Washing curtains

Primrose

Decided to wash our bedroom curtains today. They are lined, but also have an additional thermal liner clipped in to the ruffelette. We just slid the whole lot off the Swish glide rail in one piece, complete with plastic hooks by removing the mechanism at the end of the rail which stops them falling off the end. Then I washed them in the bath in warm soapy water and after rinsing, hung them to drip dry in the breeze. Midway through the process, when they were still slightly damp, our next door neighbour started to power wash his large patio, sending fine particles of sand into our garden. So to rescue them being coated with sand, I took the curtains back inside, fixed them back onto the Swish Glide rails and am leaving them to dry in situ, fully closed with the windows open. The process has worked so well that I'm going to wash them every time like this in future.

newlywed

Are they dry clean only on the label?

Got some floor to ceiling cream curtains in the front room and would rather not be without them for days while they are cleaned as it's ground floor by the road. Just debating washing them in the bath now

Primrose

No, they are cotton curtains. I refuse to buy curtains that have to be dry cleaned. Quite apart from being convinced that the dry cleaning process never really gets them as clean as washing in water, dry cleaning is such an expensive business. There are so many good materials for curtains these days which can be washed. The secret, whether using a washing machine or soapy water in the bath, is not to use very hot water, just hand warm. Also hand washing them in this way allows you to see how dirty (or otherwise) they have got. Also using warm water only, rather than hot water, helps reduce any problems of shrinkage if the curtains are lined and sewn completely into the curtains, rather than the linings hanging loose.
It's just a matter of picking the right drying weather. I have some full length heavy lined cotton lounge curtains which I wash in the bath. They are very heavy when wet, so I normally wash them in the evening, let any surplus water drain away in the bath overnight away, and hang them out in the morning. And if two full length curtains are too much to handle, wash and dry one at a time.