Household Quickie: Sticker Residue Removal

If you're anything like me, then you tend to re-use things, most times until they pretty much disintegrate from usage.

I'm also a crafter, and I make glycerin and gelatin products as well, so I'm always on the lookout for bottles, bottles that won't cost me a fortune (I like to pay about $1 per bottle; I found a great deal on bottles at my local dollar store, Mighty Dollar, and cleaned them out. Sadly, they've never re-stocked.).

And so I came upon the idea, after much consideration, of going back to the Mighty Dollar, or even Wal-Mart (because their brand costs right around 88 cents), buy new bottles of hand soap, dump the soap into the big refill bottle in my cabinet, and use *those* bottles for my soap and lotion products.

The down side to this is, the Wal-Mart bottles come with some pretty labels that leave a hideously sticky residue on them.

This is the bottle in question, except I used clear. It's a personal preference; so long as the bottle is 6 ounces or 7.5 (I like the 7.5 better; it gives you a little extra space to replace the pump without having it spill out everywhere) you got the right kind.

Anyway, after peeling the label off, there was a lot of sticky left behind, and I found that acetone-containing nail polish remover is a perfect little household helper. I used Studio 35 Polish Remover, but as long as it's nail polish remover, preferably with acetone, it'll work.

Use a cotton ball or a paper towel dipped in the nail polish remover, and you'll find that the sticky residue comes right off, and leaves you with a nice, clean, re-useable bottle suitable for gift baskets. It's the perfect size, because most bottles you purchase specifically for soap- or gelatin-making are 6 ounce bottles, sometimes 3 ounce if you purchase a travel size for smaller bags or baskets, so this is a cheaper alternative, plus you get the bonus of having extra hand soap to use around the house while NOT shelling out an arm and a leg for pretty bottles.