6 Ways to Iron Your Clothes Without an Iron

There's nothing more embarrassing then showing up to work or a meeting in a wrinkled shirt or dress. We've all been there. I know I have.

It might be because you're on a business trip and your hotel room lacks an iron. Maybe your iron is broken. Or maybe you just haven't gotten around to buying one. (Guilty.)

Every now and then, we all need a quick ironing fix before we head out the door. So here are six simple methods to smooth out any wrinkle, big or small.

---

Use a Hair Straightener

Credit: Flickr user "idhren" (CC BY-SA 2.0)

It turns out hair straighteners are useful for more than just smoothing out your crazy locks. Just make sure your straightener is clean of any loose hairs or hair products before you get started.

Apartment Therapy recommends using your straightener on your clothes before you tackle your 'do. And if you happen to have a straightener with an adjustable temperature setting, you can even use this method on more delicate fabrics.

---

Use a Hair Dryer

Credit: Flickr user "unclefuz" (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Another hair-taming gadget can also help your clothes: your hair dryer. All you need to do is hang your garment and blow it dry from about two inches away.

According to WikiHow, this method works best for cotton-based clothing. It also helps if you have a hair dryer with a no- or low-heat function. Use this mode after heating up your clothes to prevent the wrinkles from coming back.

---

Spray and Hang

Credit: Flickr user "wainwright" (CC BY-NC 2.0)

All you need for this technique from Lifehacker is a spray bottle and a hanger. Fill the bottle with water and lightly spray the wrinkled areas, being careful not to get the fabric sopping wet. Then hang the garment up and let it air dry. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

---

Wrinkle Sprays

Credit: Flickr user "jeepersmedia" (CC BY 2.0)

Laundry detergent makers know just how frustrating wrinkles can be, so it should come as no suprise that they also sell wrinkle-removing sprays.

Downy offers its Wrinkle Releaser, and there are several other lesser-known brands as well. Like the spray-and-hang method, all you need to do is spritz the problem areas and let them dry.

---

Take a Shower

Credit: Flickr user "winterofdiscontent" (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

This method is one of the best options for business travelers. If your hotel room lacks an iron, you can just hang your wrinkled clothes in the bathroomwhile you take a shower.

The hot steam that fills the room will help your clothes release any stubborn wrinkles. If the clothes feel damp afterwards, just let them hang in another room for a few minutes to dry out.

---

Throw Some Ice Cubes in Your Dryer

Credit: Flickr user "jariceiii" (CC BY 2.0)

Lastly, if your home iron isn't working or for whatever reason you don't have one, try this trick with your dryer.

Throw the wrinkled clothes and a few ice cubes in your dryer and run your dryer on a high heat for a few minutes. The ice will melt and turn into steam, which will release the wrinkles from your garments.

Lifehacker notes that this method only works well with a very light dryer load, and works even better in bigger dryers. Just make sure you only use a few ice cubes—you don't need much to get the steamy effect.

---

Credit: Flickr user "tedrwittman" (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

All of these methods should help you get your clothes wrinkle-free, but if you travel a lot, you might want to invest in a travel iron.

A Kickstarter campaign just launched for an amazing new travel iron (never thought you'd see those words together, huh?), but there are plenty of other portable irons on the market. And if you're like me and hate ironing, you can always just unload your dryer right away. That usually gets the job done.

What’s the secret to holding your breath?

Some can manage five minutes, others barely one. But the trick to holding your breath is actually rather surprising

Swimmers can train themselves to last more than five minutes without breathing. Photograph: Alamy

Alice Roberts

Sunday 30 November 2014 00.05 GMT

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Google+

Shares

1,428

Comments

59

How long can you hold your breath? I’m trying it right now. The first 30 seconds are easy. I’m ready to give up at 45 seconds but I push on through, and it seems to get easier for a while. But as the second hand ticks past a minute, I know I’m on borrowed time. My heart is pounding. I let out a tiny breath and this helps. Eventually I give in, expelling the spent air in my lungs and taking a huge gasp. (And continue to gasp for a few more breaths, prompting my husband to ask what on earth I’m doing). I manage one minute and 12 seconds. I’m quite impressed with myself.

Breath-holding ability becomes extremely important in some sports, particularly freediving. In 2006 I was filming a programme about the anatomy and physiology of the lungs for a BBC series called, slightly oddly, Don’t Die Young. I was lucky enough to meet Sam Kirby (now Sam Amps), who was captain of the UK freedive team. At a pool in Bristol she taught me some simple exercises to help me hold my breath for longer while swimming underwater. By the end of the session I hadn’t cracked freediving – I’d cracked one of Sam’s precious monofins on the bottom of the pool, and I think I’d managed a prodigious 90 seconds of breath-holding, enough to let me swim a width. Sam swam three widths with ease. She could hold her breath for five minutes, while swimming. Five!

