B&B Ironing

[Quillan]

Well three years, three irons and two ironing boards in to running our B&B I believe I can now safely pass on some useful information of a practical nature. I will be mentioning product names but only as a third party recommendation.

 

Somebody did post about this subject a few years ago, I can’t find it now, but it did tell you not to waste your money on, namely roller irons.

 

Your Ironing board.

 

Conventional ironing boards are not suitable for ironing sheets as they are pointed so I had to come up with something different that also made ironing quicker and more efficient.

 

The first step is to find the longest, widest sheet you have. Now some of us may have UK and French sheets and will know that French sheets are both wider and longer and that at some time in the future you may find yourself buying French sheets to replace your UK ones. Take the sheet and fold it in to four and then again width wise making a total of 5 folds. Now measure the length and width of this folded sheet and write these figures down, lets call the length ‘L’ and the width ‘W’.

 

Materials – Pine plank (in other words that pine stuff you get in DIY shops that you can use instead of chipboard), do not use chipboard as steam from the iron will make it break down and go funny. The plank should be 4” wider than the ‘W’ figure and about 18” longer than the ‘L’ figure (this is to allow the iron and a cup of tea to stand on the end).

 

 

You will require a good quality second hand normal ironing board and some screws long enough to attach the plank to the top. Now cover the plank surface with that heat resistant stuff you get for tables and get your self enough fire retardant curtain liner to go over this double and finally cover this with normal 100% thick cotton curtain liner. Make sure you have enough of these materials to go over the edge and under so they can be stapled. I staple each bit of covering separately so they can be removed for washing without taking the whole thing apart.

 

Using – The idea behind the size is that with the correct iron you can iron the sheets when they are folded in fours. Iron the first side in two stages then fold it back on it’s self to iron the other sides but of course it will now fit the board and not hang over so it’s more efficient and quicker. You can use the same technique to iron pillow cases, we iron four at a time.

 

The Iron

 

 We have tried 3 different ones and have ended up with a Delonghi Living Innovation 3D steam System Pro 1000. This unit does not require switching off to fill the steam tank as it pumps water in from a water carrier on the front. It produces 4 bar of pressure at a rate of 120g per minute which is why it irons through four folds of sheeting. We have tried the Polti iron and a Philips but neither can produce the pressure than this does for the same amount of time. The Philips and Polti both have smaller steam tanks and run out of steam in about 30 second and they feed water quicker. The Polti lasted 12 months and 3 days and went bang. They wouldn’t replace it as it was out of warranty. The Philips is now kept for emergency use only. We bought our DeLongi via a French website located via Kellgoo and it cost us 188€ including delivery, well worth the money.

 

Places to use your new ironing board and iron, please see http://www.extremeironing.com/

 

 

So there you go chaps, you can knock up a new ironing board down the shed then give it a Christmas and for the wedding anniversary the iron. That should impress ‘er in doors’.

 

Happy Ironing.

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Hi Chris,

Interesting point re ironing board. Jacquie continues using our (large) traditional ironing board, and doesn't seem to find it a problem.

As for an iron, I was very interested to see your suggestion. We agree 100% on the need for a heavy duty steam ironing system with separate pumped reservoir. In fact we don't have the Delonghi, but the "Calor Express", and Jacquie swears by it, as it allows her to iron 3-4 times more quickly than with a conventional steam iron. Knowing how interlinked all these trade names are, I'd not be surprised to find that they are substantially the same.

[Quillan]

[quote]Hi Chris,Interesting point re ironing board. Jacquie continues using our (large) traditional ironing board, and doesn't seem to find it a problem.As for an iron, I was very interested to see your sugg...[/quote]

Just go ask her if 2min 48 sec for both sides of a king size quilt to commercial laundry standard is quick for a man and 'er in doors can knock about 15 seconds off that and drink a cup of tea at the same time...... so there

[Miki]

Chris,

The boss made me put up a kitchen type affair in the laundry room some years ago. The worktop she had put on top of the cupboards and washing machines etc is 65cm's by 3.00m. This she says suits her fine. We do have the roller type press, as you say quite useless for fitted sheets and quilt covers, especially the frilly type, in fact perfect only for pillow slips (Please remember I am passing this all on from Tina !)

The iron you describe, she say's has too small a head and we had one anyway that decided to pack it in after 18 months. We also get through an iron a year maybe two, these range from medium to fairly expensive and to be honest, they last about the same. Ideal situation is the industrial laundry but four weeks of wrong returns and huge bills and bosh, that was a non player.

We also have a small steam press but that gets used as and when she can be bothered with it. It is now used for trousers and shirts and the odd sheet !

