How to iron a shirt

Unlike many things having to do with taking care of a family and home, there is a "best way" to iron a shirt. We learned this from Mom, who learned it from Twila Rogers at Relief Society in the late 1970s. Mom said Sis. Rogers had a teenage son who was left-handed and she saw how he ironed when the ironing board was set up for a right-handed person. With all of these steps, I use heavy starch and have the iron on the "very hot" setting with steam. First I iron the front of the collar.
Then I iron the back of the collar. If you use enough starch, you can usually get an old collar to look pretty good.
Using the wide, square end of the ironing board, I iron the yoke.
Next I iron one of the front sides of the shirt.
Then I iron the back.
I iron the other front side of the shirt.
Finally I iron the sleeves.
Then I hang up the shirt and it is all done.
Even though I know how to quickly and effectively iron shirts, I still look for 100% cotton "non-iron" shirts and buy them when possible. A good white or off-white non-iron shirt will actually last for almost a year before you have to start ironing it. I have some patterned non-iron shirts from a few years ago that I still have yet to iron. I just take them out of the dryer immediately or when they are slightly damp and hang them up.

Two tips

These were two tips that Mom probably told everyone. She read them on another blog.

1. Make all the sandwiches for sack lunches for a week or two and then freeze them. Becky says this works when they do it. PB&J works fine, as does some meat and cheese, if you aren't too fussy about frozen/thawed cheese.
2. Take all the clothes from one child and wash them in one load. You can use a cold water wash if there is anything that will bleed. Then you don't have to sort and wash and then sort again. I've sort of tried this with some children's clothing and it does make it easier. I remember this used to be called a "throw up load" when we were growing up (as in, after the kid throws up, you take everything and wash it all together).