How To Avoid Bringing Bed Bugs In Your Home After Thrifting

I love going to thrift stores.  You never know what kind of treasure you might come across.  However, you never know what kind of creature you might bring into your home.

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How do you avoid bringing in creepy crawlies in your home when you thrift show.  The creepy crawlies I speak of is bed bugs.  Bed bugs are experts at hitching a ride on clothing, furniture, anything it can get its little leg claws in.

Although, not likely bed bugs can be transferred into your home with your thrifting finds.

How do you avoid bed bugs while thrifting?

If you are buying clothes from a thrift store check the seams, pockets, etc.  Turn them inside out and look for these tiny little oval shape bugs.  Towels, bedding, etc, shake them before purchasing them, and again check the seams.

When it comes to furniture, look inside drawers, flip cushions, and look at seams.  If you're buying a bed look at the springs and the cracks and crevices.   If you have to bust out a flashlight do so.  If you see stains and spots on furniture, make sure you thoroughly check it for bed bugs.

After purchasing clothes, take them straight home and wash them, if you can't wash them then throw them in the dryer for a cycle.  Heat kills bed bugs, and the heat can help kill off anything that might have hitched a ride.

If you are purchasing furniture, take it home and run a vacuum over it before taking it inside, and make sure you dump the contents in an outside trash container.  If you can quickly steam clean your new furniture you probably want to do that as well outside of the house.

You can never be too careful.

The thing about bed bugs is they need something with blood to survive on.  If they cannot find something to feed on, they will not live,  However, they can temporarily live on these items that are donated.

Don't let this discourage you from your thrifting.  Thrifting is a fun thing to do, and again you never know what cool treasures you could find.  I mean you could find a banana dog, or you could find a painting worth a million dollars, you just never know.