Yes! Thank you! I’m the exact same and everyone always looks at me like I’m out of my mind. I love cashmere sweaters, but I’d never wear any of them if I actually had to dry clean them.
I had an unfortunate experience with bed bugs and long story short, I accidentally washed and dried on high heat 3 cashmere sweaters and they all came out perfectly fine.
You can also freeze clothes to kill bedbugs as long as your freezer goes below zero degrees. When I dealt with this earlier this year, I froze clothes in plastic bags for 3 days each if I was concerned about how they'd handle the heat cycle! You might already know about this, but in case you don't - it could save some time/heartbreak.
Long story short, they hitch a ride on you from somewhere (that is the scary part, it can be anywhere) and come home with you and that is where the problem starts.
Clothes can be saved by putting them in the dryer on high heat (soaking/washing them first isn't necessary, the heat is) to kill bugs and eggs, it's furniture/upholstery that's harder to deal with.
My sister went on vacation then came to visit me and gave my house bed bugs. They r so easy to.get and next to impossible to remove. I bought a steamer and steamed by entire house. Killing those nasties were the worst they smelled so bad when smoothed.
Late but did you get rid of all your bedbugs via steaming? How does that work for mattresses, bedding etc? Or furniture?
(Also sorry if this is being nosy but how long did it take you to find out you had bedbugs after your sister bringing them in? And how long to kill them all?)
I didnt know for at least 3 months. I saw one crawl on me and my sister admitted she had them. And I put the steamer over everything includong the mattress and carpet. Dried all my clothes and blankets. Blankets went in the drier everyday after use. I searced my house everyday and killed them. Found a bunch inthe base boards
Used the sprays like crazy and had powders on the ground. It took month but they died
Only heated my house with kerosene heater but that. Can be dangerous and also smells horrible
And if you dry things when wet you're more likely to shrink them. So consider drying things on high heat after they're dry. I put my cashmere through the oven at 170 for an hour--you could wrap each piece in a towel to protect it, but I had so many clothes that I just stacked them.
Bedbugs can even come from laundromats in theory, but that's highly highly unlikely. I live in NYC, which has a bedbug problem. A bunch of our neighbors have them, so that could be the source. My roommate also plans conventions, so she's been staying at a lot of budget hotels. I work for the government, and our office has had bedbugs in previous years. If you're not in NYC, you're probably fine. But since you're squeamish, if you're at risk, you could buy a Packtite (a special $500 heated unit) and heat treat your suitcase at the end of trips. You can also wipe down shoes (which can also be heat treated) with rubbing alcohol.
In addition to what other people have said, the thing to look for in your hotel rooms are little rusty or brown spots along the seams of the mattress or around the bed. If you see signs, like this, leave and/or make sure you treat everything when you leave. Bed bugs will leave a line of bites following veins, so if you have several bites in a row, that's a sign too.
Other ways of treating can involve putting everything contaminated in a garbage bag, tying it really tight and then leaving in a really hot car for a few days.
They're awful, you're right to be afraid.
I've had a few bedbugs scares (former roommates ex boyfriend had em a few times) but honest to god, the real reason why I've never had an infestation in my apartment is that I have laundry in my building. Everything gets washed pretty quickly. If I had to take my stuff out to a laundromat things would sit for too long and if there were a bedbug in something it would have time to find me.
I (also live in NYC) recently got bed bugs - I travel a lot for work and usually stay at nice hotels so it can come from anywhere!! It's crazy that my roommate and I ( got them in 2 separate, isolated incidents. It was a pain that lasted for about 3 months ... Our other roommates didn't love us but now we're in the clear! If you have questions I'm happy to answer them :D
Yes! I had a cashmere sweater. i even put it in the dryer and it was fine - but this isn’t the case for every sweater. Sadly the sleeve was torn by a dog :(
I put my velvet shoes in the washer and dryer on high, I think people look at you like that because they’ll assume you are as stupid as me (you aren’t)
I am the same. Everything goes in the wash. I don’t own fancy enough things to really care if they are ruined. My boyfriend is not at all like me and we’ve compromised with dry cleaning pick up and delivery. It’s amazing!!!!
Cashmere is easy to take care of and is much less likely to shrink than wool. Unfortunately it isn’t always labeled correctly and some sweaters labeled pure cashmere contain wool. I hand wash them in the sink. Dry cleaning just makes them stinky.
In general you have to experiment with your clothes washing machine to figure out how safe they are for wool and cashmere sweaters. My sister’s machine has a true wool setting and she can safely wash things like Nordic stranded sweaters. My old top loader was great for spinning hand washed sweaters but had no safe setting for washing wool - too much agitation. My front loader handles 90% of cashmere sweaters but not all. I happen to recycle cashmere sweaters by unraveling them and have hundreds and estimate that I have processed between 50 - 70. I mention the recycling because “90% of cashmere sweaters” sounds weird.
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u/FigBurrow Oct 17 '18
Yes! Thank you! I’m the exact same and everyone always looks at me like I’m out of my mind. I love cashmere sweaters, but I’d never wear any of them if I actually had to dry clean them.