I asked how she did it: very slow breathing for several minutes prior to each dive, then a big, deep breath before diving in. She also said training helped her resist the urge to breathe for far longer than most people.

Some have suggested that the ability to voluntarily hold your breath is evidence of a watery episode in human evolution. It’s even been said that humans have an ability to lower heart rate and metabolic rate in order to breath-hold for even longer. Other anatomical and physiological bits and bobs – our hairlessness, the distribution of our subcutaneous fat, and even our tendency to walk on two legs – have been linked to an aquatic phase of evolutionary development. Unfortunately, the cobbled-together “aquatic ape hypothesis” fails to hold water. It’s a romantic notion that may appeal to us, but with the cold light of day falling on the scientific evidence, it’s revealed to be nothing more than a fiction.

 

Looking at voluntary breath-holding, it turns out that we’re certainly not unique among non-aquatic mammals in being able to hold our breath. (Having said that, it’s a difficult thing to investigate in other mammals as, unlike humans, they tend not to comply when you ask them to breath-hold). And experimental evidence shows that heart rate doesn’t drop during breath-holding. At least, it doesn’t if you’re breath-holding on land. When you’re submerged in cold water it’s a different story: cooling the face does lead to a slower heart rate in most people. But, once again, this isn’t evidence of an aquatic ape ancestry, as it turns out to be a very general characteristic of air-breathing vertebrates. This reduction in heart rate is just one of the physiological responses that are sometimes described together as the “mammalian diving reflex”. But physiological responses that could be useful in diving are also – and perhaps even more importantly – useful for not drowning.

While our ability to breath-hold may not be all that special, when we compare ourselves with other animals, it’s now proving very useful in one particular area of medicine. Radiotherapy for breast cancer involves directing radiation, very precisely, at the tumour. This may require several minutes’ worth of radiation, and so it’s usually done in short bursts, between breaths. But if the patient can keep her chest perfectly still for several minutes, it means that the entire dose can be delivered, in the right place, in one go. The problem, of course, is that most people, just like me, struggle to hold their breath for much longer than a minute. But doctors at University Hospital Birmingham have recently performed careful experiments that show that, if patients are ventilated with oxygen-rich air before attempting a breath-hold, they can manage to hold their breath for an impressive five-and-half-minutes.

Surprisingly, the trick seems to lie, not in fooling the body’s usual sensors for low oxygen or high carbon dioxide levels in the blood, but in fooling the diaphragm. When you breathe in, you’re contracting the muscle of your diaphragm, pulling it flat so that the volume of your chest increases – and air is drawn into your lungs. When you hold your breath, you keep your diaphragm in this contracted state. Artificially raising oxygen levels and reducing carbon dioxide levels before a breath-hold, as in the Birmingham radiotherapy experiments, may work by delaying fatigue in the diaphragm. And – not so useful if you’re trying to keep your chest perfectly still – breathing out a little air lets the diaphragm relax a little, and helps you to prolong a breath-hold, exactly as I found when attempting my breath-hold. And so it’s your diaphragm, the main muscle of breathing, that is also in charge when it comes to reaching the breakpoint of your breath-hold. Eventually, even if you’ve fooled it for a while, the signals from the diaphragm are just too strong, and you have to give in – and take a breath.

Taylor Swift Exchanged Numbers With Another Musician And Now Everyone’s Convinced They’re Dating

Taylor Swift’s dating life has basically reached levels of international scrutiny. I’m pretty sure that when Barack Obama gets up in the morning, along with all the rest of his official reports, he quickly scans to see if Taylor has gone on a date.

Okay, I’m obviously exaggerating, but ike, it’s at that level. During the lead-up to the release of her new album 1989, Taylor commented on several separate occasions about how she simplydoesn’t have time/doesn’t want to/doesn’t see how it would work for her to date anymore.

But the heart wants what it wants, am I right Selena??

Since we all love to take a microscope back to Taylor’s interactions with boys, The 1975′s lead singer Matt Healy is taking full advantage of that fact by discussing what happened when he recently met Taylor.

“I met Taylor Swift, that was really nice,” he said in a recent interview. “We exchanged numbers. Let’s see what happens.”

The host prodded Healy, and predicted if the two got together it would cause a sensation.

“You’re calling that, are you?” Healy said. “Let’s just see what happens. I mean bloody hell, what am I going to do? Go out with Taylor Swift? She’s a sensation, I wouldn’t say no.”

Ummm, yeah who wouldn’t want to be with her!?!

