Home »Bed Bug Tips » Buying used furniture? Here’s how to check used furniture for bed bugs. In today’s economy, everyone wants to save money. Buying used furniture or getting used furniture for free from a friend or relative can really save you serious bucks. But, there’s a catch: bed bugs. One of the single most common ways to get bed bugs in your home is through buying used furniture and bringing it into your home. Given the average cost of a bed bug treatments by a professional often exceeds a thousand dollars, it’s definitely best to insure the furniture you’re buying does not have bed bugs. To avoid having your home infested with bed bugs, it’s preferable to avoid buying used furniture or bringing used furniture in your home all together. However, we understand that this isn’t always practical or realistic. Therefore, inspecting any used furniture for signs of bed bugs before you bring the furniture into your home is critically important.
Even bringing used furniture with bed bugs into your home for just a few minutes can be the beginning of a bed bug infestation that will cost you time, sleep, sanity, and money! Inspect used furniture for bed bugs Whenever you find or are offered used furniture, the very first you should do is thoroughly inspect it for bed bugs. Be prepared, this could offend some people, but that is just the reality we live in today. Here’s how to inspect used furniture for bed bugs: Bring some white latex gloves, a magnifying glass, flashlight, and an inexpensive white sheet with you to inspect the furniture. Spread the white sheet on a flat surface, and place the furniture on the bed sheet. The white sheet will help you see bed bugs or signs of bed-bugs if they fall on the ground. Use your fingers, or preferably a credit card, run the edge of the card over the furniture’s surface. Then use your fingers or the edge of the card through any creases, cracks or grooves in the furniture.
Remember, bed bugs like to hid in small tight spaces, so running the card through these areas is critical to performing a thorough inspection. Watch for signs of bed bugs on your gloves or on the white sheet. Signs can include feces (which will be dark red stains), old skin, or bed bugs themselves. Use the magnifying glass to inspect anything remotely questionable. Use the flashlight to highlight and inspect any hidden or dark areas of the furniture. Again, these are the locations where bed bugs like to hide. They are generally not out in the open where they are easily seen. If you see any bed bugs or even signs of bed bugs, do not bring the furniture home. Treating used furniture for bed bugs Assuming you’ve done a thorough inspection, and haven’t found any signs of bed bugs, we still highly recommend treating the used furniture for bedbugs. Bring the furniture home, but do not bring it inside your home yet. Go ahead and place the plastic bag in your dryer and rip it open.
Leave the covers in the dryer and dispose of the bag in an outside trashcan. Run the covers in your dryer on high heat for at least 30-60 minutes. We recommend doing this twice. Thoroughly vacuum the furniture, including all crevices, seams, folds and hidden areas. Immediately remove the vacuum bag and place it in a tied plastic trash bag in an outside trashcan. Using a bed bug spray, spray down the furniture, insuring all areas are covered. Be sure to follow the detailed instructions that come with the spray. Allow the furniture to completely dry. If you prefer not to use a spray, you can cover the couch with Diatomaceous earth, steam treat or heat treat the furniture too. If you use Diatomaceous earth, allow the furniture to sit outside for a few days. Used furniture bed bug tips Avoid taking used furniture from dumps or furniture left on the road side. Furniture like this is generally thrown away for good reason, and bed bugs are often why. Avoid bringing used furniture into your home from high risk bed bug areas of the country, such as New York city.
Avoid used mattresses and box springs all together. They just aren’t worth the risk! Interested in learning more about how to keep bed bugs out of your home? Check out our Bed Bug Prevention page. Get FREE Local Bed Bug Exterminator Quotes Fill out our simple and easy form, and get FREE and LOCAL bed bug exterminator quotes sent straight to your inbox. Where do Bed Bugs Hide? Bed Bugs Rash and Bite Symptoms How To Find Bed Bugs In Your Home Bed bug heat treatment – The EssentialsSewing for your nursery can be so much fun! This tutorial will show you how to make a crib sheet, and you will be amazed at just how easy it is. It seems like options at the store are so limited, especially when you have a certain color scheme in mind. When you look to fabric, your options seem endless! So for the price of fabric and a little bit of time, you can make a crib sheet that fits exactly what you envision for baby’s nursery. 2 yards of fabric (44-45″ wide)(I used Blue Floral from Kensington by Emily Taylor for Riley Blake)2 yards of 1/4″ elasticMatching threadFabric MarkerRulerRotary mat and cutterorScissorsPins and safety pinsIronThe first thing I suggest doing is washing your fabric.
