The Stain Library

Material

Shower curtain

Either machine washable polyester or a plastic liner that is wiped rather than washed. Neither absorbs, so the stain is a surface problem.

  • SurfaceNon porous
  • WashingMachine
  • Colour run riskLow
  • Reviewed7 September 2026

What shower curtain can and cannot take

  • Heat Avoid
  • Water and soaking Tolerates it
  • Acids, including vinegar Tolerates it
  • Strong alkalis Tolerates it
  • Solvents Use with care
  • Chlorine bleach Use with care
  • Abrasives Use with care

General rules for shower curtain

Find out whether you have a fabric curtain or a plastic liner, because they are cleaned in completely different ways and many bathrooms have both.

A polyester curtain goes in the machine. A plastic liner is sprayed, left for ten or fifteen minutes and wiped, or hand washed in the bath.

Either way, this is one of the easier items here, because neither material absorbs and both are used to being wet.

Check the label

Polyester fabric shower curtains are machine washable on a warm setting with normal detergent. PEVA and PVC liners are not machine washed and are cleaned in place or in the bath, with a three to one water and white vinegar spray or by hand washing.

Stains on shower curtain

A shower curtain is the one household textile that is designed to be soaked repeatedly.

Fabric and plastic are different items

Polyester curtains are machine washable on a warm setting with ordinary detergent. PEVA and PVC liners are not, because the heat and agitation crease and split them. They are wiped down instead.

Nothing absorbs

Which means the milk sits on the surface and comes off with very little effort. This is a genuinely easy surface.

Mould is the standing problem

A shower curtain lives in a damp room and organic residue is exactly what mould feeds on. Cleaning it properly matters more for that reason than for the stain.

Liners are consumable

Plastic liners are usually replaced every few months anyway, which puts a low ceiling on how much effort is worth spending.

Sources

What we checked and when. Where a manufacturer instruction disagrees with anything here, follow the manufacturer.

  1. How to wash plastic shower curtains, Taste of Home publication

    Cleaning guidance that PEVA and PVC shower curtain liners are not machine washed but sprayed with three parts water to one part white vinegar, left 10 to 15 minutes and scrubbed, or hand washed in a bath, that polyester fabric shower curtains are machine washable on a warm setting with normal detergent, that white vinegar addresses mould, and that plastic liners are replaced every four to six months.

    Checked 7 September 2026

  2. Norovirus: what to do and how to stop the spread, UK Health Security Agency authority

    UK public health guidance establishing that illness related vomit can carry norovirus, that contaminated laundry should be washed with normal powder at 60 C where the care label permits, and that compatible hard surfaces should be disinfected with a bleach based product.

    Checked 7 September 2026

  3. How to clean polyester and synthetics, Woolite manufacturer

    Detergent manufacturer guidance that polyester is washed, dried and ironed at low to medium heat only because excessive heat can melt the fibres, that air drying is preferred to machine drying, that nylon is washed in cool water on a gentle cycle because repeated machine washing causes discolouration and loss of shape, and that acrylic knits are laid flat or dried at low temperature to keep their shape.

    Checked 7 September 2026