Identifying (And Treating!) Bug Infestations On Furniture
One major way I maximize profit when flipping furniture is by finding my projects in the trash. Yep! You read that right - I hunt down furniture being thrown away on the side of the road.
Once people get past the shock of me dumpster diving, they almost always ask about bugs. “Aren’t you afraid of bed bugs??” “What about spider eggs??”
Luckily, I haven’t had issues with bed bugs on the furniture I’ve found. Spider eggs and cockroaches are fairly common, but those can easily be removed and cleaned leaving the furniture feeling brand new. I’ve done a lot of research on what to look for and how to avoid picking up an infested piece.
Bed Bugs: If you think a piece has bed bugs, do not pick it up. Once you get bed bugs, they are really hard to get rid of. If you’ve never seen bed bugs, I highly encourage you to do a quick Google search for what to look out for. As a general rule, if it’s on furniture it will look like coffee grounds. If it’s on fabric, it will look like rusty spots of blood. If you’ve already picked up a piece and noticed it has bed bugs, get rid of it ASAP. Also, wash any clothing you’ve had on when around the furniture.
Cockroaches: I know it's gross, but I’ve seen plenty of live roaches on pieces I pick up. It might seem obvious here, but kill them (and clean up any residue they might leave!) and do a deep inspection for roach eggs. If you find more than a couple, you may not want to risk an infested piece of furniture. Roach eggs look like tiny brown beans, so make sure you wipe those away and sterilize your piece. Depending on the type of furniture, something like a Clorox wipe would work!
Spiders: Probably the most common issue I run into is spider eggs, especially on older furniture. These look like white, web-like balls. Most of the time they are empty and you can just wipe them away. Be sure to have bug spray on hand in case the eggs are active and tiny spiders come out. If you see a live spider, you can brush it away, move it, or kill it. Personally, I have pretty extreme arachnophobia so killing is my first resort!
Unfortunately, some bugs and eggs you can’t see very well. To be safe, I treat all of my pieces with bug killer and give them a good wash before I start flipping. I use a combination of blowing furniture off with air, vacuuming it out, and wiping it down!
I get it, bugs aren’t fun. But you know what IS fun? Finding free furniture and making a profit. Sometimes, there are some less-than-glamorous aspects to flipping free furniture. But if it were easy, everyone would do it!
I cover bugs and other common issues in my Flip It! eCourse. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s a great place to start learning furniture flipping basics!
