My children get stickers all the time- from school, from stores, from dance class… they love them. I don’t mind stickers either except on occasion when they are left on clothing and then laundered. Does that ever happen to you?
You get this yucky gummy sticker residue that is very difficult to get off clothes.
So here is a very quick and easy tip to remove that residue and have your children’s clothing good as new!
Take the article of clothing and lay it flat. Gently squeeze regular dish soap onto the sticky mess. I used Seventh Generation but any soap should be fine. Try not to squeeze too much- just a drop (it foams up and can be hard to see the stain.) If you do use too much just dab it away with a towel- no biggie.
Usually the blue Dawn dish soap is considered magic stuff when it comes to DIY cleaners so that is a great one to buy.
Let the soap sit on the spot for about 10-15 minutes. Now you want to take a butter knife or a credit card and gently scrape. All the gummy stuff should come right off in a few seconds.
Now you can launder as usual and your clothing should look much better!
If you notice a tiny bit of residue left from a particularly stubborn sticker, one last little step to try is heating up your iron or I use the flatiron for my hair. Put a paper towel in between the flatiron (or iron) and the shirt and get it hot for just a second or two. Pull the iron and paper towel off and hopefully you will have some larger bits that you can just sort of scratch off with your fingernail.
Viola!
If you try this out please come back and let me know if it worked for you!
And if you want some more easy and quick little DIY cleaners or tips, check out my Pinterest board!
Amazing! Can’t wait to try this! This happens to my kids’ clothes more than I can say.
Wow! I can’t wait to try this! I have a bunch of clothes I love but thought were ruined.
Have you tried the Dawn Platinum yet? I found some small sizes at Dollar Tree in the silver bottle, and really love it. It has a nice scent, and the suds seem thicker than regular Dawn.
No I haven’t Jane but I will look for it!
I had a pair of pants with a sticker on that went through the washer and dryer. I just used the blue dawn for 15 minutes. I then used a butter knife to scrape off the residue. It worked great! Thank you!
I used Dawn with Oxi-clean and the sticker residue came off as I was rubbing the soap in!! Thank you for the tip, it saved my daughter’s shirt that had only been worn twice!
So glad Jillian!
Trying this tonight on my daughter’s school hoodie. She left a huge sticker on it! Ps- we have been making your Cilantro Lime Guacamole and love it!
Oh man Jessie that stuff is so good! I hope your sticker comes off. Another person said she mixed it with OxiClean too if you have any trouble.
I just use Goo Gone when this happens! Safe for clothing & works great for sticker residue removal. 🙂
Great tip Gina! Doesn’t that stuff have a lot of chemicals and a really really strong odor? I remember one from years ago that would knock you out from the smell. Maybe it has changed though?
Thank you! Absolutely, wonderful! Do you know if this would work on chewing gum as well?
I have a cute 4th of July placemat to try this on. I was wondering what I was going to do with it! Thank you!
Worked perfectly to save my daughters shirt this morning! I was even able to rinse the dish soap out in the sink and run it thru the dryer so that she could wear it today! Thanks!
Yeah! Glad to hear it 🙂
My daughter left a sticker on a favorite t-shirt and I washed it! She wanted to wear it tonight to a baseball game. I tried blue dawn liquid dish soap. I let it sit for 15 min and scraped it with a credit card. Five min later all of the residual glue and paper were gone. So happy this worked!
Yeah! I am glad too. No more stickers 😉
Thank you so much! This worked like a charm!
Whoo hoo! Happy to hear it!
I did try this on a brand new hoodie that had gone thru the wash and dryer!! I am so thrilled to say it worked and there is no telltale sign of the sticker residue.
Thank you so much.
Happy to hear that Mary Jo 🙂
Do you know if this would work on a leather coat? Or any tips for getting sticker residue off a leather coat? Thanks!
I haven’t tried it on leather Nikki. I would try a little soap on a corner of the coat that isn’t terribly noticeable and see what happens. If it doesn’t appear to damage the leather you can always give it a shot. 🙂
I tried this (with Blue Dawn), on my little one’s brand new shirt. She had gotten a large sticker at a store, and I had accidentally washed it. I was about to throw it away before seeing this post. Thank you!!! It looks perfect!
So happy to hear that Heather!
The flat iron method works great, I have one of my favorite grey zombie tees n my grand son put a big happy face sticker on it n I got washed n dried 2X I thought I was ruined but I read about the flat iron method n it worked! just don’t keep it on area to long may scorch area, almost happened to me !
So I had just bought a new pair of black jeans and the sticker on the leg left nasty white residue. Befor I took them back I thought I would give this a try. It was magical! I used Dawn as well (didn’t have blue) but rubbed soap in and let it set probably 3-4 minutes. Then I started to rub and use my fingernail and voila it can off in a flash. Thrilled.
So happy to hear that 🙂
This did work! And saved one of my favorite shirts! Thank you!
I used the Green Dawn Dish soap and left it on the sticker residue for about 20 minutes. The sticker stuff had been on the shirt for a couple months (kept forgetting to work on it!). It was a flannel kind of shirt. Worked great!
Whoo hoo!
Just used this to save my husband’s two new shirts from LLBean. He didn’t see the stickers and thought they were ruined. The sticky residue started to come off as I was rubbing the Dawn into the shirts. Butter knife cleaned up the mess in about a minute. Thanks!!
Whoo hoo!
Awesome! Washed a new t-shirt with a sticker. I think it looked like part of the design on the t-shirt so I didn’t notice it. Put some Dawn (my favorite dish soap) let it sit. The glue came off but there seemed to be a thin white film. Added more Dawn and it came off! Was worried a butter knife might damage the soft t-shirt material so used my fingernail.
Dish soap also is my go to for treating any oily stain before washing.
So happy to hear it Char!
dawn and a butter knife worked great!!!!!!! thank you so much
Whoot Whoot!
AMAZING!!! It worked!! Dawn soak for 15 mins, scraped off with credit card!!!
So happy it worked for you!
This worked!
Whoo hoo!
It looks like this worked!!! Thank you so much!
I tried it on one of my daughters favorite shirts and it totally worked!!! Thank you so much!
Yeah! Happy to hear that Ilia 🙂
I just tried it on a shirt made out of recycled plastic bottles and it WORKED!! 🙂 I was worried that the unique material of the shirt would make it impossible to get the goo off, but thanks to your advise, good old blue Dawn, and a trusty butter knife it’s like new. Thank you so much!!
Yeah! So happy Marie!
Worked so great, thank you. I dropped Dawn on stain and waited 15 minutes and scraped it all out in seconds with a butter knife, magical.
Whoo hoo!
Question: Do you put JUST the Dawn by itself (no water) directly on the residue? Then rub it in? Thanks!
It worked on my daughter’s shirt, thank you so much! It was a Croatia soccer jersey from the World Cup and she was so happy that we could salvage it after it was washed with a sticker. I wish I had known this trick years ago!