Your Home's Draperies

The draperies in your home act as an air filter. Of course, the air filter in your home’s heating and cooling system is the primary air filter. Draperies, however, also help to collect dust, odors, and other allergens that float through the air within your home. While your heating and cooling system has a recommended time frame for changing the air filter, you may wonder about this secondary “air filter,” your drapes. Of course, we don’t replace them like we change the HVAC air filter. So, you may ask, “How often should I clean my drapes?”

According to the web site Today.com, draperies should be cleaned about every two weeks. The type of cleaning, of course, that they are referring to is a gentle vacuuming to remove dust, etc.

On the other hand, however, Southern Living magazine says draperies should be cleaned about once a year. Additionally, they recommend having them cleaned by a professional dry cleaner.

Fabric Care Cleaners is very experienced at cleaning and finishing draperies. Our cleaning process involves immersion and agitation either in dry cleaning fluid or in a wet cleaning process. After cleaning we finish them with pressing and pleat-folding on hangers so they are ready for you to hang when you get them home.

By appointment and for an additional fee, a member of our team will come to your home to remove the drapes, then return to reinstall them after cleaning. Also, we bring a portable steamer to touch them up, as necessary.

If you do take down your draperies yourself, please remember to remove any hooks, so that the draperies are not damaged.

Things to look out for and keep in mind.: Some “black out” drapes can be damaged by the washing process (water), others might not withstand dry cleaning. We test for this before cleaning. Older draperies can have irreversible sun damage which might not become apparent until after cleaning.

If you have any questions or would like to make an appointment to remove drapes or curtains, call us at 317-224-3212.