Summer curtains?

[summercurtains]

I have an acquaintance, (well, stretching it a bit, someone I see online through someone else) and they blithely said they were busy changing to their summer curtains.

And I was all agog. Is this a Thing? Is this yet another household activity I am behind with?

Igiveup I'd forgotten about them! The bloody "Plumbs" covers that didn't really fit properly with all their strings and slack elastic. You had to be a contortionist to get them on.

My mum used to do this (back in the 80s). She had heavy burgandy velvet curtains in the winter and a cream with flower pattern for the summer. I remember both sets vividly.
I always used to think it looked like such a faff everytime she did it. She hasnt done it for about 20 years though, I certainly didn't realise it was still something that was still done.

I never heard of this. But I might do it bow. I don't get thin curtains though, all the light waking you up in the morning on top of the sodding birds screaming at 4 am.

It is a sense of achievement when all is done.Mum is a great cook and has a well stocked bar - that is the reward. You get into Autumn, do it all in reverse, and think OK that's it until Spring comes, and then you remember that the Christmas Season is in between ! Mum's all time classic was, when I was putting up the ceiling decorations (you know, ribbons and baubles, stuck up with a drawing pin) she asked me to put them back in the pinholes in the ceiling where they had been the year before! I admit, I needed my vodka after that one!

about 50 years ago we moved house to a very ordinary modern estate, suburban Glasgow and a few days later the new neighbours held a coffee morning to welcome/interrogate me.

One of the first questions was " Are those your summer curtains or your winter curtains?" (I'd never heard of either) I replied they were our all-year-round curtains and one of the ladies said, very kindly " Well, you've hung them back to front. Here we hang curtains with the linings facing the room and the fabric facing the street so the neighbours can see it." I thought she was joking so I laughed. She wasn't.
No , I did not rehang them.... nor did I adopt seasonal curtains

I have never heard of this! What a waste of time, effort and storage space!

I double down with curtains and thermal blinds during the summer (in Australia have only recently installed full house aircon) but we still close both and live in our dark burrow to keep some of the heat out then open everything up overnight to get a cooler breeze.
Winter we just shut the blinds.
I have never heard of summer and winter curtains. Putting them up is such a faff why would you bother?

I have never heard of this! What a waste of time, effort and storage space!

Go back to the 1940s/50s of my childhood and you wouldn't say that. We had winter and summer curtains. No central heating, just a coal fire in the living room. We used to break the ice off the inside of our bedroom windows and you definitely needed thick curtains then.

Igiveup the same pin holes??? blimey she's a hard task master

Rain my childhood in the 70s wasn't much different Dad had central heating installed in c1980 and radiator put in every room except mine

In the '80s we lived in an old vicarage, with an oil fired boiler. Every radiator had sheets of card covered in tinfoil behind them. Dad would walk round tutting, feeling the tops and bottoms of each radiator, and turning the little knobs down.

But our first home had one coal fire, and no carpets. The first winter we cane down stairs to floors with a skim of ice over them. I'd come in from work, take out my contacts, and light the fire. We had two dining room chairs and a sleeping bag instead of a sofa.

I really appreciate my modern warm house.

Scottish here- although mam had Irish parents, so wondered if it was that, but it seems not!

PP I don't change bedroom ones, too pfaffy, just the back room leading to the garden: I like the change, it brightens/ cosies the room. OH does it-it's one of his tasks!

Ah, it makes more sense now.

@iloveredwine

My mum used to. Was thinking it was a Scottish thing as no one I know in England has ever heard of it.

My Mum too. Scotland, 1980s. I wonder if it is related to extremes of cold and summer days being so long that you don’t close the curtains till very late during the summer? All our windows also had metal Venetian blinds on them too though, they were forever getting tangled.

My grandparents did this. I have a very strong memory of it as a child in the ‘70s and ‘80s. They were in Northumberland.

Sounds mad - I have thermal curtains; they keep the heat in in winter, and out in summer to stop the flat getting too hot.

My flat is on a corner, and has 4 meter windows all the way round, so temperature control via curtains is quite important.

@pussycatinboots

Igiveup the same pin holes??? blimey she's a hard task master

Rain my childhood in the 70s wasn't much different Dad had central heating installed in c1980 and radiator put in every room except mine

Yes, the same pin holes! But I learnt very quickly not even to try to find them (are they possible to find?) I stand at the top of the ladder, look around, hum and haw a little and then exclaim -"Oh, yes, found it" and just pin the damn thing up.Luckily Mum does not have Christmas curtains, but does have throws, cushion covers, towels, kitchen towels and bedding, just for the Christmas Season. And don't get me started on Hogmanay! P.S. i love my Mum and would do anything for her - she is 92 years old and I would go to the end of the Earth for her - just as long as I don't have to hang curtains or do the seasonal redecoration!

Not bloody likely.

The shortest curtains in my house are over 10 ft long. The longest are over 23 ft long. There’s no way I’m doing battle to change them every six months, plus I think I’d be bankrupted by the cost of having to have two sets for each window.

Surely you don't want light curtains in the summer as then the light wakes you up as well as the birds. I will keep my thick blackout curtains thank you very much!

Wales here and when I was a child the curtains downstairs were changed with the seasons. I still change cushion covers and pack away throws

Certainly growing up I remember my house having winter and summer curtains. I didn’t realise this wasn’t the case in every home!
Now, I look around at the windows and marvel at the concept, and recognise my late mother was a housekeeping ninja!
It was lovely having chiffons and voiles blowing in the summer breeze when the French doors were opened, though.

I actually do change the curtains in my living room for the summer months!
During winter I have thick opaque curtains
During summer I have a thinner version(same style) that let a bit more light in but still stop reflection on TV etc
I think my winter curtains look to heavy during summer months

pussycatinboots

Aww bless, so deprived. I bet you're warm and toasty in current winters