All the Work

I've recovered, at least somewhat, psychologically from my last post. The car is working okay now. That whole ordeal was mysterious. Two mechanics and zero diagnosis later the car is okay. I assume this was just more of the universe dicking me around.

I thought, while I have my senses, I would lay out all the work that has gone into this bedbug debaucle. I'm planning on getting out of dodge (aka the apartment) & it is impertivie that the bugs do not follow. They are hard to kill and their eggs are even harder to kill. If you ever get the bugs, you'll have to do this too.

1) Hot wash & hot dry all of your laundry. I threw away any laundry items that seemed to have bugs on them & hot washed/dried the rest. I'm not taking chances. Laundry items that can't take the heat, go to the trash.

2) Bed linens, pillows, blankets, mattresses, bed frames, dressers, bedroom furniture - trash! gone!

3) Every thing in the room gets inspected. Has black spots on it? Has weird looking white things (like rice or salt grains)? Gone! Trash! Everything else gets treated by being boiled or washed in the dishwasher. Papers get laminated.

4) PC - was stored in the bedroom... inspected, sealed in plastic w/ mothballs. 1 month from now I will open the bags & put in new mothballs. I fear the pc eventhough it passed inspection. If I ever take it out of plastic, it will live in the basement.

Moving on to the living room now...

5) cd's dvd's - inspected. spots?, grains? - trash! everything else, sealed in plastic. (I miss my cds/ dvds) Records - threw away the sleeves, wiped vinyl down w/ rubbing alcohol. Wrapped in plastic wrap. Sealed in a plastic bag.

6) books - inspected. page by page (that's a lot of pages) same deal as above - many were trashed, the rest were sealed in plastic w/ mothballs. Some books were too big or fragile for inspection, yet too valuable to toss (ie complete works of shakespeare, antique leather bible from my childhood) they are sealed in plastic, I can open them up in two years.

7) chachkies/ nick-nacks - why do I have so much of this crap? It all got boiled, if it looked suspicious it got trashed. Survivors were sealed in plastic.

sound like a lot of plastic?..... it is!

8) Furniture. All furniture is being inspected & disassebled to whatever degree is practical. The futon cushion is being trashed - just in case. The frame will be thoroughly cleaned with steam and disinfectant. Fabric furniture will be steam cleaned/ shampooed. All remaining furniture - tables, etc. will be steam cleaned & disinfected. Murphy's oil & a good inspection for wooden furniture. Legs will be wrapped in plastic.

9) All closet contents / kitchen crap/ bathroom stuff are being inspected, treated however possible. Chucked if it's not worth all the trouble or looks suspicious.
Everything gets sealed in plastic.

It's a pain in the stones & it's taking for like freakin' ever!!!!!

I hope it works, I hope when I move that I will be free!