The first few weeks...

Initially I thought, ok, this is going to be a lot of work but I can do this. I am very methodical and resourceful in my approach to any challenge and I will do the necessary work and be done with this thing.
Almost six months later you can probably guess that it is not quite that simple but lets start at the beginning.
First on the list was spring cleaning and re-organizing. I had lived in my apt. for 3 years so I had accumulated some items that I didn't necessarily need but couldn't bring myself to throw it out. I threw these items out. Not that my place was very cluttered to begin with but it could use a spring cleaning anyway. Now that I have a clutter free environment, the OCD cleaning will be much easier. I decided I had to throw more items out. I wiped all surfaces with bleach and water solution (50/50), mopped my floors with bleach and washed the baseboards with bleach. Ahhh, the smell of bleach-at least I know it is clean. I vacuumed mattresses, couches, cushions, pillows and every square inch of carpet. I went through our clothes and placed the ones to be thrown out in tightly sealed trash bags. I also had to place the vacuum bags in sealed trash bags immediately after vacuuming and promptly dispose of them in the dumpster. I began transportation of hoards of laundry to the local laundry mat and dry cleaners. Until this point I had never seen a bug in my apartment although I did notice their shedded skin along the baseboards behind the bed as I vacuumed. It wasn't until the exterminator came for the first time that I saw the invisible culprits. One had dropped off my daughters mattress which I had just vacuumed and I found another one climbing on my bedroom wall. I must have killed it about 20 times over by smacking it with my Doc Martin and to ensure the death of the unidentifiable carcass, I flushed it down the toilet.
This process needed to be repeated each week indefinitely.
I decided we needed to get rid of yet more items. This was just too much work.
I got rid of my daughters dresser and tore down my canopy and threw it all out.
Weeks later we were still suffering from bites.