Dry cleaning curtains

[bigbutsrus1]

Ok, slightly embarrassing but I have never taken anything to the dry cleaners! We are having house renovated and have removed the curtains. The lounge ones are expensive made to measure ones bought about 5 years ago......with having babies and now endless house and building works it never crossed my mind to get the cleaned. Well, they well and truly need it now! So my question is, do I just take them in in a bag and ask them to be washed? Do I leave the strings in and pulled at the top? And how much roughly does it cost? I don't want to look a fool, but care on here!

First of all are they dry clean only? If washable it will be a lot cheaper although if there is lots of fabric you will still need to go to a launderette to use one of their big machines.

You need to remove the hooks and untie one end of the strings and pull each curtain straight so they are no longer gathered. Before you do this, measure the width of each curtain and make a note so you know how much to gather them when you come to put them back up.

At the dry cleaners they'll either measure or weigh them to work out the cost.

While the curtains are down, clean the track/rail/pole with warm soapy water. Wash the hooks in a solution of washing powder or with some washing up liquid, rinse and dry. If you thought the curtains were dirty, wait until you see what the track can be like! I would also wash the inside of the window while there's nothing in the way.

Thankyou! That was really helpful! We are getting a new pole thank goodness

You're welcome. Whatever you do, do not remove the gathering strings - make sure they are either securely sewn in or knotted together at one end before you ease out the gathers.