Mandy PhillipsSo, you’re about to get ready to go out and notice that your outfit is wrinkled. What can you do about the hideous abstract pattern of wrinkles on your dress or suit? What a nightmare, especially when you’re crunched for time. Even if you have time at your disposal, what do you do if you don’t have an iron at your disposal?
Wrinkled clothes are rather common when traveling. Folding your clothes and leaving them for too long inside your luggage and they’re most likely going to get wrinkled.
But did you know that you can shower out wrinkles on your clothes? It’s definitely something you can do in a hotel shower.
Yes, you heard that right. The shower can help you so that you never commit that fashion faux pas when dressing up for a job interview, an event, or a night out with friends but are left with wrinkled clothes.
How Does Shower Steam Help Wrinkles in Clothes Disappear?
The shower steam works like any garment steamer, which reverses the process that caused wrinkles on your clothes in the first place. Both the heat and humidity along with the steam in the hot shower help soften the polymer bonds that hold the fabric into a particular shape or cause wrinkles. As a result of the steam, the creases in the fabric open up, removing the wrinkles.
How to Steam Clothes in the Shower
This classic method of steaming your clothes in the shower only requires a hanger for your outfit and a hot shower.
This ‘steam shower’ for getting rid of wrinkles on your clothes has been used for decades, and it’s pretty simple to use and works exactly as you’d imagine.
Step 1: Hang Your Wrinkled Outfit in the Shower
Put your wrinkled clothes on a hanger, then hang them on the shower rod. You want to keep them slightly away from the showerhead, or you can also angle the showerhead away from the clothes to avoid having them sprayed with shower water. You want the shower steam to work its magic, getting rid of the wrinkles on your outfit, and not getting your outfit wet in the process.
Step 2: Make Sure Your Clothes Are Clean
Once you’ve arranged your clothing on the shower rod, don’t forget to give them a once-over if necessary. Make sure your clothes are free of dirt and hair. If you have a lint roller handy, that will help remove unwanted dust and dirt from your clothing.
Make sure to smooth out any wrinkles on your clothes during this step.
Step 3: Run a Hot Shower
Next, start the steaming process. Turn your shower on and remember that the water should be as hot as possible to create a steaming effect—the hotter the water, the better it’ll work for smoothing away the wrinkles on your garment.
Also, don’t forget to close the bathroom door. If the bathroom window is open, close that as well and turn off the bathroom window fan. You want the steam from the hot shower to create a sauna effect in your bathroom.
Step 4: Give Your Clothes an Occasional Fluff
Steaming wrinkled clothes in the shower can work like magic, but you need to keep a close eye on your clothes during this entire process. Or at least be nearby to check on your garment once in a while. Smoothing out your clothes and giving them the occasional fluff and stretch also helps to work out all those wrinkles quicker.
Step 5: Wait for the Shower Steam to Work
Let the shower’s steam do its magic. The time frame usually depends on how many garments you have steaming in the shower and how wrinkled they are. But once the steam has done the work of smoothing out the wrinkles and you get the smooth and crisp look that you’re looking for, it’s time to turn off the shower.
Don’t forget to give your clothes a last-minute fluff as well.
How Long to Steam Clothes in the Shower?
Usually, you only need around 10 to 20 minutes, and the wrinkles will be gone. But again, it depends on how many garments you are hanging in the shower and how wrinkly they are.
If you only have a couple of clothing items in the shower, you should only need to steam them for about ten minutes. Steaming them longer than that is unnecessary. And if the wrinkles are still there after ten minutes, keeping them in there for another ten minutes won’t help much.
While this trick works like magic in most cases, it might not work very well on deep and stubborn wrinkles.
Things to Keep in Mind When Using Shower Steam to Get Wrinkles Out of Clothes
- This shower steaming trick works best for non-cotton clothing like pants, or suits, but not so much for dress shirts.
- Expect that there will be some water that’s wasted. After all, you’ll be running the hot water for around ten minutes. That’s the main downside of this trick. But if you can plan ahead, you can steam your wrinkly clothes while you’re taking a hot shower. Now, that wouldn’t be as wasteful. But do be careful where you hang your clothes while you’re taking a shower to avoid getting soap on your clothing.
- If you’re concerned about getting water spots on your fabric, you can always hang the garment on a towel rack or just outside the shower. But make sure you turn the shower all the way up to get the entire bathroom steamy.
Final Thoughts
Remember that the easiest way to get rid of wrinkles on your outfit is to prevent them from happening in the first place. But sometimes, no matter how careful and tidy you are in stowing away or folding your clothes, they get wrinkled anyway.
That’s where this simple hack comes in. You can smooth away wrinkles on almost any garment in the shower. It’s a must-know hack for keeping your outfits wrinkle-free when traveling without an iron and ironing board on hand. But this savvy trick works well at home, too, if you find ironing clothes too bothersome.
But keep in mind: before you steam your clothes in the shower using this hack, exercise all caution and don’t forget to read the labels on your clothing first.
