This is a two-in-one post.
First, I’ll share the method my mother taught me for removing gum from hair and sticker residue from glass.
Spread a little peanut butter on it.
For example, these glasses I was thrilled to find at the Dollar Tree recently:
They’re HUGE. My one complaint about the glass glasses I’ve been using for over a year now is that they’re too small. As a fanatical ice-water lover, this mama likes big ol’ glasses.
So I flipped them over and did what my own mama taught me to do. I peeled the stickers off as much as I could and then slathered them with peanut butter.
And that was when the bonus happened. Oh, how hilarious my family members think they are as they walk through the kitchen and make cute little comments about what Mama is up to now.
Har-dee-har-har-har.
A few hours later, I wiped them off and was able to easily scratch off the rest of the paper with my fingernail. I then re-slathered more peanut butter on the rest of the sticky residue.
The next day, it was super easy to wipe off the rest of the glue. Then they went into the dishwasher:
Now my new favorite grown-up glasses are ready to fill with enough ice-water to last me an hour or so.
Not that I don’t have to get up more often than that, to . . . you know . . .
Do you use this trick?
I’ve never heard of this, good to know. You said it was a two in one post and said “First…” but I don’t see the Second/part two, etc. Did I miss something?
I think the second part was wiping it off to get the paper scraps then reapplying the peanut butter to the residue.
Oops! The second part was how you can convince your family you’re crazy!! (In case anyone needs help with that . . . )
Works on skin, too, as long as you aren’t allergic. My allergic daughter put stickers all over her thighs when she was about 18 months old, and when we tried to get them off, they weren’t budging. Even a warm bath didn’t work. We couldn’t use peanut butter but did use soy butter. It’s the oils in it that do it. 🙂 It’s an awesome trick.
I use a product called “pure citrus”. I found out about it from a fellow teacher while we were trying to remove name tag tape residue from desks . It is sold as an air freshener, but it is simply citrus oil in a can. It works really well (and faster than peanut butter) and there is no worry about peanut allergies. It smells good as a bonus!
No, I am not being compensated for this endorsement. Why do you ask?
For the FB commentor who asked about stickers/labels left on clothes that went through the washer and dryer: Dawn dish soap! Rub some into the mark; I used a Dobie nylon scrubbing pad and worked from the outer edges in. The rubbing will cause the glue and lint to pill and make it easier to pull off. After removing as much as you possibly can, rewash and dry the item. This solution worked with one of my son’s pajama tops, and it had been laundered and dried multiple times (by my husband) before I saw it! There is a very faint perfect circle where the sticker was located, but the ugly, black lint and glue residue circle is gone!
I use Young Living Essential Oil- Lemon!! It takes that sticky stuff right off, all Natural, smells wonderful, and is great for you!! It also will make gum in hair literally fall out! I love my oils!!
Paula
I use Vaseline for stuck-on stickers, etc. Works like a charm! You use it the same way you did the peanut butter, but it only has to sit for a minute or two and most of the residue can be scratched/wiped/scraped away after the first application. I’ve never had to do it more than twice.
I’ve used peanut butter to get gum off of clothes and out of hair, but I never thought about this. What a great idea!
I love goo gone for most purposes, but peanut butter is awesome for the things I can’t use goo gone for. 🙂
For a sticker on something like that nail polish remover and a cotton ball. No need to sit over night. Just a little rubbing depending on how much there is. Cheaper than peanut butter too!
One time I got a ton of gum in my hair at a summer day camp (thank you mean older kids). My mom was ready to take me to the salon and have it all cut out but lucky for me my grandma knew the trick with peanut butter. She made it work faster by setting me in front of the window ac and directing the air at the clumps of gum. As soon as the PB hardened the gum slid right out not pulling or scraping. I wonder if you put the glasses in the fridge if it would work faster too?
Oooh, good idea!
Wow, this is a great idea! I have used peanut butter to remove gum and tree sap, but not this. Thank you!
Thank you so much for posting about this! I bought some crazy straws for loot bags and vinegar wouldn’t make that sticky stuff budge, I even left them soaking overnight. They are now slathered in peanut butter until tomorrow, fingers crossed!
