I do many painting and craft projects, both inside and outside. Each spring, I pick up 5 or 6 plastic shower curtains from the dollar store. You wouldn't believe how many uses I've found for them. They even come in clear, to cover drafty windows in the winter!
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I bought a 99 cent shower curtain, mostly because the pattern/color was so right - and 10 months later it's still going and we are thinking of packing up. So a word to students and other transients - maybe the cheap colorful version will do you just fine for as long as you need it.
Instead of paying big bucks for mattress cover for your kids that will get ripped or so nasty it is easier to trash than to save, try this. Go to your local dollar store and purchase a dollar shower curtain liner. Just stretch it over the mattress and tuck under.
Got an old shower curtain liner? Make baby bibs with it and save big! After sterilizing with diluted bleach, cut a rectangle slightly longer than would fit your baby depending on age, with a slight dip on the top edge for the neck.
Now is the season for outdoor parties, graduations, etc. Instead of using paper tablecloths, use shower curtains from the dollar store.
Using two shower curtains, instead of one, makes your bathroom look pretty opulent. I use two (of the same pattern/colors/design), and they gather up nicely and look better than just one flat one. I try to find inexpensive ones, of course, and fabric curtains work best.
When you get a new shower curtain, if there's nothing much wrong with your old one, keep it. It can be used as a drop cloth for a painting project.
I use old shower curtains to put in the back floor of my explorer for my dogs for when we go to camp and they get very wet. To clean, I just take it out and put it a on clothes line and rinse with a hose.
My clear plastic liner is getting to be pretty disgusting so I'm going to replace it. I'll go to the Dollar Store and buy a new liner and clean the old one on the driveway and save it for drop cloths and such.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
What are some of the different ways people have found to use shower curtains. Other than the obvious!
I have used old shower curtains for:
I think that considering you can buy them for $1 at some stores, they are one of the best buys around!
So, what other uses can they be used for?
Cookiepom from Owensboro, KY
None of my ideas are attractive ones but they work for us and they are cheap, cheap, cheap!
I use old shower curtains to put under the litter boxes. I cut it to size and place it under the box so it's easy to clean up an ooops! and the floor underneath isn't ruined.
I also use these left over (but clean) shower curtains to cover the beds with when I leave the house for the weekend or for a week. Then I put a blanket over it. The cats can sleep on it and my quilts won't be covered with fur. Or if one of them (we have three) gets mad about our absense and takes it out on the bed, it's covered in plastic so no surprise for us when we get home!
Use them for drop cloths for painting projects.
I use old shower curtains to cover tender plants in early spring in the garden when there is still a chance of a frost. When not in use, they stay folded in a box in the shed. Easy to clean up (just hose off, let dry spread out on the lawn in the sun), light weight, covers large areas quickly and easily.
I find my old shower curtain comes in really handing when the kids fancy painting. It is more eco-friendly than using old newspapers and you can just wipe it clean.
We use to take them camping for under sleeping bags or under a blanket on damp ground.
Good for paint cloths.
Use like tarps. We put one over the lawnmower fastened with a bungie cord to keep the mower dry.
Keep old torn shower curtains to use as drop cloths for painting. Drips and spills won't soak thru.
By Julie Nusbaum
I spread one on the ground and rake a pile of leaves onto it, then gather up the four corners to carry to burn pile!
My dad uses one for the back seat of his car when he takes my brothers to the beach.
I use a piece of shower curtain to hide the supplies on the bottom shelf of our aquarium stand. I glued magnets to it.
If you park your car outside, use a shower curtain to cover your windshield in winter to prevent having to scrape it in the mornings. Just shut each end in the car door.
Use an old shower curtain to cover your wood pile. You won't have to worry if you have dry wood for a fire.
We spread them out under our baby's high chair when we go to restaurants. The restaurant staff always really appreciates our efforts to keep baby's mess from being ground into the carpet!
line the trunk of your car with one for those times when you might be bringing home plants or firewood.
Also, when I was a child and we had a house with an unfinished basement, my mom would make curtains for the basement windows out of old shower curtains.
I have a large closet that used to have sliding doors. Well the doors broke and I used a printed cloth shower curtain to cover my closet. I just installed a rod at the top and used matching shower hooks to hang it. It required no sewing on my part and saved me from having to make one.
If you have a tub of ice in the summer w/ drinks
I use it to cover it up to slow down the melting
Christine Lauderback
A great use for old shower curtains is two cut a head hole and armholes in one. Wear it when you are giving a dog a bath.
My son's car window was once broken out by vandals. He came by on his way home, and, of course, during his visit it began to rain. We took down our shower curtain and shut it in both sides of the door around the window for a makeshift window cover. The thick plastic worked perfectly until he could get it fixed the next day.
You can buy such pretty shower curtains that are cloth. you can use them for curtains for windows. You can use them for above your shower area and then cut the rest of the shower curtainn to add as a border on towels and then they all match. A table cloth too, just cut the holes off.
Use the cloth ones to make seat cushions for your plastic outdoor chairs. Stuff with plastic bags.
I made a tote bag out of a sturdy plastic-y type shower curtain that we never used, but loved the pattern of! It was black & white with pics of old movies on it, and it was too busy for the bathroom! No pattern needed (two rectangles for the front and back and a strip for the sides and bottom) and hot-glued them together. I cut the top off and used that strip as "handles". I could have used binding to make it "prettier", but just folding the edge "into" the bag and gluing it works for me!
I had a friend who actually made a sun dress out of a shower curtain, not a fabric one either, a PLASTIC one, it was for a party we had. It was very unique and quite the conversation starter!
i have several of the fabric ones i use them to swag a faux window that is above my entertainment center i can change it as the mood strikes
I use fabric shower liner as a curtain on my screened porch for privacy, dries quickly and inexpensive
Decorative shower curtains can often be purchased much more cheaply than drapes. This choice for window coverings allows you to change your "drapes" more frequently. This is a page about using shower curtains for drapes.
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I seem to go through many tablecloths throughout the year, from stains to seasonal changes to holiday fashions. I've found that if I take a simple Dollar Store shower curtain, I can decorate them to fit different themes.
