Most everyone loves chewing gum, its pleasant sugary taste, sweetness, sourness and/or texture is very pleasing to the palate. However, with all those people out there chewing gum the chances of someone stepping in it or getting it on their clothing greatly increases. If you’re facing a “chewing gum disaster”, follow these simple steps to effectively remove it.
First off, don’t allow the gum-infested area to spread to other areas. In other words, be careful not to make things worse by wading up the affected garment. One of the biggest mistakes people often make when performing a “gum-removal operation” is getting so incredibly frustrated that they haphazardly force the gum deeper into the fabric itself. So, use as light a touch as possible until you complete the next step.
What you want to do is get some ice cubes and place them on the top and bottom of the “gummy” area. The idea is to completely freeze the gum so that its viscosity, or overall hardness changes, which will allow you to easily remove it. This might require you to actually hold the ice cubes firmly in place for up to 30 minutes or more. You just need to make the gum stain as cold and hard as possible.
Once you’ve completed that task, you only need to place your fabric on a flat surface and use a butter knife to peel away the gum (making sure to remove all the tiny little bits that might be stuck as well).
As a final step, wash your garment immediately with a suitable detergent. If your article of clothing is white, conventional bleach might also be applied in order to further assist in removing any additional residual staining. Likewise, color-safe bleach might also be used to accomplish the same results with other types of garments. There you have it; if everything went according plan and you carefully followed the directions, you should have a completely gum-free garment now.
