There were like 4-5 times as many folks out doing tons of laundry. out of the say, usual 5, there were aboout 20 folks. But only one person other than myself was doing their laundry the proper BB way: (if there is a written protocol–I’m not aware of it and I felt like, if anyone who was NOT TOO SELF ABSORBED AND had noticed me, they hopefully were learning something rather than judging me as a victim of some sort of a clean-freak OCD disorder.)

Now I suspect Boston and NYC and Toronto not to mention England and Vancouver Austrailia and New Zealand have already seen these types of “incorrect methods” of just trying to launder your bb troubles away once or twice–and that’s that.”

But forget about how they were doing it–the WRONG WAY–this is how I do it:

I’m not perfect, but I know I do a pretty good job there in the laundromat.

1–I don’t use anything other than sturdy plastic bags to bring laudry to and from the laundromat anymore. The final, heavy double bag I bring home–is how I keep it stored when I finally get there, and that is only until I can sort of sort it all out and re-bag it, in my few, designated “likely to be clean and feree of bb areas.”

But That’s another story.

2–Once I’m at the washshop–I dump directly from plastic bag into the machine and I only use the HOTTEST cycle. When wash is completed–I enter it into a FRESH bag from the washing machine. From there they are sealed until the best drier is eventually available.

3–When the clothes are so hot and so dry, that I can harly touch them without feeling I’m about to get a first degree burn–well … that is when I know they are “BB Done.”
Sometimes this takes 8 quaters–sometimes it takes 18.

4–I don’t touch other’s laundry and I wished today nobody had touched mine.

5–I do not bring my bed frames (as strange as this sounds) into the laundrymatt with me. Can u beleive it? 2 people did this. (they were washing in a frenzy and bagging into canvas bags.
BB LOVE CANVAS BAGS AND I HATE BB’S! They can pass thru or hide in a canvas bag better than any other bag I’m aware of.

(I only fudged a little wiht my technique, and so the one sock that fell onto the floor got SHOOK OUT WELL and immediatly stuck into a really hot drier. it was one that still had a good 20 minutes left to go. Had I been practicing my techique more fully
I’d have double bagged the sock and put it in with the stuff I need to wash in a few days from now.

Back to minimalistic “less is more” living.
Because I was so tweaked by what went on at the laudromat today–I tossed all of the tightly sealed, double bagged items I’d washed and dried into my Bathtub. I’m not even going to open them up or move them to designated clean areas in my hotel room–until I steam the bags well … sometime later on.
But they always remain in plastic bags as much as is feasible.
One of my “clean zones” (GOD I HOPE) is in between my two futon matresses. Its lumpy to sleep that way but comforting as well.
Also–I don’t fold most of my clothing anymore. Even once it’s home. It’s a waste of time. Thank god for P. Press.
I’m more tempted to use my iron on the rug at this point and that may not be a bad idea–so long as I don’t burn the rug–I’ll be fine.

I posted this here, because lot’s of moms and dad’s will hopefully be reading this thread: To you I say: store and then do your laundry at home, if your lucky enough to have a washer and dryer there, in some similar manner as I have outlined above. Especially–have the kids change clothing directly after school–especially if there is a BB problem in your area–but have them do it in a place where you can either wash the kids down and then spray the area with some of the more popular fabric type bb control measures without making a total mess.
P.S. Make it fun for the kids! Like a summer squirt with the hose on a hot day kind of a thing. I know it’s more work but this might be one of the best ways to keep the bb’s from overtaking your whole apartment/house–should you unfortunately wind up getting them.
Am I on overkill–No. BB’s are parasites and they live soley on blood, perferrably human.
You see–BB’s are so small and remain so for the first few weeks of life they are really more like little specks of either clear or brownish dirt or dust. All “Little brown dots” are suspect to being a BB–these days–no matter where you live!
The little bb-bugger’s love to attach themselves to clothes, so love your kids and wash their clothing better than you might normally have in the past.

I just added a paragraph updating the story (at the bottom) to include links to the other times we’ve discussed this issue in December, January, and February. One of the previous articles (perhaps the Daily News one) stated that schools in at least one district were now notifying parents in general, because the PTA had forced them to (I’m paraphrasing because I can’t find the source article.) That’s progress, but more needs to be made.

Parents and teachers are fighting this, especially teachers (who are the ones most fully aware of the idiotic policy), but I am sure the general ignorance about bed bugs is a big part of the problem. People don’t get that bed bugs are not like lice, so they are listening to what they’re told (that bed bugs belong to the person they’re found on). Education is the problem (ironically!) and we absolutely need public education campaigns on every bus shelter, in the newspapers, and on every TV, educating people about how easily bed bugs spread, how rooms and buildings, (not beds, not people), are infested. And about how to avoid them–especially not picking up or buying secondhand furniture, and also not trying to move away from your untreated bed bug problem. And much, much more, obviously.

I know that with summer on the horizon and warm weather just around the corner, NYC officials are going to get a huge dose of reality. Fast. Come fall, this will no longer only be a matter of bedbugger outrage. I’ll put money on that.

Jess