How to Easy Clean a Plastic Shower Curtain

If you look back in the annals of this blog you’ll find an old post called 11 Household Items Better to Trash than to Clean. Back then I listed plastic shower curtains, (or liners, actually,) in that list.

Though I had tried lots of things, to that point I hadn’t found a good system for cleaning a shower curtain.  Of all the methods I had tried, stretching it out in the driveway and scrubbing it by hand had worked the best, and it was hard, slimy work!  When I considered I could often buy a standard liner for $3-$4, it just made sense to me to trash the liner every 6-8 months and buy a new one rather than bother cleaning the old.

But… that was before I moved to a house with a shower that requires an extra large shower curtain!  I can’t buy liners in any of the discount stores, and if I manage to find them in a home store, they are not cheap!  I buy online to save money, but even there they are hardly inexpensive.  

Suddenly trashing plastic shower curtain liners seemed a little less practical.

So I tried something else… with great results!

So if your shower curtain is looking like this…

…covered with that slimy pink soap scummy goo, then you don’t need any sponges, brushes, or heavy cleaners to take care of the problem and make your shower curtain good as new.

All you need is this…

 A washing machine

1/4 cup laundry detergent

1 cup vinegar

1/2 cup baking soda

2-3 towels

 

There’s no scrubbing required!  Dump your detergent, vinegar, and baking soda in your washer, (the baking soda and vinegar will foam and fizzle like you’re doing a science experiment, but it’s all part of the cleaning action!)  Add the dirty shower curtain and two or three towels.  The towels will work like scrubbers so that you don’t have to!  Set your washer for a heavy duty or heavy soil cycle in hot water and voila!

Most curtains will come out perfectly clean with one wash, but if any residue remains, a second wash should take care of it.  

Hang your curtain out to dry…

Or hang it immediately in your shower.  (I mean, it’s not like it doesn’t get wet in there or anything…)

I’m not sure if you can tell how clean that thing is, but there is ZERO scum left on it.  No spraying, scrubbing, and rinsing required!  Taking the curtain down and hanging it back up is the hardest part of this, and I would have to do that to replace it, right?  

Easy cleaning.  I’m all about that…