Have you moved into your new house? Do you have new furniture and upholstery? How about the curtains? We all know that curtains are very crucial in our house, but do we know why we should clean them too? Now, before wondering why you should clean your carpet, it’s important to know the reasons why curtains look old. The reason is very simple and straightforward. When you constantly exposed them to dirt and dust from outside the room, what do you expect? That is the reason you require to make many curtains cleaning a must.
Many people in the world never give their curtains much thought. They open and close them perhaps every day. The sun beats in on the backs of the curtains and drapes daily. Dust particles, insects, and animal hair accumulate around and within the folds of the drapery. The same dust and dirt accumulate at the top of the drapery and curtains among the curtain hooks or folds. It gathers up and deposits itself at the bottoms of the curtains and drapes. So why should anyone give this any thought? It is imperative to engage in curtain cleaning if you value a clean home or an apartment.
It’s simple
It doesn’t mean that you need to put all those heavy curtains in the washing machine every week. That would not only be tiring but would also shorten the lifespan of the curtains. Instead, you could take them out from the window and clean them using a vacuum cleaner and remove all those dust as a first step. As curtains are meant to cover the windows, they would have absorbed all the dust from outside. Also, their colors would fade fast by being exposed to sunlight.
Curtains maintenance
That is not all. Even inside the rooms while you are cleaning the floor, furniture, fan, and lights a share of the dust from all these would undoubtedly settle on to the curtains. Thus, without your noticing, your bright and colorful curtains would soon start deteriorating. Very soon, they become too dirty that either you have to purchase new curtains or call a professional curtain cleaning company.
However, by applying a little care and forethought, you can avoid this situation.
For this, first of all, include curtains in your list of items to be vacuumed every week. This way there is lesser dust to clean, and curtains remain safe and intact. One way to check whether the curtains need cleaning is to shake them and see whether dust is coming off them. You could also sniff them and see whether they are dusty.
If you are doing this once in a week, you could run a lint brush through them from top to bottom. It would avoid the dust from falling over the cleaned part. Once a few months you could use water and clean them. However, before cleaning make sure you read all the washing instructions for the curtains. If the instructions are to apply dry cleaning, better go for that. If not, check whether the instructions are there to use any specific detergent to be used in a specific amount.
Retains the color
Once you wash them following the manual, put them in place to dry which is half sunny and half shady. It is to retain the colors on the curtains. You could also put them in the dryer depending on the capacity of your dryer. After drying you could put them back again and spray a freshener to bring the new look to them. Don’t forget to check whether the freshener contains any toxic that will harm the curtains or discolor them.
Cleaning your curtain will definitely let you avoid purchasing new curtains every once in a while. Good and frequent cleaning can help you keep freshness in the curtains for a long time and thus extend their life and keep them as new.
You can clean your curtains or choose to hire a professional curtain cleaning companies that will perform that service. Often a carpet cleaning company will also clean curtains and drapes when they come in to clean the carpet. It is actually a good idea to have the curtains or drapes cleaned when you have the carpet cleaned as they will get all of the dirt out of the drapery, some of which will fall on the carpet.
If you have curtains, you will have to decide if they are cheap curtains or are they worthwhile having cleaned. If they are cheap curtains, then, by all means, go out and buy another set of them for all of the windows.
What you should consider
If the curtains have been in the windows for a very long time with the sun beating in on them, you will need to consider if they will hold up to cleaning. You can examine the backs of the curtains and check for places where the backing if it has that, is beginning to split. Or if it has no backing, you can check to make sure the fabric isn’t splitting or crumbling when rubbed between your fingers. If that’s the case, then you won’t benefit from cleaning your curtains.
You also need to consider if the curtains are washable. Lightweight synthetic material curtains usually can be washed in a washing machine. You will have to read the instruction tag attached to the curtains to determine if you can do this. Some curtains are made of fiberglass. If the curtains are made of fiberglass, you might want to take them to your dry cleaners to have them cleaned there. Fiberglass can cause damage to soft hands.
Larger, heavier curtains may be washed in a bathtub if they are too heavy for your washing machine. Otherwise, you may have a commercial laundry with heavy duty machines where you could wash them.
After they are washed, you will have to dry them. They can dry in the dryer or on a line. Either way, they will be cleaner.