We find most of our stuff though Kelkoo (What you meant to say !)and in general get much of it through the promos at MisterGooddeal. We then pick up the stuff free from an entrepot at the north side of Rennes (about 25 minutes from us).

Mmmm, 2 mins and 48 secs you say, well I shall see what I can do but what is commercial laundry standard ? Does it mean I iron it, then find it isn't ours in the first place

[Coco]

Well how refreshing to see that a thread on ironing has (until now) been contributed to solel by men  However, Christmas and anniversary Chris?  If I got an iron from 'im upstairs (still doing the attic conversion) for Christmas I just might be tempted to do a"little Mo" with it

I like the idea of the board Chris - the pointy end is the bane of my life.  When the barn conversion is done I'm having a "laundry" corner in our new, big kitchen which will have the board permanently up, so that's another little job for 'im to add to the list, which at the moment is as long as both his arms.

And as for the recommendations on irons, that's really useful.  I've been looking at the big steam ones for some time now but as we currently only have two rooms I've struggled on with my old domestic one, which has lasted for about 4 years now.  However, from next month we will have two extra single beds and from March next year an extra double, so I shall be looking for something a bit quicker than I currently have.

Thanks guys - and keep up the speed ironing, but Chris, I have to say, a glass of white wine is a much better accompaniment than a cup of tea

[Cerise]

Dear Chris

If you would like to pop over and demonstrate your marvellous technique and equipment, the EEC ironing mountain is currently downstairs in my laundry room.  Having been overwhelmed by both real guests and relatives this week I currently have the sheets off 5 beds awaiting me.  Any help and demonstrations of male ironing supremacy gratefully received.

I ttoo am about to replace this year's iron so will look carefully at your and Ian's recommendations.

Somewhat steamily

Maggi

 

[Quillan]

Well 'er in doors said "finally, something so simple even a man can do it" of course she was ONLY refering to the ironing.

On a more serious note I think in our business unless you fork out a fortune and buy a proper industrial type iron the life expectancy of irons is somewhat low. I don't know if I am classed as a "new age man" but I do my share and include the ironing. The oblong board is the way to go but only for bedding, it's no good for shirts etc, we use a normal one for that. It does speed the ironing up because the sheets 'fit' as it were. With the iron we have you only have to move the sheet 4 times to iron it. Twice to do one side then fold in half, do one side and then turn it over to do the other which has to save time.

Pillow slips can be ironed as two plus two thats two, one on top of the other and as the board is so long you can put two piles side by side. We iron teas cloths, well the ones the guests see and they can be done the same way.

My brother in law had three or four laundry shops in Norfolk and he put me on to the board covering and said that the worst thing you can use are these covers you get from the supermarkets because the cover has to absorbe part of the steam to get the sheets to become crease free. He's an expert so he should know and in his business time is money. Me, I just like a easy life.

Maggie - It's Pats turn to iron next so I have passed your message on. I can'y possibly repeat what she said.

[Alexis]

Aah!

This is why I decided a long time ago that B&B was not for me.

All that ironing and 45° in the shade....

I will be thinking of you all this summer

 

[Miki]

"....I will be thinking of you all this summer"

And I will be thinking of you from November to Easter when I am lazing away in the Azores (I wish !!)

[Ejc]

For big sheets - we just use a tall kitchen table that is covered by a few layers of old balnekt and then some cotton sheeting......

Good topic though - my iron is nearing the end of it's life -and I was looking at these type...

This I'll show this to my other half who swears ironing brings him out in hives

[mascamps.com]

Just to muddy the waters... we (well, Wendy) decided that we really couldn't cope with the ironing when we got to three rooms full last year.

Are you guys really ironing the sheets yourselves? We went straight down the blanchisserie route once we found out that it meant "industrial laundry". They don't actually iron the sheets but with the way they fold them, I couldn't tell the difference.

It costs less than 1€ a sheet to get it washed and folded.

 

Arnold

 

[Coco]

But haven't you got lots of rooms Arnold?  Can't imagine anyone wanting to take two or even four lots of bedding off me at those sorts of prices!  But then two lots every day (if you've got those godarned one-nighters ) is still a lot of ironing and warrants a time-saving board! 

[mascamps.com]

It doesn't matter how many (or few rooms) you have. We are "too small" for them too or so I thought.

What you do is to save up the sheets and whatnot 'til you have a reasonably full trolley load (they use the hotel type trolleys that you'll have seen). This equates to approximately six or seven rooms worth of stuff (it depends on whether you send the towels too).

The only problem is that you need to have enough sheets etc. to keep you going for the couple of days that it takes them to wash & fold them. Once you've hit that number, you're in business and believe me, it's worth every penny. Not only do you save the electric of your washing machine (and ordinary washing machines won't last in this business), you save the effort in ironing and having oodles of sheets hanging up around the place.

