Pinterest Tested: Homemade “Goo Gone”

Hi my name is Smitha and I am a jar addict. I love reusing jars… for everything from storage containers to flower vases to even incorporating them into gifts by sticking goodies inside of them. It makes me feel good for recycling (or “upcycling” as some of us like to call it), and it also saves us money. One of the first things I do while I’m upcycling a jar is to figure out how to get those pesky labels off. Sometimes you can carefully peel them, but that is rare for me. Other times you can soak them in warm/hot water and get them off with minimal scrubbing. While I recommend trying these methods first, there are other times you just need another solution because you end up with something like this, and it’s not pretty:

After searching Pinterest high and low and testing several methods, this is the one I believe works best… a homemade, natural “goo gone” recipe!

You will need just two ingredients- olive oil and baking soda:

Mix the two together in a small bowl- one part olive oil to two parts baking soda (you can also use coconut oil or vegetable oil)! Here I just used 1 tbsp olive oil and 2 tbsp baking soda, mixing to create a paste:

Apply the mixture all over the “goo” you’d like to remove, and let it sit for anywhere between a half an hour to a few hours.  

I tend to leave them for a few hours (I usually forget about them to be honest) and then I grab a metal scrubber or steel wool and go to work! The adhesive and remaining label should come right off. I also will wash it once with a sponge and dish soap to make it squeaky clean. And there you go! Beautiful and ready to be reused 🙂

Like I mentioned before, you can find my jars all over my home:

I get so many compliments on these adorable jars lined up in my pantry! They used to be filled with things like marinara sauce and coconut oil but now they store random dry items. After I clean off the label as shown above, I put on a chalkboard label and voila!!

I found these labels at the dollar store and in the dollar section at Target. Chalk pen is $2.59 after coupon from Hobby Lobby.

These former candle jars I upcycled to organize random items in a kitchen drawer:I often wrap these sauce jars with a little twine and make cute, shabby-chic flower vases:

And I think these upcycled spice jars on our drink station are adorable! The sugar containers used to look like the pumpkin spice one in the middle, until I got rid of the stubborn label with the natural goo gone trick:

Let me know if plan on trying this- I hope it saves you money and adds some charm to your home like it did for me. As always, I’d love to see pictures!

xoxo,

❤ Smitha

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