# How often do you change your curtains? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 8, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-change-your-curtains/624498 "2012-06-08T13:56:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2012, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-change-your-curtains/624498/41 "2012-06-12T08:39:36Z")
We moved to the flat my mother now lives in back in… 1980. Dad died in 2000. He’d stopped smoking in 1997. I finally managed to convince Mom to change the living room’s curtains in 2002 when, even after five years of no smoking and twice-a-year washings, they still smelled of his brand of tobacco. She got new curtains for the kitchen in 1998. I bought my flat in 2006. The curtains are still the ones the previous owners had: I did change the rod for one of the rooms and may be changing the curtains in the living room next August. The tl,dr version: “change the curtains, what’s that?” ---
**Author:** ![Mopal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Mopal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mopal)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-change-your-curtains/624498/42 "2012-06-13T22:16:32Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > You’re supposed to change your curtains? > > I haven’t even washed my windows. This. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-change-your-curtains/624498/43 "2012-06-13T22:22:18Z")
I’ve been living in my current home for 5 years, less 1 month. I haven’t even taken down the old curtains yet. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-change-your-curtains/624498/44 "2012-06-13T22:30:36Z")
People move into apartments and homes with curtains already up? And leave them there? Well, I guess that’s not so strange once I consider I never change the blinds that came with my apartments. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2012, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-change-your-curtains/624498/45 "2012-06-13T22:38:29Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > People move into apartments and homes with curtains already up? And leave them there? I did. My living room has curtains which are completely agreeable to me and which serve their function perfectly well. The only reasons I’m even considering doing anything about them at this point is because they’re mounted at each end and have a support in the center, and on both windows, that center support is starting to give out. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-change-your-curtains/624498/46 "2012-06-14T00:29:58Z")
I’ll change them when you can no longer tell the difference between them open and closed. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-change-your-curtains/624498/47 "2012-06-14T04:55:35Z")
I have mini-blinds and gauzey eggshell Cape Cod curtains on all major windows that I put up when we moved in 25 years ago. They get washed twice a year and are, apparently, indestructible. No use replacing them, every house in the development has the same curtains, they just go with the style of the houses and anything else looks wrong from outside. To me, changing curtains means hanging up heavy drapes in the winter to make it cozy and keep out drafts, and hanging lighter things in the summer. I don’t like drapes, I need natural light in the house all year round. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-change-your-curtains/624498/48 "2012-06-14T20:23:13Z")
Been here since 2002 and haven’t changed them. Likely won’t anytime soon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-often-do-you-change-your-curtains/624498.md?page=2)