How To Clean All Types of Curtains

I've had my eye on some new curtains for our front room.  They are gorgeous and will add just the right touch to this part of my home.  As much as we love our curtains, sometimes knowing how to care for them can be a mystery. How often should you be cleaning curtains? How do you protect delicate sheers? Can you use a washing machine? Cleaning curtains doesn't have to be difficult...these tips will help.

Weekly Care

For weekly care, use the upholstery brush attachment on your vacuum cleaner to vacuum heavier weight curtains. For light weight curtains, an occasional shaking is more practical to protect delicate fabric. When cleaning the curtains weekly, be on the lookout for stains or areas that need more in depth care. The tops of the curtains along the rod are especially susceptible to dust accumulation.  You can use a long handled dusting toolto gently brush and dust the area or the wand of your vacuum cleaner.

Drying Curtains

Line drying or using a low setting on a clothes dryer will both work for washable curtains. Remove the curtains from the dryer before they are 100% dry. Aim to remove them when they are about 95% dry. Over drying will set wrinkles, but removing while still slightly damp, make ironing curtains a super simple job. A quick ironing will be all that is needed before replacing your curtain hardware, and rehanging your curtains.

Dry Cleaning

Some curtains may have a label that reads dry clean only.  Doing anything other than dry cleaning is done at your own risk.  Some fabrics may bleed and fade if they aren't properly dry cleaned.  Others may shrink or pill on the fabric surface.  If you do decide to try to machine or hand wash dry clean only curtains, use a very mild detergent and a gentle cycle.  Be sure not to wash anything else with them in the cycle as they may not be colorfast. Hang to dry and only resort to a light ironing if absolutely necessary.  You may be able to iron curtains with a thin white towel, tee shirt, or  blanket in between the curtains and the iron.  When in doubt, follow the directions on the curtains themselves.

Steam Cleaning

Some steam cleaners have attachments to steam upholstery or curtains.  Be aware, though, that only machine washable curtains will hold up to steam treatment.  For me, I get better results washing machine washable curtains than steaming them.  It's not that much more trouble to take them down and wash them, and I feel they come out a lot more clean.  If you do want to try steam cleaning, be sure that your curtains are in fact machine washable before proceeding.

What You Need To Clean Curtains

• Vacuum cleaner
• Upholstery Attachment
• Laundry Detergent
• Washing Machine/Hand washing supplies
• Clothes Dryer/Clothesline
• Dry Cleaners for Dry Clean Only curtains.