Because a crib sheet is something that will definitely be washed, you don’t want it to shrink after making it and then not fit the crib mattress. That would be a very sad thing. So wash and press for less stress later. 🙂Cut your fabric to 69″ in length. The width will be untouched at 44″-45″, whatever your fabric measures. Take your fabric and fold it in half length wise. We are going to cut out 8″ squares out of the corners, but first we need to mark the square. This is where you use your ruler and fabric marker. If you don’t have a fabric marker, a regular one will probably be just fine. After marking your 8″ square, cut it out with a rotary cutter or scissors. Do this to the top and bottom corners. When you are done, you will have four 8″ squares cut out of each corner. Now we are going to start sewing. We will sew together the edges of the corners and make french seams. These will enclose the raw edge.Take one square and put the edges WRONG sides together. Then stitch down the edge with 1/4″ seam. A
fter it’s sewn, cut down the seam to 1/8″.Turn the corner so wrong sides are out (right sides touching) and press the seam.Stitch down the seam again using a 1/4″ seam, completely encasing the raw edge. It’s so beautiful! The french seams make my heart happy. 🙂Do this to all four of your corners.Now we are going to make the casing for the elastic. Fold the edge of the fabric over 1/2″ and press all the way around. Then fold it 1/2″ and press again. Next is sewing the casing we just pressed. I put two pins in to mark where I want to begin and end. You want to leave an opening to thread the elastic through. Sew along the casing, pretty close to the edge giving plenty of room for the elastic. Cut 65″ of elastic. Attach a safety pin to each end. When I get to the end of my elastic, I pin it to the opening so I don’t have to pay attention to it and it doesn’t get lost as I am threading the beginning of the elastic around. Thread your elastic into the opening and pull the closed safety pin around until it comes out the other side. Wh
en you finish threading the elastic through, overlap the beginning and ends about 2-3″ and sew them together using a zig zag stitch. I went back and forth about 3 times to make sure it was super secure. Put it back into the casing and smooth it out.Starting where you ended, stitch the casing closed.Yaur crib sheet is all finished and wasn’t that easy?! Take your crib sheet and pull the fabric around so it’s all nice and even. Then take it to your crib mattress and put it on and jump for joy at how perfect it fits your decor!I made my crib sheet in a set with this adorable Ruffled Crib Skirt. The Ribbon Retreat Blog has a tutorial just for you so make sure to check it out! It would be cute for a girl and boy!Thank you to The Ribbon Retreat for letting me show you just how easy a crib sheet is! If you are doing a whole theme around a certain fabric line, I suggest buying tons of it! If it’s super cute like this line, you may find other projects to use it for and when you go back to buy some it may be gone. Th
at’s the hard thing about these cute designer fabrics. You can make curtains, pillows, art work, baskets, and so much more (I have a bow banner idea floating around!) :). So keep that in mind and have fun decorating your nursery!Thank you Shirley! I LOVE this crib sheet, and you are so right…when you are decorating your nursery, buy LOTS and LOTS of the fabrics you love! You can always create the most adorable matching room decor to make your nursery perfect for it’s new occupant. 🙂 Shirley is wonderfully talented and has shared some AMAZING tutorials with us in the past. For more fun projects by Shirley, click here.Are you inspired to decorate or makeover your nursery, or a room in your house? The Ribbon Retreat has the most gorgeous fabric for you to choose from, for ALL of your home decor needs! Are you ready to decorate for Halloween? We also have Spoooooooooky ribbon to decorate for all the upcoming Witches and Goblins. What is your favorite home decor project?Happy Creating & Happy Decorating!