Chewing gum and bubble gum are popular lollies, and the fun different flavours appeal to adults and kids alike. Getting chewing gum on your shoes makes it seem instantly less fun though. Luckily there are some ways to remove chewing gum from shoes without getting sticky and without damaging your shoes. Here are three different ways to remove chewing gum from shoes.
You might’ve tried scraping off the chewy from your shoes, only to find that it leaves a sticky residue which just won’t budge. This sticky residue picks up dirt and dust and can then leave a darker stain on the sole of your shoes. There are ways to avoid this happening, though. Let’s take a look at three ways that are easily achievable at home – psst! in case you’ve had a chewing gum disaster and got it in your hair or on your jeans, we can help with that, too! Here are articles for how to remove chewing gum from hair and from jeans.
You might be tempted to wash the chewy off your shoe. This may work for other stains, but the same cannot be said for chewing gum, though. Here, the best thing to do is to cool the chewy down as much as you can – to freezing temperatures if possible. Wrap the shoe with the gum stuck on it in a plastic bag, making sure that the gum is pressed to the bag, and put it in the freezer. This helps solidify the chewing gum, so it isn’t soft and sticky anymore. Once the gum is frozen, you can take out the shoes and the gum will be stuck onto the bag instead of the shoe!
If you want to speed things up, you can put ice cubes in the bag with your shoe. Make sure that the cubes only touch the soles, though. If your shoes are made of leather, for example, freezing them or using ice cubes on the leather can damage the material. However, the quickest way to remove chewing gum is to freeze the gum. If you’re happy to put the whole shoe in the freezer, do so as above and add the ice cubes to the sole around the gum. Once the gum is frozen you’ll be able to pick it off – it should come away in one piece.
This is a surprise, right? Don’t worry, there’s nothing chemical in peanut butter that you weren’t expecting, but the creaminess of peanut butter can help lift the chewing gum away. Some people actually fear the feeling of peanut butter sticking to the roof of their mouths, but the stickiness of peanut butter is its main appeal for this solution. To remove chewing gum from shoes, apply a nice thick layer of peanut butter to the sole of your shoes. As peanut butter has a high oil content, make sure it doesn’t touch the leather or fabric of your shoes – there are ways to remove grease and oil stains, but prevention is better than cure! Once you’ve carefully applied the peanut butter, let it work for 10 minutes, and then scrape it off with a brush. Using soap and a clean sponge, remove any peanut butter residue.
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