"I love ironing!"

Change the way you think about ironing ...

 There, I’ve said it!

Maybe I’m unusual … or perhaps other people love it too but don’t admit to the fact

It’s the perfect opportunity to listen to the radio or music, or to watch catch-up TV. Or simply to think and dream. The scent of hot, clean cotton is gorgeous – especially if the clothes have been hung outside to dry. And at the end of the session you have lovely soft, smooth clothes to wear and your bedding has shrunk into neat little parcels that fit easily into your cupboard. The downside is that ironing uses a lot of electricity.

I make sure the ironing board is set high because I’m tall. I bend at the hips and knees rather than from my back. I don’t iron in my own shadow. And I like to keep moving – music helps with this.

I don’t let the ironing board drag me down. Instead I send my head away from my feet. I don’t grip the iron and to spice things up I sometimes do a little bit of ironing with my non-dominant hand to see what happens and to give the dominant hand a rest.

Handedness

I am right-handed but both my children are left-handed. Fortunately they were never forced to write with their right hand at school, as used to be the case until recently. When I first came across a computer mouse many years ago, I was told to use it with my left hand, leaving my right hand free for writing. This has worked well and has even allowed me to share a little in the frustration of left-handers trying to use other people’s computers; I struggle to operate a mouse with my right hand, such is the power of habit.

Right-handed Neanderthals

I gleaned some interesting facts from the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry’. Apparently 40% of us are left-eared, 30% left-eyed, 20% left-footed, but only 10% left-handed. We still don’t know why the proportion of left-handers is so low (chimps tend to be 50:50 in their handedness), but our right hands have dominated since Neanderthal times and this preference is formed in the womb.

A mistrust of left-handers is preserved in our language. The word ‘left’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon lyft meaning ‘weak’. The Latin for ‘right’ is dexter, which we have built on in ‘dexterous’ for ‘skilful’, a positive attribute!

Don’t try to change your handedness. But there’s no harm – and probably a benefit – in using your non-dominant hand from time to time.

If you'd like to make everyday tasks easier, contact Kate.