I will be picking up a sectional tomorrow. It will be used for the family room in my basement so it will get a lot of use. Just wondering if I should just Febreeze/Lysol it or do something more extensive.

Experiences of what you've done is appreciated!!

Depending on the value of the piece (and season) I might cover it with plastic and deliberately expose it to solar-heated high temps, or let it stay outside in a covered area to freeze for a couple of days.

The risk of bringing bed bugs into my house is too much for me to even consider using upholstered pieces w/o stripping them.

L.

Temps in my area (Washington, DC) probably aren't cold enough to freeze any possible bed bugs.

Re: the upholstery & padding. Will drying in very high temps work? This is a patterned sectional, so it will be impossible to find the "match" for the pillows & cushions.

Is there anything I can check on the sectional itself that reveal signs of bedbugs?

I know you didn't expect a conversation on bed bugs but
to ease your mind bring it home wrapped to the garage and
call an exterminator to give it a once over.

Smells and such are another story. I've bought a lot of upholstered pieces on CL and at thrift stores and got burned once, with a sofa that had a smell that just wouldn't go away (I smelled it in the store but thought it was just the thrift store background smell that I was smelling). I febreezed it, set it in the sun, put dryer sheets in the cushions -- NOTHING got rid of that smell so I eventually got rid of the sofa.

Now I make sure that any upholstered piece I buy passes the whiff test. I also size up the people and the house where it's coming from - if it's a gross looking house or the furniture looks like it's had a hard life, I pass on the furniture. But in the past 2 years, I've bought 2 sofas, a big sectional, and a chair from CL without a problem or any bugs. All of the pieces came from spotlessly clean houses, look brand new and cost about a tenth of what I would have paid for them new so I have only positive things to say about buying upholstered stuff on CL.

And re: the bedbug paranoia -- just because you buy something new doesn't mean it can't also have cooties -- most new furniture is shipped over from foreign countries in shipping containers that can harbor bugs. And there was a big stink on the news lately about new mattresses picking up bedbugs on the delivery truck (because its the same truck they use to haul away old mattresses and they often have old mattresses and new mattresses on the truck at the same time as they make all the deliveries/haulaways for that day.) Bedbugs skeeve me out to no end (I make my dh strip and leave his luggage and clothes outside when he gets back from business trips to cities that are known to have a bedbug issue in their hotels) but if you obsess about it enough, you'll be afraid to go anywhere or buy anything, so at some point, you just have to roll the dice and hope for the best.

We bought a vintage sofa from an estate auction, and it just needed some airing out since it was in a closed up home after the owner passed away. She ordered this sofa new in the late 50's when the house was built, and it had never left the home. Not concerned about bed bugs.

The furniture we have bought has always been from nice houses, and a quick examination of the welts, lower creases and crevices, same as I do to the mattress in a hotel, has been good enough for me. No problems and we've furnished both kids apartments and bought stuff for our home too.

I have a really sensitive nose and if the seller's house smells at all, I won't buy the furniture.