How to Clean a Vinyl Shower Curtain

Learn how to clean a vinyl shower curtain with ingredients you have at home! Soap scum and mildew just disappear, leaving your shower curtain looking like new again!

It’s that time of year again, isn’t it? When you take a look in and around your home and realize it needs a good deep cleaning after a long, cold winter. The windows are cloudy, the dust bunnies have settled into the corners of every room, the carpet needs brightening, the bathroom tile is looking dull and you just need to “refresh.” For weeks, okay maybe months, every morning, I had been staring at a dingy shower curtain liner caked with a ton of soap scum (starting to take on a strange pink hue).

I know it’s gross. How could I let it go this long? Believe me, I’ve been looking for a replacement. My current shower curtain liner is kind of a cream color that goes perfectly with the rest of the decor in my bathroom. All the liners I’ve been able to find are too white and I just don’t like them. Soooo, instead of throwing out the liner, I washed it. . .in my washing machine.

No scrubbing, no spraying. . .nothing more than just dropping it into the washer with a few key ingredients. Today is your lucky day because I’m taking you into my laundry room to walk through the entire process with me. As always, whenever I take my readers into the laundry room there’s always a disclosure. Our laundry room has no windows – that means no natural light – which means unattractive, not-so-great photos. Kind of like when I showed you how to remove hard water stains from your toilet. You all seem to like watching me use my bare hands in the toilet though, so it turns out the bad photos don’t seem to phase you too much. 😉

Alright, so go ahead, grab that dingy vinyl shower curtain or liner and let’s get started.

Ingredients

• 1 cup vinegar
• 1/2 cup liquid laundry detergent (I used Tide)
• 3-4 light colored towels

First things, first. Start by filling your washing machine with warm water. You’re going to put the curtain through a regular warm water wash.

Add the cup of vinegar to the washing machine.

Pour in the 1/2 cup of laundry detergent.

Add the towels. I had four towels that needed to be washed anyway, so I used those. The towels kind of work like scrubbers during the agitation cycle to help wipe away the soap scum and grime. Much easier than using your hands, right? Right. 😉

Now make sure your shower curtain and your towels are evenly distributed throughout the drum of the washer. Shut the lid and wait for the cycle to finish!

When the washing is complete, take your curtain and hang it up outside to dry or just carry it back into the bathroom and hang it back up in the shower and allow it to air dry in there.

I swung the curtain over the deck railing because it was a nice sunny day. In the summer I love to dry the comforters for our beds out here, too. Growing up we hung nearly everything outside on a clothesline. Since I don’t have a clothesline, this is the closest I get. It works wonderfully!

Let me try to zoom in a little for you so you can see the difference. Don’t worry about the wrinkles. Once you hang the curtain back up in the shower, the wrinkles will work themselves out over time. Not a big deal.

And as for our before and after. . .I’d say this worked brilliantly! Honestly, the curtain looks brand new.

So, if you have a vinyl shower curtain or liner that looks a little bit like mine, I promise you, you can bring it back to its original condition. No scrubbing, no spraying – just throw it into the washing machine with vinegar, laundry detergent and a few towels and voila. . .like brand new again! I can’t wait to hear how your curtain turns out. Make sure to share in the comments!