Do you wash your curtains? If so how often?

We don't smoke and live in a clean semi rural area, so probably about once a year . All curtains, apart from the heavy ones in the sitting room, are light in colour and weight and are really just to soften the edges of the windows. I'm currently thinking about shutters as I dislike nets, but OH gets twitchy about lack of privacy with our almost floor to ceiling windows.

As we have a wood burning stove I usually do them at least once a year. The dining room is not so much used, the curtains there were made for a house in the 80s and cost a fortune. I had them dry cleaned before we moved here, that was expensive. last autumn I decided to wash them one at a time. they came up beautifully. Probably wont wash those again for a couple of years.

When I think of it!!! No more than annually definitely, and I wash 'dry clean only' ones too and they always come out ok.

Oopsadaisy1

Wash curtains???

What new kind of hell is this?

A woman after my own heart!

Once a year if lightweight cotton.Dry clean ones never.l took them once cost as much to get them cleaned they charge by the square metre, as to buy a new set!

Yes, once a year. I do one at a time in my washing machine, hang them o. The line, and bring them in and hang them back up while they are still slightly damp - that way the weight of them hanging prevents the need for ironing.

Lindylou57, I just gave my bedroom a ‘good bottoming’, so yes, people do still say that.Even washed the curtains, the water in the machine was quite grey?

Blinds everywhere now but curtains used to be taken to dry cleaners every year. Very expensive and always came back with that terrible smell to them.

No. Domestic goddess is not me!

Wash them in Spring every year and put them away until Autumn when they’re ironed and put back up. I used to have summer curtains but now make do with vertical blinds

Never, since they were hung 10 years ago. We don't smoke and have no wood burners or fires of any description. The ones that hang as a divider between the dining room and sitting room (to keep heat in) are dry cleaned every summer or so.

I wash my front room ones once, maybe twice a year. I use fabric conditioner then hang them when they’re nearly dry, and they perfume the room nicely for a while. They’re a beggar to get up and down though - I always get a flashback to Father Ted’s Mrs Doyle when I’m tottering about on the windowsill.

I was inspired to wash my upstairs ones during lockdown 1 after several years of neglect. One pair shrank, so that went well.

Mil used to tell me her mother washed them monthly. Probably another attempt to make me feel inferior or make me spend hours washing curtains. It didn’t work!! I’m with you Oopsadaisy and Juliet27.

Mine cost so much years ago that I don't want to put them into the washing machine , the label says Dry-Clean only. But after getting a quote from Johnsons of £400 for 2 pairs I've bought a small steamer and use that.
They will never be pristine but , hey , life is short !

Oh dear! I don't wash my curtains. Feel free to criticise me.

Our heavy winter curtains (lined and interlined) are washed when I take them down in the Spring to replace with lightweight summer ones. The heavy ones are 'dry clean only' but they wash fine in the machine. Our summer curtains are handpainted silk (my own efforts) they also machine wash happily. It's nice to have a seasonal change for a few months.

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!!!?

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.

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!

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

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 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.

Nope, I have never washed my curtains!

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

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.