say the same and add the shake afterwards, and others add the rest: cover the vent or switch off the fan so the steam builds, tug the fabric gently along the creases when you take it down, and clip clothespins to the hem and cuffs so the weight pulls the creases while it hangs. Against that, one person says it does not work well in practice, where some people say it does; in other discussions one person says it never worked for them however long they left it, and another person says it works only with zero ventilation and a long hot shower, which is not a real morning; and some people call the whole thing a waste of water. People’s warnings narrow it honestly: one person says shower steam handles light wrinkling only; one person says the variant that leaves the shirt hanging for four hours is a wait, not a trick; one person says a damp garment in a closed room grows mould; and some people, objecting, say hard water leaves white spots on dark clothes when you steam them this way and that a proper steamer does more. People’s own deciders: how much ventilation the room has, how long the shower is, and how set the creases are. This page’s reading: for the shirt that hung in the wardrobe and creased at the elbows, the shower is enough; for the one that travelled, go to the third question. And before you shut the door — the smoke alarm, which is the safety line above and the one thing here that people properly corrected.

Two things, both from people: the dryer with something damp in it, or a spray bottle and a hard shake. Some people put the creased garment in the dryer with a damp cloth or a couple of ice cubes, and say the moisture turns to steam in the heat and the creases drop out — some people, in more than one place, say it is their standing method, and one person puts only one or two garments in at a time so the steam reaches them. One person warns: the cloth must be clean, because a dirty rag in a hot dryer marks the shirt. People argue, one person on each side, a damp rag against misting the garment itself before it goes in; one person objects, wondering whether ice melts fast enough to matter, and one person warns never to spray water into the dryer drum — onto the clothes, then in. The spray method, from some discussions: mist the garment with plain water, or with water and a little fabric softener — one person’s ratio is eight to one — smooth it flat by hand or hang it and shake, and let it dry; one person warns it leaves wet spots if you wear it too soon, and one person uses a splash of vodka in the water because the alcohol dries faster and takes odours with it. Some people use a hairdryer on the hanging garment with a wrinkle-release spray, which is the hotel-room version of the same idea. For a single stubborn crease, some people press it with a clean hair straightener or the base of a warmed pan — one person warns the plates must be clean, and another person warns that pans scorch fabric and burn hands, so this page carries it as theirs and not as a recommendation. And some people say the honest thing: a garment steamer is the right tool — with one person warning that a steamer cannot make a crease where you want one, so pleats still need an iron — and one person says a basic iron is cheap — one person’s figure is under fifteen dollars and ends the whole question.

Match the method to the crease, the fabric and the room — people’s warnings sort it. Light creasing on cotton or a blend, a bathroom with a window or a door you can crack, and a shower you were taking anyway: the shower, with a shake after. Ten minutes and a tumble dryer: the damp cloth or the ice, one or two garments, clean rag, and take it out warm and hang it at once — it goes straight onto a hanger. No dryer, no time: the spray and the shake, then a few minutes on a hanger by an open window. A suitcase shirt, folded hard: heat as well as moisture — a steamer, or the iron one person says most non-budget hotels put in the room; the shower alone will disappoint you, and one person warns as much. A delicate fabric — silk, wool, anything with a care label that says low heat — is the gap people name several times over, and this page names it too: people have no tested method for delicates, and delicate fabrics are a gap people named, and this page’s own guess is that the cool spray-and-hang is the safest of theirs. Dark clothes in a hard-water house: not the shower, because of the white marks some people describe; the dryer or the spray with softened or bottled water. And for the reader with a hair straightener in hand, one person warns the plates must be clean — and another warns the stretch method is not for polyester. If the wrinkles are in your trousers rather than your shirt, one person smooths them by hand halfway through the drying cycle, which is prevention rather than repair and belongs to the fifth question.

Roll it, or don’t carry it at all — people who commute have both. Individual people roll the shirt rather than folding it, so there is no straight fold line; put tissue paper between the folds where a fold is unavoidable; roll it into a tight ball rather than folding it flat; or use a rigid garment folder made for the purpose, though one person found it too bulky for a light bag. One person hangs clean shirts at the office and cycles home in the day’s clothes, so the pressed garment never travels — with the warning from another person that this fails if you work from more than one place and cannot remember where the shirts are. One person starches shirts so they hold their shape folded, and people warn back, one person each: starch makes the fibres brittle and shortens a shirt’s life, and can make a crease show more, not less. Some people take the dress shirts to a dry cleaner and accept the cost per shirt; an argument runs through the discussion about the health effects of dry-cleaning solvents that is a different subject and is not settled here. At the other end, the hotel version: the hairdryer and the release spray from the second question, the shower from the first with the vent covered — one person warns hotel vents must be blocked for the steam to build, and the alarm line still applies — or the iron from reception.

Mostly, and some people say the trick is timing. Take the garment out of the dryer the moment it stops, button it, straighten the collar, and hang it — some people say gravity does the rest while it cools, and some people stopped ironing altogether once they did this; one person smooths trousers by hand halfway through the cycle so the creases never set. Then fabric. Some people buy shirts made to resist wrinkling — non-iron cottons and blends — and one says that a garment which creases badly however you treat it should be given away rather than fought; some people say a good non-iron shirt genuinely stays smooth through a commute, and one person says a good share of ‘wrinkle-free’ labels are not, and one person adds that a heavily creased non-iron shirt can be hard to iron back into shape. The brands people argue over are not named here, because which one is good changes by year. People argue, one person on each side, whether fabric softener ruins a non-iron finish or is the only thing that stops the shirt feeling like sandpaper; the decider is the care label and your own skin. And the cheapest prevention of all, from one person: an iron, which costs very little, and a shirt that is hung up the day it is washed. If your problem is a garment that came out of the wash the wrong size rather than the wrong shape, the page on soaking a shrunk jumper is the sibling of this one.