How to Maintain Shower Curtains
Something I often get asked is: ‘why do I need to maintain my shower curtains? Doesn’t the water from the shower wash them and keep them clean for me?’
While this might seem logical on paper, it is actually that water from the shower that can cause your shower curtains to grow mould and to become stale.
When I talk about ‘maintaining’ your shower curtain I’m really talking about cleaning it. It’s certainly not necessary to clean a shower curtain, if you want to keep the same one for a long period of time it is definitely recommended.
The first thing that you need to do is to take down the shower curtain by first removing it from the curtain rail. This is usually fairly easy to do, although you might need to stand on a step ladder to do it.
Once you’ve taken it down, find a large area where you can lay it out flat (outdoor on a patio is a good spot) that you don’t mind getting when (which is why I advise doing it outdoors). Depending on whether your shower curtain is plastic or made from fabric, the cleaning products that you need to use are slightly different, but the cleaning technique remains the same.
What you should do it is get a sponge, a bucket (filled with water mixed with the cleaning solution) and some rubber gloves on (to protect your skin). From here you want to rub out all the areas and parts of limescale from the shower curtain, paying special attention to the areas that are most in contact with water from the shower.
After you’ve cleaned both sides, hang the curtain up on your washing line and leave it for an hour. This will allow it to dry and it’ll also allow the smell of the solution to wear off (so it doesn’t stink out your bathroom).
Photo by daveknapikThe best place to buy curtain cleaning products is from large furniture stores (such as IKEA). While you can just use sugar soap (or other basic cleaning products), most furniture stores sell products that have been specially made for cleaning shower curtains.
They also sell other related products, such as shower curtain rails and hookless shower curtains (which are easier to take down and to clean).