How to Care for Your Curtains - Cleaning Tips

Keep Your Curtains in Tip-Top Shape

Curtains are popular style of window dressing that adds just the right amount of atmosphere, warmth and style to a room, coming in an assortment of styles, colours and practicalities. Curtains blend into the background while providing essential privacy, decoration and overall comfort. However, despite their ability to simply become a “piece of the furniture” alongside everything else you own, curtains too require care and maintenance in order to preserve their longevity and keep them looking good.

But maintaining them can be tricky. There are many questions to ask, such as how often should you clean your curtains or drapes? How do you protect delicate sheer styles? Can you clean your curtains in a washing machine? Is there a generic curtain drape and upholstery cleaning method that covers most styles, or do you need to customise it according to make and or fabric?

Curtain cleaning is more complicated than you might think, so here are Drytron’s tips and tricks you can apply to your own curtains to give them some TLC regardless of your chosen style and design.

Shake it Up

Did you know one of the simplest and easiest techniques you can use to refresh your curtains at the end of each day, is to gently shake them from the bottom up? Imagine you’re fluffing out your duvet cover, but a much more delicate version than the one on your bed. Dust and fluff that collects over time can be gently removed by a rolling motion, holding the curtain with both hands at the seams and fluffing the material upwards. As it rolls and expands, dust and surface dirt will lift, and the curtain will be instantly refreshed.

Roll with a Lint Roller

For weekly care and dirt removal, lint rollers are a fantastic way of removing surface dirt. For lightweight curtains, an occasional shake is more practical to protect delicate fabric, but for heavier styles such as a box pleat, a lint roller will effectively wipe free any build up and loose fluff. As you’re brushing the roller from the top downwards, also look out for stains or areas that need more in-depth attention, to pass this information onto your curtain cleaning expert. The tops of the curtains along the rod are especially susceptible to dust accumulation as it settles near the pleats and becomes compacted over time.

Machine Washing

It goes without saying, but check the care label first! If you’re in doubt about machine washing your curtains go straight to the tip on Dry Cleaning below. If the care label says machine washing is OK, try spot testing a corner with a mix of water and a small amount of liquid laundry detergent or liquid dish soap. Most washable curtains need to be washed in cold water with a small amount of laundry detergent, and make sure you remove all hardware from your curtains before washing. Delicate lace and sheer curtains may benefit from hand washing or being placed inside a mesh wash bag. In a pinch, you can wash delicate curtains inside an old pillowcase that is tied shut tightly to prevent fraying and damage.

Spot Clean and Dry to 95%

If the care label allows, gentle fabric stain removers can be a great spot-cleaning method, especially when you can remove the entire curtain and hang it out to dry. Diluting some stain remover in warm water and gently dabbing the stained area can instantly treat mould, mildew or other everyday dirt marks. Once clean, line drying or using a low setting on a clothes dryer will both work for washable curtains. With clothes dryers, the trick is to remove the curtains from the dryer before they are 100% dry. Over drying will set wrinkles and create lasting fabric marks but removing the curtains while they’re still slightly damp will allow them to naturally flatten out again without permanent fold marks.

Dry Cleaning – Drytron Cleaning

Some curtains may have a label that reads dry clean only, meaning any other form of cleaning could seriously damage them. Some fabrics may bleed and fade if they aren’t properly dry cleaned, and others may shrink or pill on the fabric surface. If you’re passionate about preserving your dry-clean-only curtains in top condition, call Drytron, the curtain drape and upholstery cleaning professionals, to provide you with an excellent and second-to-none curtain cleaning service. Our cleaning process is designed to maintain and restore the original curtain fibres while never failing to effectively remove surface debris, bacteria and allergens that can attach to your window coverings and drapery.

Drytron uses a tried and tested six-step cleaning process that helps to restore and refresh your curtains, bringing instant life back to their appearance and making them look as good as the day you hung them!

Don’t get hung up on how to clean your curtains properly –call on the experts at Drytron Carpet Cleaning Melbourne for exceptional curtain drape and upholstery cleaning that you won’t find anywhere else.

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