Contrary to what I thought originally, you don't need to tootle along every week. They're quite happy to take a load once a month (and very happy to do it in winter when a lot of places are closed). They'll also help you in buying suitable sheets that'll stand up to all the extra washing.

 

Arnold

 

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Hi Arnold,

Not our experience. We have 3 rooms, in which we have terylene/cotton fitted sheets and duvet covers and we wash them in a domestic Miele. Some of our sets are still the same as we used when we opened, and most are at least 6 years old. The (top loading) washing machine blew up when I failed to shut the hatch properly, and it opened when spinning at 1200 rpm - oops.

The second Miele - a cheaper front loader, has done sterling duty since, and washes a complete set of bedlinen - fitted bottom sheet, duvet cover, matching pillow cases and white pillow cases  all in in half an hour.

My job is to strip beds, wash, dry, fold (crucially important) and deliver bed linen to Jacquie who irons them. It's a tie, in that you have to be there, but I can't honestly say that it's a lot of work. Mind you, we do bless our longer stay guests!

 

 

 

[Coco]

I always remember being amazed when Chris (Quillan) gave advice to a new starter last year and said that you have to bear in mind that you will need to renew your bed linen every year.  Five years down the line from starting as a gite and 3 from changing to a B&B we still have 4 sets of original bedding, none of which is yet showing signs of aging.   The only thing we have learnt from experience was that the navy blue towels, which LOOKED very nice in the yellow bathroom, started to show severe signs of wear through fading after only one season, but now that all towels have been replaced with good quality white ones, we have no such problems. Arnold's laundry service would be no good for me, as only having two rooms, we only have three sets of bedding per room, so there would be a huge added expense in buying enough excess bedding to fill a trolley!  We're also still on the first top-loading washing machine.  Although I do admit that I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is going to last this season out when we will buy a more heavy duty front-loader to go into our new kitchen/laundry room (when it's built!!!  )

So far, even during periods of several one-nighters in a row, I have never had a problem with only 3 sets per bed.  Especially after a kind soul from this board, who shall remain nameless (Causette)personally delivered her spare tumble dryer to me free of charge!!!

[mascamps.com]

I strip the beds and dump the sheets and whatnot into the trailer.

We basically hit the problem last August when we'd a whole lot of one-nighters which, of course, magnifies the work no end. This year, so far, we could have coped with it all ourselves as the stays have generally been longer.

Our cheapo washing machine takes about an hour to do the same as your Miele.

Out of curiosity, do you actually need to iron the sheets if you have them folded by hand? The blanchisserie just folds them and they're as good as ironed.

 

Arnold

 

[mascamps.com]

That new laundry every year comment had us very worried about the expense.

Two rooms would probably be too few to use the laundry service. I'd say that with four or five rooms you'd be OK as a trolley load is around six or seven rooms. You need three sets of linen per room although you might get away with two.

On the towel front, we need some more this year as we're running slightly ahead of schedule in terms of occupancy. We were toying with the idea of getting white ones with "Mas Camps" knitted into them (or whatever the term is). Any thoughts?

We don't have a dryer which, of course, added to our problems last year. I think we might have struggled on under our own steam (literally!) if we'd had one but with it taking an hour a load (ie per room) and up to four or five rooms per day, it wasn't a runner. We tried some normal landries but they're too expensive and can't really cope with the volume either.

 

Arnold

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Hi,

Re not renewing bedding. I think a lot hinges upon what quality you get, what the composition is, how it's washed and how often you have to change it. We (in almost total ignorance) bought top quality polycotton, which very nearly drip dries good enough not to need ironing (we do, but that's because we're manic). We wash on a short cycle with the minimum of detergent (we have very soft water here) all of which tends to reduce degradation of the material. I'd not argue with Chris, because no one is going to change bedding if you don't need to! We are also quite lucky in that our average stay is slightly above the national average, so perhaps we don't have to wash them so often.

As for _having_ to iron. Some sets do need it (a couple of singles bought in France) most don't really, but we prefer to give them a quick going over. It looks so much crisper. Even when we have 5 sets to do, Jacquie does it in <1 hour, and uses the time to watch a recorded TV show at the same time. As ?Coco was it? said, coloured towels do tend to bleach in the sun. If the pile is still perfect, then we re-dye them! But it has to be agreed that they wear faster than bedlinen.

Arnold. Monogrammed towels indeed. Will it increase your turnover or justify a price hike? Is this the sort of thing an average sort of guy would give friends when they stay in his home?  A condensing tumble dryer is essential. We got one for abt 1500F in the Autumn sales from Géant in around 1998. Works fine, though a bit slowly. However, if we're organised, we can get the lot dried by about 4pm. Dry the bedlinen first, (75-80 mins for a set and a half) so J can iron them, then do the towels - up to 4 per room - and flannels.

