Update: Once again, readers of this blog have responded with some brilliant ideas. Thank you all so much, and readers, I encourage you to check the Comments section. I am more concerned about using and tossing plastic than I am about spending twenty bucks on a new shower curtain. I’ve gotten some great ideas here and will look into the hotel shower curtain option that many readers recommend. It reminds me of how much writing this blog is an interaction, and it feels like having hundreds of super smart girlfriends. Thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts.
I’m having one of those Compact condundrums. Our shower curtain is getting pretty ratty and I’m ready to buy a new one. The problem is that this is not an item that fares well in the “buy used, make yourself, make it do, or do without” universe. I actually remember reading that some of the original Compacters broke ranks over a shower curtain dilemma.
Since we use what is essentially a liner, it wouldn’t matter if I made our own because we’d still need the liner. Plus I don’t sew. Doing without is not an option without flooding the bathroom floor, and I’ve never heard of buying a used shower curtain. Kind of gross, unless you could find it still in its package at Goodwill or somewhere, cast off by someone who decided they didn’t like the pattern. But it would take a long time to find such a specific item, since I don’t go to Goodwill that often and haven’t been “looking out for it.”
We have managed to “make it do” by using it probably an unhygienic length of time (a couple of years?) and I manage to lengthen the lifespan of a shower curtain by washing it once in the washing machine. I’ve tried twice, but that seems to destroy its future as a dropcloth.
That’s how we recycle shower curtains: my husband uses them as an outdoor dropcloth for all manner of painting and other projects until they are literally falling apart. At this point it makes its final journey to the trash bin.
Is there an alternative to manufacturing and tossing these things once every 2 or 3 years? If there is, I’d like to know about it.
What do you use for shower curtains, and how do you dispose of them? Please share your ideas in the Comments section.
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