Do you have sticky labels that are hard to get off on various things in your home or permanent marker labels you want to remove? As a scrappy + resourceful mama of 2, I always save items from the end of each school year to reuse. I have stash of folders, binders, you name it + we reuse them each year as long as possible. With that said, there’s always sticky school labels from past classes + there’s always permanent marker names on various things. See below for all the tips on how to quickly + inexpensively deal with this!
SOLUTION: The star of the show on this is lemon essential oil. I just grab the largest bottle I can find at Whole Foods (their 365 brand) - we don’t need anything fancy or expensive here. Side note, you do need the essential oil (not just lemon juice) because the concentration needed to remove these stubborn things like sticky adhesives + permanent marker. I would also suggest having a wet + dry paper towel nearby + a chunk of a Mr. Clean bar for clean up after.
Adhesive sticky label: I put a few drops of lemon oil on one end only of the label. Let it soak in for about a minute + it was already peeling off on its own. I wiped it off with a wet paper towel, then dried it. Done!
Permanent marker: the method was similar - add a few drops of lemon oil to the full area you want to remove. Let it sit for a minute + then rub it off. You can see in the picture that the marker was already draining off even before I started to wipe it down. Note: depending on how long the permanent marker has been there, it will take more time if it has sat there a while. You might need to do a few rounds + a use little more elbow grease! Your Mr. Clean bar can also help break any extra stubborn areas down, but in general, the lemon oil gets the job done!
I know over the years of school we’ve save a lot of money by reusing gently used school supplies. I hope this tip will help you be able to reuse more in your home + stretch your dollar!