We’ll be watching this develop with avid interest, obviously.

Watch a GoPro Camera Go Through Dangerous Radiation

A PhD student sends a camera through an industrial radiator

What effect do lethal levels of radiation have on film?

One PhD student with some free time decided to find out by enclosing a GoPro in a 1/4″ lead box and sending it through an electron beam irradiator, according to Digg.

Visible in the clip are calcite samples that start to glow as they pass through the beam, but the most interesting part of the video isn’t what the camera sees, but what happens to the actual camera itself — look for a crackling burst of fuzzy, blue-colored scrambled footage around the 1-minute mark.

Want to know how to beat the kitchen killers? Here are the best ways to stay safe when cooking

As the Food Standards Agency reveals seven out of 10 supermarket chickens are contaminated here are the best ways to stay safe in your kitchen

Stay safe: Tips for safer cooking

The news is enough to put you off your Sunday roast.

We revealed that seven out of 10 supermarket chickens are contaminated with thepotentially deadly campy­lo­bacter bug.

The Food Standards Agency, which tested 1,995 birds, now says tackling campylobacter is their No 1 food-safety priority.

Little wonder when the bug is the biggest cause of food poisoning in the UK, responsible for 280,000 cases of diarrhoea and vomiting each year and around 100 deaths.

Ban bacteria: Keep it clean

 

Supermarkets have vowed to work towards a solution, but change will not happen overnight. And campylobacter is not the only danger lurking in our food.

Karen Meadows, an expert from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health who runs food hygiene consultancy Safety In Action, reveals how to beat the killers in your kitchen...

Chicken and poultry

Getty

Careful cooking: Chicken and poultry

The FSA report doesn’t just point to campylobacter on chickens, but on the outside of the packaging too.

So with a pre-packed chicken you must treat the packaging as though you are touching the chicken itself.

Keep it separate from other food shopping and wrap it in a separate carrier bag.

Once home, don’t wash chicken or poultry – that will splash bacteria all over the kitchen and you won’t gain anything because bacteria are killed by cooking it properly.

On unwrapping, throw away the packaging at once and put the bird straight into whatever you’re cooking it in.

Then thoroughly wash your hands. It’s vital to cook chicken all through.

Pierce it at the thickest part, usually the thigh, and if the juices run clear and there is no blood on the surface, it should be cooked.

Meat

Be safe: Take care when cooking meat

 

With steaks and whole joints of meat (not poultry, pork or rolled joints) cooking it rare is fine as the bacteria is only on the outside and is destroyed by cooking.

But mincing mixes bacteria from the outside throughout a burger and it will not be destroyed unless it is cooked all the way through.

With poultry bacteria can be in the flesh itself, so it must be cooked through.

Shellfish

Getty

Stay safe: Shellfish can be tricky

 

Foods such as mussels, clams and oysters that are alive when you buy them must be checked before cooking.

Tap the shell and if it doesn’t close throw it away because it is probably towards the end of its life or already dead and can cause illness if you eat it.

Also junk any that don’t open up during cooking.

Shellfish get food by filtering water through the digestive system, which we then eat.

It can harbour bacteria and viruses from the water where the creature lived, risking contamination.

Vulnerable people such as pregnant women, children, those with low immunity and the elderly should avoid raw shellfish.

The most common threat is from viruses.

A study funded by the Food Standards Agency found three-quarters of oysters from UK beds contained norovirus, although half were at low levels.

Rice

Getty

Risky rice: Make sure you reheat carefully

 

Uncooked rice can contain spores called bacillus cereus.

If cooked rice is left at room temperature the spores can multiply, producing toxins that can cause vomiting and diarrhoea.

Reheating the rice, even correctly, will not kill the toxins.

So cooked rice must be cooled rapidly by rinsing in cool water and quickly refrigerated or frozen.

Don’t keep it in the fridge for longer than 24 hours.

Vegetables

Getty Images

Careful with carrots: Not as safe as you'd think

 

Veg are not as innocuous as many people think.

It depends on who picked them, where they were picked, and how you prepare them. Peel before eating to remove potential contaminants.

You wouldn’t eat soil from the garden and eating unwashed root veg is almost the same.

You are at risk from bacterium such as listeria, also found in animal waste.

With fruit and veg from abroad, you don’t know what standards apply. Growers could be putting human sewage on the fields, bringing a risk of pathogens.

However most supermarkets audit their suppliers to ensure standards are maintained.

Follow the packaging instructions. If it says to wash before consumption, do it.

Pre-packaged foods

(c) Brian Hagiwara Getty

Careful with cans: Make sure they are stored properly

 

Use-by-dates on food such as ham are fine if the pack is still sealed.

