Chewing gum, a tasty square of minty freshness. Also a nightmare if it gets itself entwined in your fabrics or carpet. It can be extremely difficult to remove from all surfaces, even hard surfaces. Don’t worry though we have the solution. Premium Clean can help guide you through the process of removing this sticky mess. Now a few items that you might already have lying around the house can be very useful for removing chewing gum some of the following:
Peanut butter
Wd40
Cubed ice
Olive oil
Eucalyptus oil
Method 1: The most commonly used method is Cubed ice, this method works best on chewing gum that has just been fused with the fabric, not so much if it has been fused deeply into the fabric’s fibbers.
You simply grab 4 or 5 cubes of ice and place them in a zip lock bag or wrap them in some kitchen roll. You need to hold this on the piece of gum until the gum is completely frozen. It is important that it is completely frozen, not just cold. Once completely frozen you can then take a butter knife and start to scrape the gum away from the fabrics fibbers. The chewing gum should start to peel away leaving little to no residue behind. If any large pieces of residue is left repeat the process as many times as required to completely remove all large fragments of the gum.
You may have some light residue left that can then be removed using a soapy cloth. Ensure to rinse the soap away from the area with a clean cloth once finished and allow it to dry naturally.
Method 2: Now unless most families will have a jar of peanut butter in their cupboards, believe it or not peanut butter can be very useful when removing chewing gum from fabrics, the natural oils in the peanut butter help to dissolve chewing gum from all fabrics. We would suggest teaming the ice cube method with this one, it just allows you to remove large pieces with the ice cubes first then focusing on the smaller parts using the peanut butter. However this method can be used on its own also.
To begin, apply a liberal amount of peanut butter to the chewing gum, approximately the same size as the piece of gum. Using your fingers start to rub the peanut butter into the chewing gum. Next use a butter knife or a plastic putty knife to gently begin scraping the gum up and away from the fibbers of the fabric, the natural oils will have loosened the chewing gums grip and it should all lift away with minimal effort. Again if any residue is left repeat the process. Once you’re happy with the removal, apply some soapy water to the area to remove any leftover oils in front of the peanut butter.
Method 3: Not as common as the other two items however many of you may have this item hiding in the shed or garage, Wd40 is another great item to remove chewing gum. Surprisingly i would say that this is the easiest thing to use to remove chewing gum from fabrics and carpets, the Wd40 also usually comes equipped with a handy straw. This allows you to spray it onto the exact area that you need with great accuracy. You can even get the straw under the gum helping to speed up the process. All you need to do is spray the chewing gum with the Wd40 and wait for a few minutes. Once a short time has passed you will be able to use your fingers to pull the chewing gum away from the fibbers. Once you are happy and have removed the chewing gum you can just wipe over the area with a soapy cloth to remove any remaining residue, this will also help keep your fabrics smelling fresh.