Last Updated on September 21, 2026 by Umar Farooq
Take every hook, ring and weight out, shake the dust off outdoors, and spot-test your detergent on a hidden corner. Then wash one curtain at a time on delicates in cool water with a mild detergent, using the lowest spin. Hang them damp and let them dry in place. Do not tumble dry, and do not wash lined or blackout curtains at all unless the label says you can.
Two things make curtains different from everything else you wash, and neither gets much attention: they are far heavier wet than they look, and shrinkage shows up in the one dimension you cannot fix.
Measure the drop before you wash anything
A shirt that shrinks two per cent is still a shirt. A curtain that shrinks two per cent is two centimetres short of the floor, permanently, and there is no adjustment to make.
So write the measurement down first — hem to hook, both curtains, before they go anywhere near water. If they come back short you will at least know by how much, which is the difference between re-hemming the pair to match and discovering the problem a week later. Cotton and linen are the shrinkers here; polyester generally is not. The mechanism, and which fabrics do what, is in why do clothes shrink in the wash.
This is also the argument for cool water over warm. Maytag’s position is about colour — “avoiding hot water may help preserve the color, especially on dark curtains” (how to wash curtains and drapes) — and heat drives shrinkage too. Two reasons, same setting.
One curtain at a time, and why your machine cares
Here is the instruction the appliance makers give that the decor sites leave out. Samsung: “Depending on the size of your machine, you may only want to add one curtain at a time” (wash curtains in your Samsung washing machine).
That is not about being gentle. A curtain is a single large sheet of fabric, and a wet sheet does not distribute itself around a drum — it plasters to one side and stays there. The machine then meets the heaviest, most one-sided load it will ever see, refuses to spin, redistributes, tries again, and either gives up or walks across the floor doing it.
Add a couple of towels with it. They break the sheet up and give the drum something to balance against — the same trick that makes a duvet washable. If the machine still stalls at the spin, that is the balance system doing its job rather than a fault: washing machine shakes during spin.
The hardware is a foreign object, not just an inconvenience
Every guide says remove the hooks. Samsung’s wording is “remove all hardware from your curtains, such as hooks and rings, before washing them.” None of them says what happens if you don’t.
Metal curtain hooks are small, hard and hooked — which is to say they are the ideal shape for passing through a drum perforation and lodging where you cannot see them, or travelling on to the pump filter. Lead or steel weights sewn into hems are worse, because you can forget they exist. Check the hem by feel before you wash, and if a load turns noisy afterwards, start at how to clean a washing machine filter.
How to wash curtains, step by step
- Take everything off. Hooks, rings, pins, tiebacks. Feel along the hem for sewn-in weights.
- Shake them out, outdoors. Curtains hold a startling amount of dust, and dust plus water is mud. A vacuum with the upholstery brush is better still.
- Spot-test the detergent. Maytag’s method: apply it to a hidden corner, then “dab a paper towel over it to see if any color transfers.” Old curtains have been fading in sunlight for years and their dye is not what it was.
- One curtain, two towels, delicates, cool water, mild detergent. Samsung specifies “the Delicate or Hand wash cycle… and use lukewarm or cool water.”
- Lowest spin. Creasing set in by a high spin is very hard to get out of a large flat panel.
- Hang them damp, straight back on the rail. Their own weight pulls the creases out as they dry, which saves you ironing several square metres of fabric.
That last step is the one worth changing your routine for. It only works if you catch them damp, so plan the wash for a morning rather than last thing at night.
Lined and blackout curtains: usually don’t
This is where the honest answer disappoints people. Maytag is careful about it: blackout curtains and drapes “may be lined or made from heavier fabrics, preventing them from going in the washing machine.”
The reason is that a lined curtain is two fabrics stitched together that shrink at different rates. Wash them and the face fabric and the lining move by different amounts, and the result is puckering along every seam that no iron will flatten. Blackout linings add a third problem — the coating that blocks the light can crack or peel with flexing and heat.
Vacuum them, spot-clean them, and have them professionally cleaned when that is no longer enough. It is the one item on this site where the maintenance answer beats the washing answer.
Drying, and the case for skipping the dryer
Samsung’s line is the cautious one and it is right: “Generally, curtains should not be placed in a dryer. If you must put them in a dryer, only use a Delicate or Low temperature setting.”
Heat is what finishes the shrinking that the wash started, so the dryer is where a curtain that came out of the drum the right length becomes one that is not. Linen specialists say the same — MagicLinen’s guidance is to air dry and to avoid high heat entirely (how to wash linen curtains). Rehanging damp is faster than a dryer anyway, because the fabric is already in the shape you want it to dry in.
FAQ
Can you wash curtains in a washing machine?
Unlined cotton, polyester and nylon curtains usually yes, on delicates in cool water. Lined, blackout and delicate fabrics usually not.
How often should curtains be washed?
Window curtains a few times a year; more often with pets or allergies. A shower curtain that gets wet daily wants monthly attention.
What temperature should curtains be washed at?
Cool or lukewarm. Heat costs you colour and shrinkage, and buys nothing on dust.
Can you tumble dry curtains?
Better not to. If you must, use a low or delicate setting — but rehanging them damp gives a better result and no shrink risk.
Do curtains shrink when washed?
Cotton and linen can. Polyester generally does not. Measure the drop first so you know either way.
Can you wash curtains with the hooks still in?
No. They damage the fabric, and they are exactly the shape that gets past the drum and into the pump.
The honest verdict
Measure first, wash one at a time, and hang them back damp. If they are lined or blackout, the best thing you can do for them is a vacuum cleaner and the number of someone who cleans curtains for a living.
