As you may or may not know – I work part time at a resort. They have an Italian restaurant that serves up quite a bit of wine, so I asked them to save me some bottles for craft projects. A little over a month ago they brought me up a box of empty wine bottles and I had the chance to use some of them over the weekend. I decided to use some of them for simple décor, but I wanted to remove their labels. I am very familiar with removing labels from glass jars and bottles, because when the boys were little I used to recycle all of their baby food jars into luminaries.
First you need to fill your sink with hot soapy water and let them soak. I usually let mine soak for a good 40-60 minutes. Then I try to remove as much as the label as possible. All labels are different, so some may come off easy peasy, while others will really give you a fit! If your label doesn’t come off (which it probably won’t) after this soak, get as much of the label off as possible and refill the sink with hot soapy water and soak for another 30 minutes.
After this soak I use my fingernails or a butter knife to get as much of the paper off as possible. Even if you get the paper off you might see lines from where the adhesive was. See what I’m talking about in the middle bottle below?
Now here is where I pull out my secret weapon… peanut butter! I try to use the cheap kind for this so I don’t feel like I am wasting, but sometimes I just have to use my Jif. Spread it on the parts where you seem to have any adhesive or label that is not coming off and let it sit for 15-30 minutes.
Now get out a paper towel and rub off most of the peanut butter (leave some on though). With a clean paper towel start rubbing in a circular motion until you get off all of the leftover gunk. You may need to add a little more peanut butter back on and continue rubbing for any hard spots.
Then wipe them off completely and clean them with window cleaner and use them in crafts or for décor!
Enjoy,
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John Orsborn
Friday 22nd of May 2020
I can't believe you all work so hard! Soak the bottles, peel off use steel wool on what's left, no chemicals, no food, just soap and water, steel wool and elbow grease.
Ripperoo
Sunday 8th of December 2019
Best things for getting glue residue from glass is either furniture polish and if really stubborn, turpentine or paint thinners.
Just a dab of thinners rubbed over the area with the residue dissolves it in seconds, then all is needed is a quick wash in hot soapy water and the gunk is gone!
Anna
Thursday 5th of September 2019
Oh dear... Don't waste food. Every sticky thing can be easily removed with oil. Just a drop and that's all.
Barbara
Friday 1st of June 2018
I use rubbing alcohol for the ones that won't come of. After the soaking in hot water and dish soap some labels stay half on there. Wrap the bottle in paper towel ad rubbing alcohol all over and wrap tin foil around it, let air for half an hour up to 24 hours, and it'll rub right off.
Kristin
Monday 16th of April 2018
I found a good trick that I just used last night. Hot water tub, fill bottles with hot water & drop in. Add baking soda, dish soap, white vinegar (careful with the vinegar as it will bubble up like a Junior High School volcano! Add little at a time). The labels peel right off for the most part. Ones that don't, scrape off easily, but do leave the glue residue behind.
I haven't tried it myself yet, but history with adhesives & generally sticky stuff tells me that rubbing any oil - baby oil, olive oil, coconut oil, etc., should take the adhesive off with ease.