How to Remove Labels & Sticky Residue

I’m knee-deep in birthday preparations this week, so I’ll be keeping the posts short and sweet. Today, I thought I’d share a quick and easy way I found to remove labels and sticky residue from plastic containers.

I’ve written before about how I try to reuse old containers as much as possible. So, for the birthday party, I wanted to use plastic containers to hold crayons for the kids to use. I had all the perfect containers but couldn’t get those darn labels off. They were very stubborn–the kind of stickiness that stays on your hands even after you’ve washed them.

Of course, whenever I’m trying to figure something out, Google’s always my go-to source. There was no shortage of suggestions. After reading through a few, here’s what I ended up trying which was surprisingly pretty quick and easy.

1. Soak  the container in hot soapy water overnight, then rinse and dry it off.
2. Pour nail polish remover on some cotton balls (don’t soak them too much) and wipe off the remaining residue. You may have to use a little elbow grease, but the labels and residue should slide off. (As an added bonus, the printing.)
3. Next, pour a few drops of dishwashing liquid on the conainer and spread it all over the container until you start to see suds.
4. Let the container sit for a few minutes, then soak it in hot soapy water again and dry it off. If you there’s not much residue left, a hour or so soak should be fine. Let it sit longer the more residue that’s left  (overnight, if needed) .
5. If you still have residue left, repeat the process.

If you don’t want to use nail polish removers, other suggestions of things you could use include peanut butter (I’ve actually tried this, but it’s a mess to clean up), WD-40, vegetable oil, Goo Gone and laundry detergent.

What’s your suggestion for removing labels or sticky residue?