I hate ironing, so when I recently found a TikTok that claimed you don’t need to iron your bed to get a wrinkle-free look, I was intrigued and thought it was too good to be true.

In this video viewed by over 351,000 users, Julie Sousa (@the_avantgarde) states that you can skip ironing your bedding and merely spray the fabric with water and pull it taut instead. In minutes, Sousa’s guest bed goes from rumpled to hotel-quality with what looks like very minimal effort — no iron required. 

Because this hack costs zero dollars, I was game to give it a try. Here’s how it went.

I started with the easy part: wrinkled bedding. I washed and dried my sheets, duvet, and duvet cover, making sure to leave the last to cool bunched in the dryer for maximum wrinkles. This is my modus operandi, but I’ll pretend I did it for science. Then I made my bed and took a before photo. At this point I was skeptical. The wrinkles were pretty pronounced. 

Sousa says to “spray it with a ton of water,” but in the video, it looks like light misting, so I went for a moderate spray. I worried that I would be left with a damp and still wrinkled bed, but I trusted the process and kept going.

It was tricky to pull the bedding taut by myself, but I had already enlisted my partner’s help on a garage project, and he was done cleaning and organizing for the day. I used my knee to hold one edge in place and pulled the far side away from me, using my free hand like an iron to smooth the fabric. 

I kid you not, the wrinkles disappeared. It felt like magic, but also like I’ve been duped by “Big Iron” all these years. My husband and I used to run a short-term rental, and I ironed the guest duvet at least once a week. If I had known about this trick, my quality of life would have significantly improved. 

Now, is the duvet perfectly wrinkle-free? No. But would it have been perfectly wrinkle-free if I had ironed it? Also no. I am genuinely thrilled with this easy hack: In less than five minutes, my bedroom looked “like a hotel,” to quote Sousa. 

For a scented spray, Sousa says you can add essential oils to the water. I worry, probably unnecessarily, about staining my duvet fabric with oil, so I’ll just stick to the water and light a candle instead. 

I checked back a couple of hours later and the bedding was dry to the touch and still smelled fresh from the laundry, so the dampness was only temporary. There’s truly no downside to this method. 

Skip the iron and the commercial wrinkle releaser spray. You already have everything you need.