Once it’s open, you are often told to eat it within a specific period such as 24 hours.

It’s important to check or you could fall ill. You can’t necessarily smell or see bacteria so your senses don’t tell you if it’s dangerous or not.

With tins, never buy them dented, even if there is 50% off.

A dent can cause a very small hole that lets in bacteria or oxygen to spoil or contaminate the food.

If you don’t use all a tin’s contents, store the rest in a lidded container and refrigerate, especially tomatoes and acidic foods that can make the tins rusty and cause metal contamination.

Some people wipe tins before putting them away as they don’t know what might be lurking on the outside.

Fridges

Fridge fear: Make sure it's at the right temperature

 

It’s important to keep a fridge at the right temperature, especially at this time of year when you start ramming in more things in the run-up to Christmas.

A fuller fridge has a higher temperature and food won’t be kept at the ideal temperture (below 5C) to stop bacteria growing.

So don’t overfill, and  regulate the temperature using a simple fridge thermometer.

Think about how you store food. Put raw items, especially fruit, in the bottom so it can’t drop on to other food.

If you have a small or shared fridge and can’t layer food , wrap it well to stop contamination.

Don’t put hot food in the fridge to cool. This can raise the fridge temperature so that bacteria already present will start  multiplying again.

Surfaces

Zoopla

Keep them clean: Surfaces

 

Everyone’s home has plenty of places for bugs to grow and surfaces often cause cross-contamination.

Wash with hot soapy water then sanitise with products from the supermarket.

And always follow the instructions.

Some must be left on for a certain time before being wiped off and others should be sprayed and left on.

Don’t forget to sanitise sinks as well as taps.

And clean dishcloths very well or use kitchen roll.

Screwed up and left on the edge of a sink, cloths can be a reservoir for bacteria because they are warm, damp and more than likely have food on them.

Using them can spread bacteria on a surface instead of cleaning it.

Food preparation

Getty

Clean hands key: Make sure you ash your hands

 

Wash hands with warm soapy water before cooking and clean everywhere, including around the fingernails and in the thumb crease.

Make sure cuts on your hands are covered with a plaster.

It’s not there to protect the cut but to protect the food from whatever’s in the cut.

A bacteria called staphylococcus aureus is common and already present on your skin’s surface.

But it can multiply in cuts, which can become infected. If that is transferred on to the food, it can cause vomiting quite quickly.

'My first show in 18 months!' Tulisa Contostavlos strips down to jewelled bra and shorts for comeback gig at G-A-Y

 It's the moment she had been waiting months for.

And on Saturday night Tulisa Contostavlos finally made her return to the stage as she performed for a heaving crowd at London's G-A-Y at Heaven.

The singer has had a difficult year, so was glad to put it all behind her and mark her musical comeback in spectacular style.

Scroll down for video 

+25

She's back! Tulisa marked her first gig in a year and a half at London's G-A-Y at Heaven nightclub on Saturday

The 26-year-old certainly made a statement as she arrived on stage in a jewelled bra and tiny shorts, that showed off her shapely legs and toned torso.

Both her garments featured heavy embellishment, complementing her equally glitzy pointed ankle boots in a pewter shade.

 The shorts - that were cut in a knicker style - made her slender pins, covered in fishnet tights, look even longer.

During her energetic set, Tulisa turned around to her crowd to reveal the back of the bra top, which had a leopard print panel, a print she is favouring at the moment.

+25

Stunning: The 26-year-old looked stage-ready in her jewelled bra and embellished knicker shorts as she entertained the crowd

+25

Leggy lady: Tulisa revealed her perfect pins in the tiny shorts, as she covered them with fishnet tights

Steal Tulisa's style in some River Island studded boots



  


---


Wearing leopard print and bejewelled underwear, fishnets and studded boots, Tulisa Contostavlos performed her first gig in 18 months at G-A-Y last night.
Whilst Tulisa looked amazing on stage, we don’t think the underwear as outerwear trend is going to catch on in the real world- especially in the plunging temperatures we've been experiencing over the last few weeks- brrr!
However, we are tempted by Tulisa’s booties! Nailing two trends in one, Tulisa’s boots are both studded and pointed- the two key footwear fashions for this season. What’s more, they’re a customised version of a high street hit at just £75 from River Island- (Tulisa has added some extra sparkles) follow the link on the right to buy now.
Or alternatively, check out the versions below including options from New Look, Office, Kurt Geiger and Harvey Nichols.
Perfect for work or play, these boots will look equally as good teamed with skinny jeans and a leather biker for an off-duty weekend look or worn with a little black dress for a chic evening ensemble with a twist.