« Easiest Way to Clean a Dirty Iron »
Monday, December 24, 2012 Today's post isn't crafty in the least. However, it can help you recover from mistakes made in the heat of the crafty moment. You see, I more often than not, tend to have a nasty iron. I accidentally set my iron on top of stitch witchery or the wrong side of freezer paper... Whatever the case may be I jack up my iron on the regular.
It was kind of difficult, but I actually allowed my mistakes to accumulate until I had the nastiest iron ever. Really. I couldn't iron directly onto fabric or I would get brown smudges on it but this was all in the name of a good post.
Please take a moment to check out my incredibly nasty, a couple of weeks worth, dirty iron.
Isn't that gross? Just. Plain. Gross. Ew.
I've heard lots of ways to clean irons and have tried a few. One is to basically steam a wet wash cloth to death to loosen up the crud. It is a slow process but it does work. On the downside, your cloth becomes ridiculously hot. Being as accident prone as I am, that means lots of really nasty burns on my hands.
I've heard of people getting after it with a butter knife but I'm sure that scratches the iron's surface and that can't be good, right?
There are also cleaners out there specific to cleaning an iron. I'm sure they work well but even when on my shopping list, I have never, ever remembered to pick some up at the store.
What I, and an awful lot of you, already have on hand, however are "magic eraser" type cleaning spongers. Not gonna lie, I use the store brand exclusively because they are so much cheaper and work just as well for me.
Take one of these babies and dampen just a small bit. Rub the dirty iron with firm strokes while it is cold (don't heat it up first). You don't have to really get in there and scrub too hard, just go over it a couple of times. See the pic above? That is after a few casual rubs. The top center portion where there is still some nasty gunk was pretty heavily caked on. After a few more minutes of scrubbing with moderate pressure it was all taken care of, too. Bam!
So don't go out and buy a new iron as I have in the past. Yours isn't ruined, it's dirty. And guess what... there isn't a whole lot that's dirty that can't be cleaned back to like new.
I am aware that this is an odd choice to share on Christmas Eve! At any rate, Happy Christmas Eve!!!
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Reader Comments (2)
I really appreciate this tip as I just cleaned my iron and it took a WHOLE TUBE of iron cleaning stuff to get it done. On the other hand, I always have those magic eraser things around and that is what I am going to do next time. Thanks for the tip and have a safe and happy holiday!
You are so welcome, Mickie. Happy Holidays!!