Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Household Hints #538

Unsightly sticky labels on your warehouse sale finds, of the sort that tear your cover if you try to peel 'em off?



A few drops of lighter fuel ...

... and your book's as good as new!

13 comments:

Chet said...

Apparently, WD40 works, too. And probably eucalyptus oil which also smells nice. We used to put eucalyptus oil on skin that had leftover stickiness after plasters had been peeled off.

DrKong said...

Hello Sharon, I'm new and a book lover too. Nice tips you give us there. And I agreed with Chet; using eucalyptus oil will remove the sticky label.

Anonymous said...

Oh gosh, I don't bother anymore! But when I did, I think I peeled, used the sticker to stick the crumbs up. Didn't want oil of any sort on my books because I'd probably spill the lot everywhere else!

Abdullah Mohd Nawi said...

Do u put it on before or after u peeled the sticker off?

Chet said...

For the eucalytus oil, it's after, to get rid of the stickiness.

For the lighter fluid, I think you apply it to the edge of the sticker when it's still on the book and the edge will lift off and you keep applying the fluid until the whole sticker is off.

bibliobibuli said...

i haven't tried eucalptus oil but have a big bottle of it in my drawer. put if it can only be applied after you've taken off the label it wouldn't be any use on this kind of extra-toughy label (the whole point of which is to stop you selling on the book!). do note too that eucalyptus oil is a poison, so if you do use it wash your hands after!

lobo - you apply it drop by drop until the label is wet, let it soak in, and then just peel!

gette - even if you do spill a bit it doesn't seem to do much harm

bibliobibuli said...

experiment concluded. lighter fuel very much better. eucalyptus oil is messier and the label doesn't remove so easily. (had to scratch the rest off with my fingernails) but it is good with any residual gummy bits.

Chet said...

Yes, eucalyptus oil is better for getting the stickiness out.

I found out on Wikipedia that eucalyptus oil is also highly flammable! And there I thought it was safer to use than lighter fluid.

synical said...

Thanks for the tip.

Can't be bothered to buy lighter fluid for this particular purpose.

I've also seen sticker remover fluid in Kino, but.. a) Instructions are in Japanese, and b) it costs a bomb.

Though I've seen lighter fluid used for wiping computer screens, and when I got my laptop skin fixed at Digital Mall... though I digress.

bibliobibuli said...

didn't know you can buy special sticker removal fluid. it is probably exactly the same stuff as lighter fuel. (which isn't expensive - a can big enough for a lifetime's unsticking cost less that RM20)

and since i had my zippo can right next to me, i used it to clean my mucky computer screen - and that worked too. is this a miracle fluid?

Anonymous said...

HAHA! Thought I'm the only fusspot who bothers about sticky labels on my book covers!

Paul
http://bedstory.blogspot.com

Abdullah Mohd Nawi said...

Done, and duly noted... Cheers Sharon & Chet :)

Alice said...

Thanks, Sharon! That's a nifty trick. I shall try it on all my warehouse sale books. Cheers!