Curtains, drapes, swags, hangings, drapery, blinds, voiles – it doesn’t matter what type of window covering you have, they all have one thing on common – they all need to be cleaned on a regular basis.

Many people spend a lot of time making sure that their home is clean, tidy and presentable. However there is one aspect of the cleaning that many people forget about and that’s looking after their window coverings.

Different types of window coverings will need to be treated in a different ways when it comes to the cleaning process. Blinds, for example, are available in many different types of material and whilst it may be ok to wipe the horizontal slats of a wooden Venetian blind with a damp cloth this might not be appropriate for a Roman blind made from a delicate material.

Most people in the UK choose curtains for their window coverings and luckily these can be cleaned quite successfully – if you have the right cleaning equipment. It’s never a good idea to put curtains in a domestic washing machine, they will nearly always shrink. Some cleaning companies offer upholstery and curtain cleaning services where they will take your curtains down, clean them using an appropriate cleaning method and then rehang them for you so that they look like new.