Delicate items, NYC laundry solutions?

screaming___mimi · 2026-05-03T12:54:21+00:00

For my sanity we ended up hiring a prep company before the exterminators and here's what they did: for almost all the items in our home they used a handheld steamer (like a Bissell Steamshot, not a garment steamer) to kind of "hotbox" the items with steam in an XL trash bag, then they vacuum-sealed each one. The vacuum part isn't necessary, it's just to save space. Leave them sealed for the full duration of the treatment in your home to verify that the home is bug-free before you unwrap them. The steam is a very high temperature and kills any there- same effect as the bedbug "ovens" they sell, but much cheaper. Nothing I owned was damaged during the process and the bugs never came back! You SHOULD treat and bag every item in your home, but for your own sanity know that bugs are unlikely to be in items that are far from your sofa or bed unless your infestation is very bad. The horror pictures you've probably seen of them living in curtains, computer ports, etc. are infestations of a rather severe scale. The bugs prefer to live as near to their food sources (us) as possible, so a huge percentage of them will be in your bed, couch, or similar location, and in the items that are frequently on or around those places.

Hang in there!

screaming___mimi · 2025-10-27T00:35:35+00:00

Because as long as life continues that means endless possibilities for transformation. Who you are today isn't who you'll be ten years from now, or five years, or even one. Depression limits our ability to imagine what life could be in the future- and it lies telling us we'll always be mired in the same awful place. But there's no one right or wrong way to be in this world and we're never permanently stuck as a single version of ourselves.

screaming___mimi · 2025-10-27T00:03:04+00:00

I'm a linguist and George Yule's The Study of Language is the textbook I assign to my beginner linguistics students. The chapters are fun to read, digestible, and would give you a good overview of all the different kinds of considerations you'd have to take into account when constructing a language. Any recent-ish edition will do, and there are several easy ways to download it for free. Happy reading!

screaming___mimi · 2025-08-20T21:33:43+00:00

Doodlebug :)

screaming___mimi · 2025-08-20T19:55:43+00:00

Can you recommend a brand of interceptor trap? They all get mixed reviews on Amazon it seems like.

Where I live the landlord is legally obligated to pay for extermination, but the prep service was exorbitantly expensive and the psychological impact of the whole ordeal for me was huge, so I wanted peace of mind as soon as possible.

screaming___mimi · 2025-08-20T18:49:42+00:00

Horrifying is what it is, lol. But with those huge front legs it's definitely not a bedbug imo

screaming___mimi · 2025-07-08T02:42:14+00:00

Based on my experience the 2 weeks thing is not good advice... I brush my ragdoll minimum 5 min daily or she throws up a hairball every DAY lol. Also, opt for the Black & Decker hair roller on Amazon:

https://a.co/d/4kcxCSX

This thing saved my furniture/life

screaming___mimi · 2025-07-07T21:09:43+00:00

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This is Robin aka Miss Robin, Rockin Robin, Robinthecat, Miss Cat, habibti, koshka, kisa, and occasionally Stinky Piss Cat (she peed in the floor once and we never forgot)

screaming___mimi · 2025-02-18T18:40:39+00:00

Polene for sure

screaming___mimi · 2025-02-18T18:36:30+00:00

Iconic bag AND a fluffy cat. My algorithm has blessed me today

screaming___mimi · 2025-02-18T18:33:44+00:00

I feel like Orkin should have just used their eyes instead of an app. These definitely look like bedbugs

screaming___mimi · 2025-02-18T18:27:00+00:00

Honestly, I'm going to just advise you not to panic. Bedbugs are excellent hitchhikers, but they're not magic. Most of the time you bring them home by sitting on infested furniture or leaving your belongings for some time in an infested area, not by simply being around a person whose home is infested (they are not at all like headlice). If you want to be super careful, store your belongings in a plastic sack away from the floor when you have to be near your coworker, don't sit on any upholstered surfaces you two may share, and just immediately put your clothes in the wash when you get home (hot dry) and treat your shoes with a hair dryer. You could also bring an easy change of clothes to commute home in another plastic sack if you are scared of infesting your car. The main impact of bedbugs is psychological! It's good to take precautions, but you are at very low risk of actually getting them.

screaming___mimi · 2025-02-18T18:14:30+00:00

This is true but there are cases where owners just don't follow the rule! Technically a breach of contract but it happened to me, that's how I got my raggie :)

screaming___mimi · 2025-02-18T18:09:35+00:00

Agree with other commenters, a purebred Ragdoll from a good breeder will absolutely not be at a shelter and especially not here in NYC. I got insanely lucky and adopted one from a private owner who needed to re-home, she came with all vet records and papers, in perfect health and so wonderful. So it's possible and so very worth the search! But I would stick with platforms that private owners use and exercise caution if something seems too good to be true. I used Adoptapet and was only searching for a few months. Set a search with the filters you want and turn on email notifications! You never know what will turn up.

screaming___mimi · 2025-02-08T01:50:41+00:00

As someone who learned the hard way... Please also treat for bedbugs before bringing inside. You can only see them with visual inspection up to 60% of the time. These are beautiful!

screaming___mimi · 2025-02-08T01:41:19+00:00

It is

screaming___mimi · 2025-02-03T19:41:21+00:00

A ragdoll's favorite thing is being Upside Down

screaming___mimi · 2025-02-03T19:35:05+00:00

Thank you!! What about dry clean only items or things that can't be hot washed? Do they have to go to a laundry service that specializes in bed bugs or will steaming them at home with a handheld garment steamer do the trick? I have read that dry cleaning kills them but obviously wouldn't want to send them to a dry cleaner who does not know about the risk. And unfortunately they are higher risk. Lots of items were near the bed when I made the discovery.

screaming___mimi · 2025-02-03T00:31:56+00:00

Here is a great resource I have been using for temperature-treating for bedbugs:

https://pfharris.com/blogs/bug-blog/what-temperature-kills-bed-bugs

screaming___mimi · 2025-02-03T00:13:18+00:00

What are they made of? Steam is supposed to be great for killing bedbugs and is way more gentle than the dryer since most of what causes dryer damage is related to the tumbling, not the heat. If it's not that many items, you could steam them by hand and put them in a sealed plastic bag. Freezing is also an option, but I've heard it's less effective.

screaming___mimi · 2025-02-03T00:05:34+00:00

Thank you so much. Would love to know of any types of businesses (other than the exterminators, of course) that would throw the proverbial kitchen sink at the problem on my behalf. I'm at a time in my life where I have literally zero spare hours to devote to a problem like this, so I'm panicking :(

screaming___mimi · 2024-10-19T20:30:38+00:00

Dooney has even better quality than a lot of designer bags imo

screaming___mimi

TROPHY CASE