 

[Quillan]

Coco - I do remember saying something along those lines which having now bought good quality sheets I would like to change. We will now be buying an extra set of sheets per room, about one set per room per year taking the worn ones out the pile and using them on our bed.

We use Egyptian cotton sheets but this is our choice. Our B&B is run along the lines of what we would expect if we stayed in a B&B. There is nothing nicer than getting out of a hot bath and slipping in between a nice pair of crisp carefully ironed sheets. In fact we would never stay in a place that didn’t iron their sheets. It’s a bit like towels; we finish ours of in the drier even in the summer which leaves the lovely thick and soft. It’s all a matter of choice both ours and the guests. Some must like it as this year over 28% of our reservations are return bookings plus a lot of recommendations. It’s like putting tea and coffee making facilities in the rooms and supplying them free of charge. In fact we don’t charge for tea and coffee ever only to find the Brits voluntarily hand over their tea bags as they seem to feel guilty about bringing them in the first place.

 

[mascamps.com]

Ian, the "Mas Camps" towels sound like they'd be very expensive but in practice there isn't a whole lot of difference in the price as compared similar quality "ordinary" towels. Most of the additional cost (can't recall how much exactly, but it isn't a lot) is taken up by the towels being higher quality material rather than being the cost of adding the wording. As part of our gradual upgrading process, we'd be getting better towels anyway so I figure that we may as well get our name on them if there's little difference in the price.

Chris, definitely agree re the crisp sheets and fluffy towels. In the absence of a dryer we send our towels off to the blanchisserie now and again to fluff them up in their dryer and it makes a big difference. Haven't got to your 28% repeat bookings yet but I think our 5% repeat bookings rate isn't too bad after one year; we shall try to match you in the years to come

We started to put kettles in the room last year but stopped when we hit the problem that some of the French specifically hated them and aren't really sure what to do now. In practice, we find that we've been getting more from the UK this year so perhaps we'll roll out the kettles.

Arnold

 

[Motorhead]

http://www.extremeironing.com/

Maybe some of you should be giving this a try?

[Quillan]

"We started to put kettles in the room last year but stopped when we hit the problem that some of the French specifically hated them and aren't really sure what to do now. In practice, we find that we've been getting more from the UK this year so perhaps we'll roll out the kettles."

It's only the French men that are unsure but men only pay the bill, it's the women who pick the room. I start by telling the men it's a marital aid (jokingly) and makes their life with their wife/partner a lot better. I then tell the women that we put it there because all men are born romantics at heart and will then have the oppertunity of making them a cup of tea/coffee in bed to get the day off to a good start. Not only that but the men can be supervised by the women giving instruction from the bed.

We get a lot of French men with their mistresses for some reason. They are not shy about their mistresses but are rather quite open. The first time we had a couple I thought the woman was his wife as they walked round our park hand in hand and all 'loved up', "No" the guy said "my wife is home looking after the kids, this is my mistress". Well I thought it was a joke, might be his daughter or something (the mistresses tend to look younger than the men) untill we had the third couple turn up. Well I had to ask why we were so popular and it turns out there is a 'swingerrs' hotel down the road and we are recommended as a overflow place to stay. Funny how they don't take their wives to these events but hey ho it's France, it's different. I think theres a market for this sort of thing but 'er in doors won't let me run one here, don't know why.

[Cerise]

Wanted to join 'extreme ironing' club but they say our terrace isn't an extreme enough place plus AGF don't want to insure me!!

Surprised you find French don't like kettles Arnold.  Once they realise that it is free, and not instead of breakfast, ours all love them.  I find that my French guests are afraid to use anything in case they have to pay extra for it - so now I explain it is 'offert'.  In fact, local French B & B asked if I minded if she copied the idea as she thought it was so nice.

Interestingly, we went away with French friends and although he is an electrician he didn't know how to use the electric kettle in house we were staying in.

Maggi

 

 

[mascamps.com]

Interesting. We thought we'd cornered the dirty weekend market ourselves.

The ones we've had aren't terribly profitable though as they tend not to leave the room for pretty much the whole time they're here. Seems to be out of season trade though so it's handy to fill the rooms up.

What's the French for "swinger"?

 

Arnold

 

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Hi,

Not really ironing any more, but then neither are swingers! Talking to Jacquie about Arnold's latest idea re towels, she said that if we were having to restock with towels, or set out afresh, she would go for the new microfibre towels in "super fluffy" quality. According to her (She spends far too much time on QVC) they are lighter, dry bodies better and also wash and dry more quickly.