How to Clean Curtains at Home by:Tara Aronson

If you have older curtains - or those that done duty in the bathroom - that are now

riddles with colored stains or worse, the good news is that you'll actually save money and perhaps even do a better job washing them at home rather than sending them to the cleaners.

This is especially true if they're cotton, which can easily be laundered and can withstand high-temperature washes. That's necessary is there's to be any hope of removing longtime stains from gas heat, cigarette smoke or worse. Though you may have to wash them several times to get results.

Laundry stain pretreaters - the kind you get at the grocery store - have worked some small wonders for me on fabric and carpet mishaps. Spray it on the stains first, and allow it to penetrate the fabric for at least five- to 10 minutes, then launder as usual in warm to hot water with bleach and your usual detergent.

If this doesn't completely remove the stain, wash again (and again) as needed.

Finally, to keep cotton window coverings from being half their former size, let them air dry. Cotton shrinks fast in a hot dryer.

Or, tumble dry on a very low or cool setting, keeping a close watch.

About the author

Tara has appeared in numerous magazine, newspaper and online articles featuring her lifestyle, organizing and cleaning expertise in addition to writing her twice-monthly column, Coming Clean in the San Francisco Chronicle. Tara is also regularly a guest expert on news, feature, and talk-show programs across the country. She most recently appeared on the "Rachael Ray" Daytime talk show Feb. 4, 2009, in New York City. Tara appeared as the guest expert on Human Lab: Laundry.In addition, Tara also puts her well-tuned journalistic skills to use on the road, writing travel articles about her as frequent as possible road trips to venues across the United States and abroad. Tara is a proud mom to three who cleans and writes in West Los Angeles.

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