How Not To Clean An Iron

 

 

It was only 52F here yesterday morning, really sort of Fall like weather to me.

And don't ask me why, but there is just something about those cooler temperatures that brings out the domestic side in me.

 

Does this mean that I was raring to drag out my ironing board and iron a basket full of clothes?

Oh my gosh, no!

But I was raring to start working on those kitchen curtains I had delayed sewing because of all of the lovely weather we'd been having; me preferring to laze out on my screened in porch reading the original Agatha Christie story, The Moving Finger instead.

 

But now back to my original thrust:

 How Not To Clean an Iron

 

First, as I said already, I was in the mood to sew. I took one look at my iron and knew there was no way I was going to chance using it on any brand new fabric.

It wasn't completely covered with gunk, but it had a few places where the sticky no sew tape had gotten stuck on the iron and had turned it brown.

Stupidly in the past I have gone ahead and ironed without cleaning it first, and then ended up with brown on my fabric.

Very aggravating!!

 

Now I don't know about you, but I have tried all sorts of 'tried and true' solutions for cleaning an iron. Off the top of my head, wax paper and salt come to mind as one of those wonderful ways to clean your iron.

Nada!

 This never worked for me.

Finally yesterday I found a new iron cleaning remedy on Pinterest. This particular lady had good results by dampening a rag with white vinegar and pressing the iron on the rag.

Guess what, I did too...

At least it made the shiny part of the irons base shinier, but it still didn't remove the brown gunk completely.

Then next she advised that a person should shake baking soda onto a cloth, then press the iron back and forth atop this.

I was apprehensive about this right off of the bat. It just made sense to me that all of those little steam holes might get clogged with baking soda.

They did!

So now I was banging my iron on a clean rag hoping to unclog the baking soda packed holes. This worked with only one hole remaining clogged. After trying a tooth pick and then my nut picker without success I just left it to eventually fall out on it's own (I hope).

Throughout all of this my husband is watching on the sidelines....

He keeps saying, "Just scrape it off."

"No, no, we can't do that it will scratch my iron," I respond.

 

Seeing nothing is working, and before I can protest, he grabs a flat paring knife from the kitchen drawer and scrapes the brown gunk from my iron completely off.

Problem solved!

I have a couple of scrape marks on my iron now.

But guess what?

It doesn't effect my ironing at all.

I have curtains half way finished now, with no worries of a stain ruining them from a dirty and sticky iron.

So all's well that ends well...