I ironed shirts.

This is how much I love my family.

First, you need you know I no longer own anything that needs ironing. My clothing must be able to go from the washer, to a clothes line. When dry, it’s folded or rolled and compressed in a packing cube in a suitcase for many hours. When I pull it out, I need to be able to unroll it and put it on.

There’s no ironing and not much in the way of folding when it comes to my clothing. I usually hang a few things once I’m at my destination, but it’s not necessary.

It’s not that I don’t know how to iron. I do. Once upon a time I had a lot of clothes that needed ironing. But a streamlined wardrobe and lifestyle meant I didn’t want to deal with wrinkles or trying to pack or find an iron.

I ironed tiny shirts

Second, you need to know what I was ironing. It doesn’t belong to me but to my grandson, Link. Tiny shirts. Well, he’s big for his age (9 months), so they are 18- to 24-month sizes, but they are tiny compared to adult-sized shirts.

If you’ve ever ironed a long-sleeve cotton shirt, you know there is a step-by-step process to get good results. You start with the collar and cuffs. Then the sleeves and finally go from the front to the back. These shirts are small enough I could barely get the iron fully on the shirt front. I had to kind of hang it off the edge of the board. They have teeny tiny cuffs.

(As an aside: Why would you make children’s clothing out of 100% cotton or any other material that requires ironing? Kids get wrinkled pretty easily and clothing gets soiled quickly. That’s a lot of time washing and ironing to look good for a little while. Better to use a blend or permanent press type fabrics, but I don’t design children’s clothing.)

I had maybe eight little pieces to press. Finished, they are quite cute stacked up. I’m guessing some will be a one-and-done wear. We will put him in it for a photo and that will be it. But rather than outgrowing it, it will simply become too wrinkly to wear without ironing.

And while I did it this time, it may not happen again. After all, I don’t even iron my own clothes.

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How to Be a Better Writer Tip

Try a writing prompt

I was listening to program on the radio in which a host and guest discussed Twitter poetry submissions. If you aren’t familiar with Twitter, you are limited to posts of only 140 characters. Not words, characters.

While writing in short form can be a fun challenge (Google “Twitter short stories”), the guest also suggested another writing tip: writing prompts to try a different direction than you might normally take.

It’s an easy technique, and you don’t need a list of prompts. Anything will do. Look around the room or open a book or magazine.

For example, the magazine in front of me has a sepia-toned cover of silhouettes in windows. From that you could write about:

• Silhouettes (see a picture in your head and describe how it came to be or what happens next)
• Old photographs (following the “sepia-toned” path)
• Windows (how to choose window coverings that reflect your style)
• What windows represent (a promise, something we can see but can’t touch, a view of the world beyond our existence)

Well, you get the idea. Give it a try and see where it takes you. It’s a good warmup exercise to get going or a way to shake up your writing. Let me know how it goes!