Injakster · Guides · Ironing service in Hartlepool

Ironing service in Hartlepool: what a wash & press actually includes

By Inga Jakimonyte, owner of Injakster · Updated August 2026

If you have ever typed "ironing service near me" into your phone with a basket of crumpled shirts staring at you, this guide is for you. I'm Inga, and I run Injakster, a small home laundry on Wharton Street in Hartlepool. Ironing is the heart of what I do, and there are really two ways to buy it — press-only and wash & press. People mix the two up all the time, so let me explain the difference, what a proper press actually involves, and what each costs.

Press-only or wash & press — which do you need?

Press-only means your washing machine has already done the washing. You hand me a bag of clean, dry, crumpled clothes and they come back ironed. It is the cheapest way to use me, because you are only paying for the ironing.

Wash & press means I take the whole job: your clothes are washed here — always in their own separate load, never mixed with anyone else's — using a vegan detergent that is kind to skin but strong on stains, then dried and pressed. You see the difference in the price of one item: a shirt is £1.25 press-only, or £2.05 washed and pressed. That 80p gap is the washing.

One honest limit: I do not offer dry cleaning. Everything here is washed and pressed by hand, with in-house sewing alongside. If a garment's label says dry clean only, please take it to a dry cleaner — I would rather turn work away than ruin something.

What a proper press includes

Anyone can drag an iron over a shirt. A proper press is slower and more deliberate, and it is why a shirt I have ironed still looks right at five in the afternoon:

• Collars and cuffs first. They are the parts people actually see, and the parts that crease worst. They get pressed flat and crisp before anything else.
• Sleeves and plackets done properly — pressed around the buttons, not over them, so nothing cracks or leaves shiny marks.
• The body pressed in sections, yoke to hem, so seams sit flat instead of being ironed into new creases.
• Hung or folded — your choice. Shirts for work usually go back on hangers so the press survives the journey; school uniforms and everyday things can come back folded, ready for the drawer. Just tell me which you prefer when you book.

The honest maths of the ironing pile

Here is the sum I ask people to do. A mixed basket of ten items — shirts, trousers, a couple of school jumpers — done carefully at home swallows most of an evening by the time the board is out, the iron is hot, and everything is hung up. My price for those ten items, pressed properly, is £10.30. Roughly a pound an item to get an evening of your week back. That is the whole pitch, really. I am not selling anything you cannot do yourself; I am selling the two hours you would rather spend on literally anything else.

Press-only prices — August 2026

These are for clothes that arrive clean and dry:

• 10 items pressed£10.30
• 5 shirts pressed£5.20
• 5 kids' uniform items pressed£3.40
• Single men's shirt£1.25
• Single women's blouse£1.25
• Single women's trousers£0.95
• Single kids' uniform item£0.80

And if you would rather I did the washing too, the popular wash & press bundles:

• 5 shirts or blouses (wash + press)£9.70
• 5 trousers (wash + press)£9.95
• Work week bundle — 3 trousers + 4 shirts£12.30
• School uniform — 5 items (wash + press)£9.55

One thing to know: my minimum order is £15, and smaller baskets are topped up to it. So a single £1.25 shirt on its own is not good value — but a fortnight's shirts, or your ironing plus the kids' uniforms in one bag, easily makes the minimum work for you.

How collection works

You book at washpress.co.uk/#order — it takes about two minutes, there is no account to create, and nothing is paid online. I confirm every booking by phone or text before I set off, then collect from your door. Collection and delivery is £5.00 within 4 miles of Wharton Street, then £0.60 per extra mile, out to roughly 9 miles — and the £5 is waived entirely on orders of £25 or more. You pay when I hand the finished ironing back.

Standard turnaround is 48 hours, or next-day if you ask when booking. I work Monday to Friday 08:00–18:00 and Saturday 09:00–14:00; Sundays I am closed.

Who actually uses an ironing service?

My regulars are not who you might picture. Shift workers who get home when the ironing board is the last thing they want to see. Parents who can face the washing but not five small shirts every Sunday night — five kids' uniform items pressed is £3.40, which is less than most people spend on the biscuits they eat while ironing. And people with an interview or a first week in a new job, who want the one shirt that matters looking genuinely sharp rather than hopefully-alright. If any of that sounds familiar, you are exactly who this is for.