Stop everything you're doing and go find something that has a label stuck on it. Because I'm going to show you a tip (that I thought I invented but probably didn't) on how to easily remove a label from almost anything.
Hello lovely black glass receptacle that would be a perfect little vase! How are you?! Oh you're feeling stuck are you? Doomed to the life of being a Grey Suede scented candle when in fact you lost that job ages ago in a fire.
Don't you worry. You're more than a candle holder. You could be anything! You just need to get rid of all the labels other people put on you.
I don't know if you heard, but I had hundreds of vases mysteriously disappear earlier this year.
- Heat the label with a hairdryer being careful not to heat the glass up so much that it cracks.
- After 1 minute or so, test the label. It should pull off with no resistance. If it doesn't, heat it a bit more.
- Peel the label off.
That's it. You're done. WOW. Wait. Holddddd on. There's still sticky residue? Ug.
The odd time when you remove a label it will leave residue. This normally doesn't happen BUT if it does:
- Tap the sticky part of the label you removed against the residue to pull it up.
- Rub the area with a cotton ball dipped in olive oil (or any food oil.)
How to Remove Stickers
How to remove the most STUCK of stickers with a hairdryer.
Materials
- Cottonball
- any edible oil
Tools
- Hairdryer
Instructions
- Set your hairdryer to medium or high, point it at the sticker and heat the sticker up.
- Careful not to let the glass get so hot that it cracks.
- Pull off the sticker!
Notes
Most stickers won't require the extra steps I've outlined below, but a few will:
If some goo remains use the sticker like a lint brush to remove the residue.
If there's *still* something sticky left, it'll come off if you rub it with a cottonball dipped in olive, avocado or any vegetable oil.
And in video format!
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Now you're ready to be whatever you want without any external labels.
But I'm telling you right now, you're gonna be a vase.
Tried the hairdryer on a jar of marinara.. It didn't work. What did I do wrong???
Hi Camille. I don't think you did anything wrong. :) I suspect it's a different kind of adhesive used for food jars (but I'm just guessing). Those normally come off easily with water. Either that, or you perhaps didn't keep the dryer on the sticker for long enough to heat up the adhesive. Hope that helps. ~ karen!
For some extra cool kudos: when your freshly washed dog rolls in pine tar (or it gets on your car, thank you Spring) use olive oil to soften it and it wipes right off the dog. And the car.
Oh dear. Ohhhh dear. The worst Philip has rolled in his horse manure. Repeatedly. It's not pleasant. ~ karen!
It’s a terrible thing when your dog sticks to the floor. And to the bed sheets. And to you…
But isn't getting wax residue out of the container even harder? Oh well, I'm set for a vase purge myself.
In the meantime, I'm hoping you'll post the promised followups to how you organized your house ... unless I've missed1
Hi Leslie! You didn't miss anything and I'm just about to start work on the first post. Organizing has hugely improved my life. HUGELY. ~ karen!
Hairdryer handy and so much easier than trying to dry scrape the stickers off! Thank you very much.
A great reminder - especially to use an oil to remove the sticky gunk. I 'think' I recall reading somewhere that WD-40 helped to remove sticky goo? I'll have to give both methods a try. Thanks for sharing the sage counsel.
I love this tip. I usually go straight to the chemicals and it's messy and drippy to try to peel off bit by bit. Using the the hairdryer as the first step would make the process much easier. And your comment "when in fact you lost that job ages ago in a fire" made me snort. If was drinking milk it would have come out my nose. :)
I had a big price sticker on an outdoor light shade. Couldn't get it off. A friend suggested ''Doom", which is a bug repellant spray here, you obviously have the same there, with maybe a different name. It worked immediately! But my inquisitive brain is wondering who thought of this...!? Probably not so great for food receptacles though, so I'll definitely try your method for those, thanks!
If the oil by itself doesn’t remove the residue, you can add a little baking soda and scrub. Almost never doesn’t work! (and, yes, I meant the double negative)
Agreed - works as well as Goo Gone.
Hairdryer could soften plastic. Residue of glue is easily removed with liquid citron.
I use a cotton ball saturated with lighter fluid and it works like a charm - doesn’t harm surfaces.
I always use lighter fluid soaked Cotton ball to remove gooey stuff - it doesn’t harm surfaces and works better than anything else I used to use.
I just saw this remedy the other day when I was looking for answers online! Any ideas on how to remove the sticky guck left behind after pulling contact paper off the inside of a wooden drawer, so the wood is either clean, or at least paintable?
I’ve used this hair dryer technique to remove glued on name tag labels from clothing. Again heat for short periods of time and not for too long.
I use glass jars for food storage. Will try hairdryer method. For stubborn glue I add a bit of baking soda to veg oil to make a gritty paste and it helps. Of course, use discretion on anything with a painted finish.
I didn’t see this one before I posted the same baking soda suggestion! Great minds, and all that :)
Another tip I recently learned in these days of sanitizing everything is that sanitizing wipes are also great for removing sticker residue.
That sounds kind an awesome idea too!
In these days of sanitizing everything, I've also found that sanitizing wipes remove that sticker residue easily ;)
Ordinary Turpentine will remove any of these stickers and will have no effect on any type of finish.
Just wash and dry afterwards.
How about 30 yr labels on an old mirror?
I assume the label is on the front of the mirror, in which case turps will be ok. I couldn't make a guess at removing from the mirror finish on the back.
Hi John! A hairdryer is just more accessible to most people and less smelly. ~ karen!
Good point although I myself have little use for a hairdryer.
LOL! ~ karen
My head just exploded! This is the first time I've heard this tip! Although it's 12:46am and I should be trying to sleep, I'm tempted to get up and try this out!
Thank you!
Did you try??! LOL. ~ karen!
I just fill the container with hot water until it's really warm. Peel. Done.
Just be careful to not get the label itself wet.
Fun! I'll try it! ~ karen
Yes I did and it definitely works!!! Unpeelable labels have been a pet peeve for a few decades...lol!
Wow! This is something I can use. I’m never going to plant asparagus, potatoes or strawberries (since growing anything besides my phenomenal roses, here in Fabulous Las Vegas, would take way too much effort and yield pretty much nothing.)
Stickers on glass, that I’ve got. I’m pretty much positive that you invented this removal method since I’ve never seen it until tonight and that’s good enough for me.
Well, I once thought I invented quesadillas and then found out they had in fact been invented quite a while ago, so ... lol. ~ karen!