When is the right time to clean your drapery, sheers and shades?

If you just purchased an apartment that came with custom window treatments that you plan on keeping, or if you are planning a renovation or painting job, please AVOID having  your window treatments mishandled by well meaning painters and contractors.  Contractors are hired for their specialties, not for their attention to the safe removal of your window treatments. Calling NY Drapery Care to the job BEFORE the other contractors begin their work is a great way to get your project off to a good start.

If It’s Made of Fabric & Hangs in a Window - We Clean It

For the past 18 years NY Drapery Care has been cleaning drapery, sheers, Roman shades,  solar shades, and blackout shades for customers living at many of Manhattan's most desirable addresses. We have seen first hand that even in apartments where the windows are never opened, soot and dust accumulation is not stopped, but is at most slowed. 

We are often contacted after the window treatments have been hanging for 5-25 years, and they’ve usually never been cleaned professionally since their original installation.

NY Drapery Care is able to successfully clean older window treatments since all our cleaning processes are done by hand using techniques appropriate for the fabric and style of window treatment.

How often should you clean your drapery, sheers, and shades?

It all depends.

Sheers

Sheers undoubtedly trap the most soot and dust since they behave like enormous air filters. The fabric collects a layer of soot, dust, pollen, and pet dander. Ideally we recommend cleaning sheers once a year, especially for allergy sufferers.  If the air vents are blowing onto the sheers or you keep the windows open even a crack, annual cleaning is a good idea.

Roller Shades - Blackout & Solar

Both blackout shades and solar shades tend to collect soot and dust quickly since they hang closest to the windows.

We usually are called to clean roller shades after they have been hanging for 5 or more years, which is when people often start to notice how visibly soiled their shades are.

Solar shades show soil more readily than blackout shades, since the small perforations in solar shades trap the soot and dust. The trapped particles give the shades a gray caste, especially if they hang by an open window.

Our results cleaning solar and blackout shades in our workroom have been excellent. Even older, heavily soiled shades come out looking virtually new. Onsite cleaning is mostly appropriate for motorized shades that cannot reasonably be removed without the help of a window treatment motorization specialist.

Drapery

Drapery hung decoratively to frame the window, especially when layered over sheers, can often go 3 or more years without being terribly soiled. Of course there are exceptions, especially if the drapery hangs in front of an open window or work has been done in the apartment, and construction dust has coated the fabric.