Yay! Just be sure to check that there aren’t any pb allergies among the kids who get the loot!
It worked! And definitely no allergies, thank goodness it’s just a small family party!
Yay!!
Any oil or grease will do it, but the fastest is WD-40 because it’s both an oil and a cleaning solvent. If you have WD-40 and duct tape, you can survive anything.
Nail polish remover and WD-40 for me, too 🙂 and if it’s on the body (skin or hair) – argan oil, my absolute cosmetic staple!
Any oil – vegetable, canola, sunflower, grapeseed, olive, coconut, etc. – will do the same thing. (in case you ever run out of peanut butter!)
What works for me (most of the time) is to heat up the sticker with my hair dryer. Turn your hairdryer on high, aim it at the sticker to heat up and loosen the adhesive. Figure 30 to 45 seconds? Most of the time the sticker will peel right off with no fuss! Stickers that have been on something for a long time (think years…) may require more heating, and sometimes a bit of scraping with a fingernail to remove the last bit of gummy residue.
I have used peanut butter in hair before. When my oldest daughter was about five, she managed to get hold of some gum. Fortunately, a friend knew what to do and … peanut butter to the rescue. This is the same child who, at seven years old, wanted shiny hair like she saw in commercials … so she sneaked into the Vaseline. It only took about fifty washings to get that out. Probably should have tried peanut butter. 😀
My mom used mayonaise to get gum out of hair. You could also use a hair dryer to remove the stickers. It’s a lot quicker!
Never heard of this before but genius. I love reading your posts and usually link them up to my homemaker monday series. Come check it out sometime http://www.noliesplace.com/tag/homemaker-monday/
Hi Nony! I don’t remember how old I was when I had my hair/gum incident lol. Luckily my mom knew about using peanut butter. My hair was 36 inches long and the gum was right in the middle of it all. That could’ve been a disaster haha. Thanks for letting me know about PB getting stickers/labels and glue off glass! 🙂
I soak mine in water overnight then peel off the sticker in the morning. If the sticker doesn’t come off, I get a big piece of packing tape and put the tape over the sticker and peel it off.
We needed to get the labels off over 100 baby food jars to make favors for my sisters wedding! We used equal parts baking soda and oil, (any oil; olive, vegetable, coconut) and made a paste. It works fastest if you try to get as much of the paper off first, but the friction of the baking soda really cuts through it quick!
On glassware, vinegar will take off stickers like magic. But if vinegar won’t, alcohol will. Or fingernail polish. All of them are faster than peanut butter. BUT I’ve never had to do the hair thing, so I’m sure that is a different story.
I have , however, had to get decades-old mirror adhesive stickers off of decades-old flat paint though. THAT was a chore! My house was built in 1953, and somewhere along the line someone decided that an entire wall of the master bedroom should be tiled in gold-paint-splashed mirror tiles.While my SO was out of town for a few weeks, I thought I’d surprise him by completely refinishing the bedroom, including taking down all those mirror tiles. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it without the wall needing to be replaced. Well, I did it … but getting rid of oh I’d say about 400 foam adhesive squares was quite the adventure! Some of them slid right off, but the ones that were placed on top of the robin’s egg blue flat paint that was underneath about half of them (probably paint from the early 60s, as far as I could tell) were basically welded on. I started freaking out and asking everyone how to get it off. Finally my friend’s mom had the ticket. A few people have mentioned it: hair dryer. And a plastic putty knife. It still took time and elbow grease, but they did actually come off. And now my bedroom looks fantastic. 🙂
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I know it’s been years since you wrote this, but I tried it for the first time last night. I slathered peanut butter on a jar to remove the label residue. When my husband came home, I told him to leave the jar with peanut butter on the outside alone. He just said “I don’t even want to know” and walked away. Ha!
Getting ready to remove it now, because I forgot last night. Fingers crossed it works!
My husband taught me years ago to leave the whole sticker on and run a lighter over it, just the yellow tip of the flame, until it warms up enough to slide off. I’m guessing the hairdryer is a little safer but not as much fun 😛