Home · Cleaning · Best practice · Cleaning curtains without taking them down
Cleaning best practice
The short answer
Most lined curtains can be vacuumed and steam cleaned on the rail, which avoids the shrinkage and re-hanging that comes with laundering.
Taking curtains down is where the risk lives: shrinkage, distorted headings and linings that no longer match the drop.
How it is done
- Vacuum with an upholstery head, top to bottom, before any moisture.
- Steam from the top down, keeping the head moving.
- Treat the leading edge and the hem, which carry most of the soil.
- Let them hang and dry fully before closing them.
Why it matters
Curtains hold a substantial share of a room's dust, and in a sealed apartment that dust is part of what recirculates every time the air conditioning starts.
questions
Asked about this
Usually yes, with a moving head and no prolonged heat in one spot. Some coated linings are the exception, so we test a hidden section.
Annually for most homes, more often for a dusty aspect, a smoker or an allergy sufferer in the household.
references
Background reading
- Curtain — Wikipedia
- Steam cleaning — Wikipedia
External encyclopaedia entries for the underlying concepts. They explain the science; the practice above is how we apply it in UAE properties.