As I mentioned a little while ago, I have become a “Pinner.” Pinterest is such a wonderful source of neat tips and tricks. One of the people I follow on Pinterest pinned something about natural cleaning solutions and that pin brought me to it’s original source, a blog called “One Good Thing By Jillee.” I have learned a lot from Jillee these past few months. Though we don’t follow the same eating plan (her cooking posts aren’t usually relevant to me), her cleaning posts, sewing posts, crafty posts, make your own bathroom products posts, etc. are nothing short of inspiring.
At the beginning of May I received a post in my inbox from Jillee explaining how to remove sticker goo. I have 30+ jars in my cabinets that need to have their stickers removed. For some reason I can’t bring myself to even recycle them because I feel like I will come-up with a way to repurpose them for gifts or storage…I have a problem…I am a hoarder of glass containers (and plastic strawberry baskets…is there a classroom in need of these???).
Jillee’s photographic evidence prompted me to give her method a try and it worked like a charm. I picked a Vegenaise Jar as my first victim.
- Peel off the paper / plastic coating (No need to be perfect here)
- Run the offending jar through the dishwasher in an attempt to get rid of some of the offending glue (I opted to just run my jar under warm water and scrub it with a scrub brush to get rid of the paper).
- Rub a thin layer of PEANUT BUTTER over all of the stickered (Is that a word?) areas.
- Leave the jar and peanut butter alone for 10-15 minutes.
- Rub off the peanut butter and use the abrasive side of a soapy sponge to scrub off the remaining sticker goo while running it under warm water
- Voila…sticker free jar!
It totally worked. I now have plans to tackle the rest of my sticker-laden jar collection. I plan on placing them in the sink to soak in warm water so the paper comes off easily and then will lube ’em all up in PB and be rid of their stickers once and for all so they are ready for whatever I can think of to repurpose them.
Here’s a public apology to all of you who have received gifts of food from me in glass jars covered in brown paper labels because I was too lazy to scrub at the sticker goo for hours. I promise it will never happen again because I now know how to tackle this problem!!!
And now I finally have a need to purchase the ultra-cheap by icky hydrogenated fat peanut butter…my jars are getting the artery-clogging peanut butter treatment because it is too hard for me to part with my beloved Organic All-Natural PB…but it was worth it for this trial.
NOTE – I also recently tried this with coconut oil and was happy with the results as well!!!
Click HERE to see Jillee’s original post.
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I am also a jar and bottle hoarder! My husband is the CLR (Chief Label Remover) in our house- can’t wait to fill him in on this tip! Thank you!
I am glad to know I am not alone in my jar hoarding 🙂
Strawberry Baskets – check with one of the Farmer’s Market vendors. They pay a lot for those and usually take any that someone offers to donate; this helps them keep costs down as well.
That’s a great idea Marleena! I will ask them when I go to Farmer’s this weekend.
First, I’m so glad I’m not the only glass jar hoarder! I knew I had a problem but it feels like group therapy or something to know I’m not the only one-haha. Second, this is so neat–I will be trying this on my own 30+ jars!
This is awesome! What a great tip! I hate leaving the sticky stuff on the jar
I am a self confessed jar and bottle collector too… can’t wait to try this. I have also had success with using WD40 and with vaseline.
Can’t wait to try this out…I use jars as iced coffee/tea cups for on the go. They don’t leak and can be tossed in my purse (which is more than I can say for those expensive Starbucks to-go cups). I also use them for leftovers and as tupperware.
Those are great ideas!
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fyi, I have also used PB to remove the residue from bumper stickers and the like.
That’s great to know…thanks for sharing!
I keep a bottle of orange oil by the sink – usually just a drop or two will get even the stickiest of glues off w/ a bit of rubbing – just drop onto the glue & rub – it will melt away.
I bet it smells amazing too!
I’m wondering if is just the oil not so much the peanut butter that helps remove the sticker because you know lighter fluid (it’s oily) and a razor remove stickers from car windows? Hm.
I was doing a little research on containers for freezing. I’m now using my hoard of glass jars to freeze beans. I make my beans from dry (time consuming) so now I make a huge batch, cool in the fridge, and then freeze in my glass jars. You have to make sure your beans are completely cold and leave a little space in the top, but it has worked so far. To thaw, I just put them in the fridge for a few hours before use. I was nervous about breakage, but I’ve been careful and have had no casualties.
It didn’t work!
Sorry Eliza…it totally worked for me.
Why send money on, and waste a food-stuff when you can just use vegetable oil? People make things so complicated. Veggie oil even removes something as awful and sticky as that fly paper glue.
To freeze safely. Cool jars & contents as suggested. Put the jars in the freezer. When it’s FROZEN, then put the tops on. Common sense.
I suppose both vegetable oil and PB are edible…it was just an interesting tactic I found to get rid of the goo.
Have a great week!