When sitting on a bench in a public place, you may come across chewing gum left by someone. It will eventually stick to your clothes. Attempts to tear it off are unlikely to lead to anything: either the fabric will be damaged, or dirt stuck to it will be added to the chewing gum. In any case, it is better not to delete it “on the go”. Cover the stain if possible and go home or to a place where you can change clothes as soon as possible. But now it’s time to figure out how to remove chewing gum from clothes without a trace.
Ideally, of course, it is better to immediately give the thing to the dry cleaner. There, the chewing gum stain will be treated with special solvents that will not harm even delicate and thin fabric. If there is no such possibility, then folk methods are used, which can be conditionally divided into cold, hot and others.
Cold methods
Freezing . Put the thing in a plastic bag so that the chewing gum is on top. Make sure that it does not stick to other areas of the fabric. Put the package in the freezer and leave it there for 1-2 hours. Frozen chewing gum will easily fall off by itself. If necessary, you can prick it. If there is still a dirty spot after that, then the other methods described below are already in place.
Ice treatment. If you cannot use a freezer, you can freeze the chewing gum with a piece of ice. Apply ice to the stain (you can put more ice in a plastic bag and cover the contaminated area with it), hold it like this until the chewing gum hardens. You can remove it either by hand or with a stiff brush.
Ice will perfectly help to cope with a chewing gum stain on a carpet, sofa or outer clothing.
Hot methods
Boiling water To avoid burns, perform this method of cleaning together. Boil the kettle. Next, one pours boiling water on the stain, and the other cleans the gum with a stiff brush (it is more convenient to take a toothbrush). If there is no helper, then heat water in a pan and dip part of the stained clothes into it. Boil like this for a couple of minutes, then peel off the gum with a sharp object.
This method is suitable only for things that can be boiled. Otherwise, the thing will either sag, sit down, or stretch.
Warm up with an iron . To remove a chewing gum stain, place a napkin or gauze on it and iron it with a heated iron on top. You can also turn the fabric over with chewing gum on cardboard and iron it so that the dirt remains on the paper.
Hairdryer . You can use a hair dryer to warm up the dried gum. After that, it can be easily scraped from the fabric.
Keep in mind that options with heating with a hair dryer or an iron are not completely effective, since only part of the stain is removed, and the remains remain on the clothes. Then it will be necessary to unlock the thing.
Remove the chewing gum stain
Hot and cold methods often only help to remove the main part of the chewing gum, but the place where it was attached remains dirty due to stains that have eaten into the fabric. The method of removal depends on the type of fabric. We will consider all options, and you will already choose the appropriate one.
Normal wash
Before proceeding with radical methods, simply wash the clothes. First, wash the stain by hand using a stain remover, dishwashing liquid, dish soap, or laundry detergent. Wash the cleaned item as usual. If dirt remains, then try other methods.
Special spray
In search of a tool that will remove chewing gum from pants when there is no time to wash, you can visit a hardware store and purchase a special spray for removing chewing gum. It is enough to apply it to the contaminated area, wait the time specified in the instructions and remove the dirt with a brush or the blunt side of a knife. Note that this tool is not suitable for all fabrics.
Read the instructions carefully!
Vinegar
Use vinegar to remove chewing gum stains from denim. Treat the contaminated area with a stiff brush dipped in heated vinegar. It is imperative that it be warm, if it has cooled, and the chewing gum is in place, then reheat and process. Then wash the jeans. How to do it is described in this article .
Chewing gum
As strange as it sounds, one of the effective ways to get chewing gum out of your pants is to stick it out with another chewing gum. Chew it, stick it to the dirty area and roll well. If everything is done quickly, the contamination will completely stick to the “fresh” chewing gum.
Acetone, nail polish remover
Treat the area with the chewing gum with acetone until the stain is gone. Then wash the item.
If you need to clean outerwear, use a nail polish remover that does not contain acetone. This method is also suitable for furniture and carpets. Read about carpet washing here .