Is Ironing a Form of Self-Care?

Wow, weird questions, uh?

Although, for me, I found it was this week.. Every day, I look in my closet, and I am like so many others; I beat myself up over the clothes I can no longer fit into and the clothes that I have that I don't necessarily like anymore because I don't care for how they look on my body. Then there is that set of clothing that I wish I could wear, but they are completely wrinkled, and generally, I have not left myself enough to iron in them at the moment, nor had I taken the time to iron them before I hung them up in my closet. And this, my friends, is a daily occurrence.

Now maybe you are that person that loves ironing. Perhaps you do it once a week, maybe you do it as soon as you pull something out of the dryer, or perhaps you are like a friend of mine who has an ironing board and iron always set up in the bedroom ready to go. I do not do any of these scenarios. I avoid ironing whenever possible, even though it is not that bad, and I don't mind it too much when I do it, especially if I don't have to do it for very long. Still, it is not something I gravitate towards, so I will take something out of the dryer, instantly hang it up, and it will hang in my closet for months, maybe even years, not ever being worn simply because it needs to be ironed. But today, I took everything out of my closet that I wanted to wear, and then I set an hour aside and ironed every piece, and you know what it did for my mood? It elevated me. It gave me a fresh look in my closet. It gave me a sense of accomplishment and something to look forward to because now I have more items to choose from when I get ready in the mornings. By taking the time, I feel, in a weird way, that this was a perfect kind of self-care for me. By taking care of ironing my clothes, I ultimately took care of myself. We attach so many things to self-care. Take a bath, read a book, light a candle, exercise, and meditate. But what about the things we put off that, if we just did, would make us feel the way that ironing made me feel?

Here are a couple of questions to ponder:

What are you putting off that if you took just one hour to do, you would feel better?

How can self-care, in whatever form you view that, be integrated into daily routines and chores to promote long-term health and well-being?

We’d love to hear your thoughts.