Do you wash your curtains? If so how often?

What deters me from washing my bedroom curtains is the horrible task of ironing them. The heavier curtains in the front rooms go to the dry cleaner.

My compassionate ‘yay’ is for Oopsadaisy1 (and Juliet27), although of course no disrespect
intended for OP and others.

Yay! ?

Hi is anyone post menopausal like me and have any unwanted symptoms? I am really missing going for a swim and sauna/steam as I always felt better after a visit to the health club. I get round this by walking locally, have spa baths and doing yoga but I think I’m a bit fed up of my own company! ?

Thanks for this tip ? I had mine made by Hillary’s blinds I think 5 years ago after my house fire and am afraid to admit I haven’t cleaned them yet! Are your curtains lined and was there no shrinkage at all?

Whenever they get a bit sad looking. We have cats who love sitting in the front windows, showing off to all and sundry, so they quite quickly get furry and grubby where they've been rubbed against. Just depends how often the cats have been making an exhibition of themselves.

I washed our black out bedroom curtains last year on a cool wash. Big mistake as loads of the black out material had peeled off. I rehung them and they were OK to look at at night but in the morning all the peeled off bits were showing. Oh well!

Not something that I would attempt!

Plantation shutters are the way forward!

Yes, once a year.

I feel they are never the same again so new curtains are eventually purchased.

Every 6 months. We have summer and winter curtains too.

I usually wash the nets at 30 degrees annually as part of window cleaning and spring cleaning.
The bedroom curtains are washable so did them last summer, think I'll skip this year.
The sitting room curtains are supposed to be dry - cleaned but I think I'll give them a twirl in the washing machine one of these days and hope for the best.
We bought them about a year ago so this will be a first wash for them!

Thank you ExaltedWombat that is a very valid reason to avoid washing or dry-cleaning curtains.

I was once involved a safety campaign aimed at older people that warned about taking curtains down as a major cause of falls and broken bones.

Callistemon

I'm just looking at mine, perhaps I'll give them a vacuum tomorrow.

I changed my mind.

I do the sitting room ones once a year, unless I can't be bothered. They are lined cotton so I put them in the washing machine, then on the line until they stop dripping, then hang them back up. They always look ok.
The bedroom ones are cream cotton and have big holes at the top that the pole goes through. The holes have metal eyelets. Do you think they would be ok in the washing machine if I washed them inside a pillow slip? I don't want to b****r up my washing machine.

Washing curtains happens rarely in this household. (No smokers, children or pets, within.) I will, when I think the curtains need it!

Nope, I have never washed my curtains!

I wash mine at least twice a year, but we have a lot of building works going on in my street at the moment so they'll need washing more often just to keep on top of the muck the renovations are throwing out. Can't beat hundred year old dust for getting everything mucky!

I still have summer and winter curtains.

Gulligranny I don't feel inadequate at all not cleaning curtains. My bathroom and kitchen are spotless. Thats the important thing.
Just thinking about taking my curtains down is tiring enough. When/if they look really dirty I will. In the meantime I'll continue to shake the dust off!?

I do all my curtains every 3 to 4 months, I vacuum I between weekly. Xxx

Yet another thread that has exposed my inadequacies.

We only have curtains in our living room and dining room as our bedrooms have Velux windows. Our bedroom doesn't even have blinds. We do have a woodburner and I suppose I ought to try and get the curtains down and cleaned, but they are so heavy; we have a large bay window at the front and patio doors at the rear, plus the curtains have an insulating layer ... no, I'm sure they'll be okay if I just leave them up and don't worry about them!

My Gran and Mum used to have summer and winter curtains but I could never understand why my west-facing bedroom had thin floral curtains in the summer, meaning my bedroom was flooded with light until long past my bedtime, and causing difficulty sleeping.

Mum (and Gran) would not hear of the curtains being hung in any other order "because the neighbours would all laugh at our house".

Me? One set of curtains all year round and an added Venetian blind in the west-facing bedroom for those bright summer evenings. They get washed when they need it (probably bi-annually) and vacuumed in between.

I can really help with this one. Just a year ago (pre lockdown) we had new full length Laura Ashley curtains for our lounge . Duck egg blue with pink , pale blue and cream flowers). As they were so big we had them professionally hung. I asked the fitter how often and how best to clean them. He was quite surprised by the question. "You don't need to clean them" he said " the air isn't dirty like it used to be. Just run the vacuum attachment over them every year or so!". He instantly became my favourite person in the world!!!?