Two tips to follow when choosing curtains for your young children's rooms
If your young children need new curtains for their rooms, here are some tips to follow.
Pick curtains that won't take too much time or effort to wash
It's important to pick curtains that you will find easy to remove, wash and return to the windows, as they will probably get dirty quite regularly. Even if, for example, you don't allow your kids to eat in their rooms, they could still get food stains on the curtains if they return to their bedrooms after eating a meal and have, for example, some ketchup or grease on their hands that they transfer to their curtains whilst opening or closing them. Additionally, if your children ever use markers, crayons or paints in their rooms, they will almost certainly end up getting some of these art supplies on their curtains at some point.
However, if you've chosen the right curtains, you should find it reasonably easy to freshen up these window dressings whenever they get dirty. For example, you should try to get eyelet curtains, as these don't have any curtain hooks that might slow down the process of removing them from and returning them to the curtain pole. Additionally, you should ensure that the curtains are made from a machine-washable, colour-fast fabric so you don't need to take them to the dry-cleaners or have to wash them separately from your other laundry.
Lastly, unless you live in a cold climate where thick, thermal curtains are essential, you should consider getting lightweight curtains for your kids' rooms, as thin curtain fabrics will dry out quickly after being washed, which means you should be able to return the curtains to the windows within hours of having put them in the washing machine.
Avoid floor-length curtains
Even if you think that floor-length curtains would look good in your children's rooms, you should stick with ones that are level with the windowsills instead as, whilst very elegant, floor-length curtains are rarely a good choice for young children's rooms.
First and foremost, they can be a tripping hazard; this is worth noting if any of your kids are prone to clumsiness or often run around their rooms without looking where they're going. By ensuring that the curtains aren't on the floor, you can eliminate at least one potential tripping hazard from your kids' rooms.
Secondly, the closer the curtains are to the floor, the more likely it is that your children will damage them. For example, whilst sitting and playing with some toys on the floor beside the curtains, they might knock over their drink and spill it over the ends of the curtains, or they might damage the lower sections of the fabric by repeatedly rolling their toy cars over them. As such, in your children's rooms, shorter curtains will probably have a longer lifespan.
