I'm in the process of helping my friend plan her young son's birthday party (it's a Toy Story theme) and one of the games we are planning is lasso toss over glass jars filled with candy.
My friend and I have been collecting jars and decided we had enough jars and had to get started on the removal of the labels.
'Piece of cake', I thought. 'I will just soak these bad boys for a bit under hot water and the labels should come off with ease' ....Not quite!
Sure, the labels came off with a little scraping here and there but the glue residue remained on the jars.
I remember my sister telling me about this super glue removal liquid called Goo Gone. My sister is an organic kinda gal and I wondered if she still used this 'toxic' liquid (there is after all a picture of a skull right on the front of the bottle).
I read the instructions and got as far as one jar when I remembered the use for these jars are to hold candy. Well, so much for that.
Then I remembered that when I was young, my mami would always use baby oil to remove sticky glue off of things.
It turns out that mami was right (again) and that mineral oils or cooking oils are excellent natural glue removers. (Don't worry I didn't use baby oil either).
And do you remember when you got gum stuck on your hair your mom would use peanut butter? Well that also works well in removing the glue off the jars.
But if that doesn't work, take out your hair dryer, set it on its warmest setting and blow the hot air close to the glue. The glue will soften enabling you to remove it easier. I found this method worked best.
Unfortunately with all of the methods, you will still need to put in a little elbow grease.
But the results are sparkly, beautiful clear, oooey, gooey gluey free jars!
Before my little experiment....
AFTER.
Such beauty in simplicity...
If we can get this method down, imagine the world of crafts we could make using old spaghetti sauce jars?!?
ReplyDeleteI still have the goo gone...except it's in the garage where it belongs!!!
ReplyDeleteJust discovered your blog, so I'm a little late in posting this....(but love your blog!).
ReplyDeleteJust thought I would add to the suggestions....the best thing to remove glue, sticky stuff, paint, etc. is pure lemon oil. That stuff is amazing. I get mine from Young Living, so I know it is the pure stuff, not cut with other oils. But you may be able to fine other brands at health food stores. Let me tell you....it is absolutely awesome at removing just about anything. And you can ingest it carefree! It's a great germ killer, so using it on things that will hold food is absolutely no problem. Plus, it smells great!
My favorite method for removing those labels (and the one that involves the least amount of elbow grease) is to put the jar into a larger container - I have a water pitcher that allows plenty of room for the jar. Then fill the jar and pitcher with the hottest water you can get out of your sink. Let the jar soak overnight (or just until it is cool enough to handle.) The label will slide right off in the morning. Then use the scrubby side of your sponge and rub the glue off under hot water. Something about soaking it for so long makes the glue dissolve.
ReplyDeleteWe homeschool and I'm always needing clean jars for something or another!