How to Remove Gum from Fabric

Children and chewing gum make a very nasty combination. Not only is chewing gum bad for the dental health of a child, but also has the habit of turning up in the most unexpected areas in your house and creating a mess. Behind the sofa, under the table, on the wall, in the hair and on the clothes, these are some of the areas where you will mostly find chewing gum sticking on. In case it is the last area, i.e. clothes or fabrics that you are worried about, we have the perfect solution for you. Make use of the tips provided in the following lines and get chewing gum out of your clothes in a jiffy.

How to Remove Gum from Fabric

Items Needed

Freezer
Ice Cubes
Blunt Knife
Toothbrush
Laundry Detergent
Plastic Bag

Instructions

Making use of your fingernails, try to remove as much gum from the fabric as possible.
After you feel that you cannot remove more gum with your nails, rub an ice cube over the area.
Alternatively, you may place the fabric, wrapped in a plastic bag, in the freezer for a couple of hours. This makes sure that the gum hardens quickly.
After two hours, remove the fabric from the freezer. Wait for a minute before you touch the ‘ice-cold’ fabric. Now, with the help of a blunt knife (you may make use of butter knife for the purpose), gently scrape the gum off the fabric.
Repeat the procedure of rubbing ice/freezing and scraping off the gum, till you feel that the fabric is totally devoid of the chewing gum.
While majority of the chewing gum would be removed by doing the above process, still some amount of gum may remain adhered to it. In such a situation, you need to soak the gum-stained fabric in kerosene for about 30 minutes. If the fabric is very delicate, test by dabbing a little amount of kerosene in the inconspicuous area of the cloth.
The last step would be to launder the cloth thoroughly, so that all the gum residues sticking to the fabric are removed. Making use of a laundry detergent, wash the fabric in your washing machine, as you usually do.

Tips

In case of delicate fabrics, you can make use of toothbrush instead of a knife.
While scraping off the gum from the fabric with the help of a blunt knife, make sure that you scrap towards the center of the stain. This would not ruin the fabric, at the same time, remove the chewing gum from the cloth efficiently.
If the chewing gum has become a tough stain, be careful while removing it from the fabric, especially when you have used the freezing method for the purpose. In this case, you should not allow the gum to thaw. This is because thawed gum would only spread the gum stain on the fabric.

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