Cleaning Solutions to Get Rid of Chewing Gum

If you have a gum attached to the sofa, either fabric or leather, you must first take into account the material of your furniture, so you can then perform the proper procedure and thus be able to remove the gum without damaging the surface. We must take into account, with what material we are facing and in what way we can handle it to successfully remove it from our surface, without affecting the structure of the sofa. The chewing gums that were made in the United States in 1870, using the sap of the trees to obtain the base of chewing gum, are now synthetic polymers. These polymers are insoluble in water and non-biodegradable. For this reason, when you wash a carpet, fabric, or any surface with water, chewing gum is not eliminated, even adding soap, much less solve the problem by putting the piece in soaking. We can also see gum stuck on a wall or on a floor outdoors and neither sun nor rain can clean it.

If this sticky substance comes in contact with the material of our precious sofa, then we must act immediately and control the area, in order not to irrigate and affect, to a lesser extent, the surface. For this, there are several techniques, either using the cold, or heat to bend the composition of the chewing gum material at our convenience. To clean chewing gum from a cloth sofa: It uses the cold technique, directly passing a piece of ice on the chewing gum, in order to generate cold to the material, which as a result will harden, to the point of becoming a kind of plastic that you can remove carefully, separating and scraping the affected surface. You can help with an unsharpened knife, taking into account that we must do it with the greatest delicacy so as not to damage the tissues.

Another choice is to generate heat, for this, there are three ways: With a dryer, at medium temperature, directly on the chewing gum, at a distance between 10 and 15 centimeters, in this way the heat will cause it to be manageable, in order to remove with the hands, preferably with gloves, the sticky material. You can also use the clothes iron to remove the chewing gum, placing paper or cardboard to cover all the gum enough, on top of it to place a piece of cloth. Now, iron on the cloth, in order to generate heat in the part where the chewing gum is, and in this way, get the chewing gum to become softer, adhere to the paper or cardboard as a patch, and then remove it.

The vinegar is usually used as part of different cleaning methods. In this case, we are going to heat the vinegar in the microwave until it is about to boil. Moisten a toothbrush inside the hot vinegar and rub on the gum stuck on the couch, if necessary, heat the vinegar again, since the effectiveness of this method is not only in the vinegar but in the heat that we generate to chewing gum, in order to make it more manageable. It is advisable to remove the remaining gum residues, which could not be removed with the methods described above.

To clean chewing gum from a leather sofa: Use, as I described earlier, the ice technique, rub it on the surface, in order to get the chewing gum to harden, then use something flat and solid, it can be a spoon or a credit card, to remove the rubber from the leather, remember to try not to wet the surface for a long time, the idea is to generate cold chewing gum, have a dry cloth at hand, to immediately remove the moisture generated by the drops distilled by the ice on the leather, if you leave the water in leather for a long time you could stain it.

Then you can remove the rest of the gum with a tape, trying to remove everything you can. When finished, let the surface dry completely and apply an ointment or protective product in order to rehydrate and waterproof the area. In any case, you can follow the instructions given, are homemade methods to solve this frequent and annoying problem, but, if you wish, you can choose to buy on the market any of the specialized products designed to remove gum from any surface.