these are the big ugly kind, white and brown colored about 1/5" long.
I don't have a lot of them, actually I've only seen a few, BUT THEY
SCARE THE **** OUT OF THE KIDS. I've  looked around for "products"
(what? traps, seem better than sprays) i suspect they "originate" in
the laundry room. whose got an answer for me?

Hello there

Well, I went to the best source I could think of, Ohio State
University.  (OK - so I'm biased)

The first thing that intrigued me is that you have seafood living in
your basement.  "Centipedes, related to lobsters, crayfish and shrimp,
require moist habitats and areas of high humidity. It is important to
keep the house and outside area as dry as possible."

You may want to think twice before you get rid of them. 
"...Centipedes prey on insects, spiders and other small animals, being
considered beneficial to humans...The house centipede runs swiftly
when disturbed and can climb walls easily. Some are found around sump
pumps in basements or bathrooms and other humid, dark hiding places
where they are most active at night. They usually occur in small
numbers and, in spite of their fearful appearance, they are considered
harmless to humans."

However, according to OSU, they way to get rid of them is with
insecticides.  Traps were not mentioned.

Now I can either quote the whole article (which is impractical, not to
mention being against policy) or paraphrase it (which is a good way to
lose the original meaning).

So what I'm going to do is simply send you to the article: Centipedes,
HYG-2067-94 - http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2067.html

Now after you have read through all that (not too much really) and
learn about all the insecticides, you will notice one mentioned sort
of in passing that works quite well and is safe.  I think you were
asking about the "trap" because of safety factors.

The one mentioned in passing is plain old boric acid.  It is harmeless
to kids and pets and in fact in a diluted form even makes a good eye
wash.

When I lived in LA, I was in an older building which had cockroaches,
centipedes and silverfish; three things which simply are a fact of
life in warmer climates.

I also had cats and would not use anything that would harm them.  I
bought boric acid powder, spread it around, then swept it into the
corners with a broom so that the white dust wouldn't be an eyesore in
its own right.  It took about a week for all the crawlies to vanish. 
I remained there several more years and the problem never came back. 
The boric acid remains effective a long time and I only replaced it
once a year.

However, if I had centipedes only, without the other pests, I would
simply have left them alone.  They really are more beneficial than
not.

Quotations used above are from the same website I am sending you to.

Search - Google
Terms - centipedes

If I may clarify anything before you rate the answer, please ask.

Cheers
digsalot

You could get some geckos and put them in the basement. Geckos love to
eat centipedes. There is no accounting for taste, as they say.

..and then if you ended up with too many geckos( the little lizards if
word is unfamiliar)  getting fat and breeding fast on a  wholesome
centipede diet you could get some plain ordinary chickens which love
to feast on geckos. And then if you ended up with too many
chickens...you could get some.....

Although boric acid is much safer than most insecticides, it does have
some toxicity at larger does.  See:
http://www.etimineusa.com/boric_acid_msds.htm

When I got some boric acid a few years ago (works great for ants) the
salesman told me that I didn't need to worry about pets, as dogs and
cats were smart enough to avoid any boric acid they encountered, but
if there were any babies or young children in the house, to be sure
not to put any boric acid where they could get at it.