Gareth Sanders, 28, plans to break world record by ironing for 100 hours in Bristol.

On the 26th of October 2015, Gareth Sanders will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for longest time spent continuously ironing. He’ll be taking this challenge on outside the Asda superstore at Patchway in his city of Bristol, and doesn’t just want to “break” the previous record: he wants to smash it, hoping to total 100 continuous hours of ironing over the current record of 80 hours. That’s also a grand total of 1,500 items of clothing he hopes to iron, against the 1,157 items of the previous record.

Gareth, owner of Gleem, a young Bristol-based cleaning company, said “I wanted to do something a bit unusual.” When asked what he expected to be most challenging, he said that the “hardest part will be the lack of sleep. I accrue 5 minutes for every hour I iron but can save them up. At the moment the plan is to iron for an hour and fifty-five minutes then take a five minute break, do that again, then iron for two hours and take twenty minutes sleep. It means that I need to radically change my sleeping pattern before the challenge.”


He’ll be taking on this world record attempt to raise funds for the local charity FRANK Water. FRANK Water’s goal is to provide safe water for everyone, and they’re a long-standing partner with Gleem as part of the company’s Gleem of Hope program. Katie Alcott, spokesperson for FRANK Water, said Gareth will be “raising essential funds” and “enabling [FRANK Water] to fund taps and toilets for those most in need.”

Gareth is looking for supporters to donate money, time or clothes, or even all three, to the event, either by donating on his JustGiving page or signing up to be a witness during the 100 hour session. Plus if you’ve got some ironing you need doing, then Gareth would be happy to help: the rules dictate that if he runs out of clothing or if the iron breaks, then the attempt is void, so the more clothes the better!