Ironing Service vs Doing It Yourself vs an Ironing Machine: What Does It Really Cost?

There are three ways to keep a week's worth of shirts ironed: pay someone to do it, do it yourself, or let a machine do it. Each one costs something, either money or time. Here is what each option really adds up to over a year, using real UK prices.

The example we will use

Take someone who wears a shirt five days a week, for about 48 working weeks a year. That is around 240 shirts a year. Your own numbers may be higher or lower, but the comparison works the same way.

Option 1: an ironing service

Ironing services in the UK usually charge per item. A 2026 guide from Love2Laundry puts the average cost of ironing a shirt at £1.50 to £3.50, and Airtasker lists shirts at around £2 each. Services that charge by the hour typically ask somewhere between £15 and £25, and more in London.

Price per shirt	240 shirts a year
£1.50	£360
£2.00	£480
£3.50	£840

On top of the price there is the hassle of dropping off and collecting, or waiting in for a delivery. The upside is that you do nothing yourself and the finish is usually very crisp.

Option 2: doing it yourself

Ironing at home costs almost nothing in money, but a lot in time. Most people take around five to ten minutes per shirt. At roughly seven minutes, 240 shirts comes to about 28 hours a year, before you count getting the board out and putting it away. We break that down in our guide on how long it takes to iron a shirt.

Whether that is cheap depends on what your time is worth to you. Twenty-eight hours is more than three full working days every year.

Option 3: an automatic ironing machine

An automatic ironing machine is a one-off cost. The Scanovus Automatic Ironing Machine 4.0 is £129.90, plus the electricity it uses. You put a damp shirt on, set the time and temperature, and walk away while it dries and irons the shirt in around 8 to 12 minutes.

Your own time drops to about a minute per shirt to put it on and take it off. Over 240 shirts, that is around four hours a year instead of twenty-eight.

Side by side

	Ironing service	Do it yourself	Ironing machine
Cost in year one	About £360–£840	Close to £0	£129.90 plus electricity
Cost in later years	The same again, every year	Close to £0	Electricity only
Your time	Drop-off and collection	About 28 hours a year	About 4 hours a year
Finish	Crisp, pressed	Depends on your skill	Smooth and wrinkle-free

So which is best?

If you want a sharp, professionally pressed finish and do not mind the cost, an ironing service is hard to beat. If you have plenty of time and do not mind ironing, doing it yourself is the cheapest.

For most people who wear shirts every week, the automatic machine sits in the sweet spot. At typical UK service prices, it costs about the same as three to five months of paying someone else, and after that it keeps saving you both money and hours. The honest trade-off is the finish: smooth and wrinkle-free rather than pressed with sharp creases, which is what most people want from an everyday work shirt.

Sources for service prices: Love2Laundry, Guide to Ironing Service Prices in the UK (2026) and Airtasker, Ironing prices. Prices vary by area and provider.