How often do you wash your curtains ...

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and other soft furnishings if you have dogs? We have three dogs and no carpet or soft furnishings e.g. rugs or cushions. Also, no fabric settees. But we have curtains in most rooms. We air the whole house every day for an hour or two (yes, it does get freezing this time of year!) because we try to avoid having dog smell.

Anyone who visits says they can't smell our dogs (even very 'honest' friends) which I can believe because we are constantly cleaning and airing. But we only wash our curtains every 8 - 10 weeks. The dogs are not allowed in the bedrooms.

If you have dogs, how often do you wash your curtains?

We hang them while damp and the weight straightens them. I then use a steamer to get rid of any leftover creases.

You sound really paranoid

Same here.

I only have one set of curtains in the house which I wash once a year , sofa annually and rugs and carpets cleaned every six months or as needed

I only wash the curtains if I'm redecorating the room. Taking curtains down and up is a massive faff.

We only use them once and then they have to be washed. Anything less is slovenly.

I change a few of my rooms from summer to winter curtains, they get dry cleaned/washed when I change them, normally the end of March and end of October. I have a hand held steamer and use that on the bedroom curtains every few months after vacuuming them.

Sweet Jesus if I put mind in the Washing machine they would be destroyed. they are huge heavy velvet curtains and two sets are at least 12 feet wide. they cost me thousands to get made and hung. not a hope I am destroying them in the washing machine. I don't have the energy or would be able to take them down to be dry cleaned plus the dry cleaners in my local town has closed down i have to travel 50 mins to get to nearest one now so instead i paid 500e there last year for them aswell as the bedroom ones to be professionally cleaned. company came in and took them 5 hours to clean them. the only people who noticed any difference was me and my husband as we live there. my very critical mother never noticed and also said she has never cleaned her curtains living in her house 8 years. my oven cleaned is regularly get professional in at Xmas fridge is cleaned regularly too. cleaner every two weeks as well I keep on top of it in between that. I am not the queen! people are doing their best.
wind your neck in a bit

Me neither. I don't think we've ever owned washable curtains - ours are/have been heavy, expensive fabrics that would be ruined by washing. They get hoovered/brushed down regularly but that's all. We used to have two dogs plus several cats over the years, although sadly no pets currently, but never had issues with them soiling/staining the curtains. However, we do clean our oven/behind the fridge freezer/have our windows cleaned!

Definitely not the Queen, but until recently we had some vintage GP & J Baker damask velvet curtains that were humongous - way too big/heavy to take down regularly. It took two people to hang them, they weighed so much.

Also, silk - we have a single peach pure silk, lined, interlined and weighted curtain that was already vintage when we bought a previous house in 1997. It was part of a large bay window set left behind by the vendor. The rest have rotted over the years, this is the last one....

Still not the Queen 😆

I have curtains on bedroom washed once a year at spring cleaning but dogs not allowed up stairs. In sitting room and dining room I have blinds.

I don't have dogs and I wash my curtains once every six weeks or so.

No dogs but two ferrets. Wash curtains and all loose fabrics (luckily have leather sofas and no carpets) as soon as they start to smell… ferrety. So at least every two weeks. Luckily 7 cats don’t make anything smell other than their daily changed litter tray!

This is mumsnet so...daily. I have 3 sets of each pair which I rotate so the windows are always appropriately dressed while curtains are being washed & pressed.

Anything less than daily is disgusting.

No dog, but wash them about every 3 months. 30c delicate wash, no need to put them on the line, l put them back up straight after the final spin and they dry in situ.

I've never washed curtains in my life

The voile ones, each summer, the bedroom ones that I know wash well, every couple of years in the summer, the downstairs ones that I know don't wash well will be replaced when they look past it, probably about 10 years hopefully. All ready made ones up to £200. No dogs though, do dogs rest on curtains.

Only daily? Personally I have overnight and daytime curtains. Plus evening ones for good measure.

Wow! That's a new one

@topcat2014I’m interested to know what the wow is for ? I have lighter but blackout curtains for summer months and thicker warmer heavier ones for winter? I thought lots of people do that - is that weird ? 😂

I remember my first cleaner (25 years ago?) came to look at my house and asked me when I last washed my curtains. I said never. They were light cotton ones; she took them down and washed them. Curtains have never been washed since (although the living room is now on set 3 of curtains in that time due to redecoration and then moving house, so maybe that counts). I do not feel in the slightest bit slovenly. The curtains look and smell fine, I don't care what Google says.

I have never considered that my curtain needs change over the year. Never heard of anyone changing their curtains over.

I was at someone's house once and they said they had just changed to their winter cushion covers. That was a new one on me too.

Every 3 months, but i have 4 cats!
I also carpet wash my sofa every few months, so not a clean freak just thought it was normal to be honest.

I have genuinely never heard of summer and winter curtains!

If you get throws to put over the sofa you won’t need to wash it as often.