that brings back the memory of my mother. She didn’t like to iron so would sprinkle the clothes and put them in an old fridge in the basement and when they mildewed she would throw them away. We were not rich. I learned to iron when I was about 10 and did the ironing. I still have a scar on my finger from when my brother bumped the ironing board and the iron fell on my finger. I still don’t mind ironing when the occasion arises.

Ironing
 

We used to do the sprinkler bottle, roll up & iron too! Everything did come out really nice. We had a sun porch that was like a freezer in the winter & we'd even hang some clothes on a line in there. The pants could stand up by themselves!

We made those sprinkling pop bottles for our moms in third grade. Painted them and then a coat of shellac over them. The teacher bought sprinkling tops for our bottles!

This is what I did as well, no freezing involved. When I was 9 I walked to a neighbor's, got their ironing, sprinkled and ironed, and walked them back hung up. Probably about $.10 a shirt, etc.

I don't remember mom putting hers in the freezer...she simply used the refrigerator.

The reason for putting in fridge was because the starch used then would sour overnight if not kept cold. It was the starch made from powder in a box. Most did not iron the same day as wash day, no time. The sprinkling before ironing was to help remove the wrinkles from the rolling. My mother and grandmother had wash day, then ironing day. My job as a little girl was to be sure all the clothepins were taken off the line and put in the clothespin bag. All washing was done with a wringer washer, and it took from morning to noon.

This is the way it was done when I was growing up. I had to iron since I was 8 yrs old. My mom had me iron sheets and pillow cases too. Never could see any use for that but that is the way it was done in the "olden" days. Now I iron with steam and starch all my fabric before I start a project.

You're right, gillyo. It really helps to put the slightly damp fabric in the freezer. We had a thread on this a while back and I said that my quilting teacher said to put slightly damp fabric in the freezer and it would iron "like butter". Well, I've never ironed butter, but it really does iron great and takes out the wrinkles.

My mom also had a sprinkler top on a bottle to dampen the clothes. She would roll them up and put them in a sack/pillowcase until she got to iron them.

I also used to do that back in the "old days"