Do You Need to Throw Clothes Away in Newham?

Clothes are not where bedbugs live. They hide in the bed, the frame, the furniture and the edges of the room, and come out to feed. Clothes left on the floor, on a chair or on the bed can pick them up and carry them, which is why they need dealing with, but cleaning them properly is enough.

Washing and Drying

Heat is what kills bedbugs on fabric, not the detergent. A hot wash followed by a hot tumble dry deals with bugs and eggs in anything the labels allow.

1. Bag the clothes in the room they came from, before you carry them anywhere.
2. Take the bag to the machine and tip it straight in; put the empty bag in an outside bin.
3. Wash on the hottest setting the label allows.
4. Dry on a hot tumble dryer cycle where the fabric can take it.
5. Put the clean clothes into fresh bags and seal them.

Some items cannot be washed hot but can go in the dryer, and a hot dry on its own is useful for those. A cool eco wash on its own may not kill anything, so for this job the heat setting matters more than usual.

Storing Clean Clothes Until Treatment Is Finished

Clean clothes put back in an untreated wardrobe or drawer can be reinfested. Keep them in sealed bags or plastic boxes with lids until the treatment is complete, taking out what you need each day. Keep the bags off the bed and away from the edges of the room.

Before a chemical visit, floors need to be clear and wardrobes may be treated, so bagged clothes are also easier for us to work around. Before heat, ask us whether clothes should stay in the room to be heated with it, which often suits bulky items. The London guide on preparing for heat treatment sets out the room.

The Awkward Items

• Delicates and dry-clean-only: bag and seal them, and take them to a dry cleaner in the sealed bag, telling them why.
• Shoes: check inside and along the seams, and put fabric trainers through the dryer if the maker allows it.
• Coats and heavy jackets: a hot dryer cycle often works where washing would not; otherwise bag them and ask about heat treatment.
• Formal, ceremonial and embroidered clothing: do not risk a hot wash. Bag them and tell us about them, because heat in the room is often the gentler route.
• School uniforms and work clothes: wash and dry them every night during treatment so nothing travels to school or work.

If customers’ clothes come into your home for alterations, that is a different situation, covered on the East Ham page.

In a Home With a Lot of Washing

Where many people live, the washing machine becomes the bottleneck. Do one room at a time and keep that room’s bags labelled, so clean clothes do not end up folded on the bed of a room that has not been done. A launderette with big dryers can take the pressure off; carry the clothes there in sealed bags and put the bags in the bin on the way out.

Do not move clothes from an affected bedroom into another bedroom for storage. That is one of the easiest ways to spread them round a house, as the Newham borough page explains.

When Throwing Something Away Makes Sense

Rarely. Something already worn out, or heavily soiled and not worth washing, can go. Seal it in a bag first, tie it, and take it straight to an outside bin rather than leaving it in a hallway or a communal area.

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