A while back someone commented here on how to make homemade Goo Gone. To be honest, I didn’t see much of a need as I’ve literally had the same bottle of Goo Gone for years and have yet to run out. Regardless, I’ve been very interested in making my own DIY cleaning supplies and I figured it couldn’t hurt to know how I might be able to make my own.
Until recently I didn’t have anything to test the recipe out on. Then I wanted to try and make my own toilet bowl cleaner and I figured an old floor cleaner squirt bottle would work great. Even better, I had two labels, one on each side, of the bottle to remove that were identical in shape and size. I figured this would make a perfect first test. Here’s the residue that the label left (it’s the same on the other side):
The thing about Goo Gone is that it’s probably not the best stuff to be using mostly for your own health. In fact, the label on the back says it’s “non toxic” but the front says “harmful or fatal if swallowed”:
Maybe I just don’t understand the definition of “non toxic” but I do feel that if something is non toxic that it should kill me if ingested. Regardless, I used Goo Gone as directed (applied liberally, let sit for a few minutes, wipe clean) and it worked as expected:
After taking these pictures it’s obvious that a clear bottle wasn’t the best choice to be taking pictures of because you can actually see the sticker residue on the other side of the bottle. 🙂
Homemade Goo Gone Recipe
Anyway, I made up some of my own Goo Gone as per the comment left which is incredibly simple to make: Just mix two parts coconut oil (I used Extra Virgin) to one part baking soda. You can add some essential oils if you want it to smell nice but I didn’t bother. For this label I would up mixing about two tablespoons of coconut oil to one tablespoon of baking soda and that was way too much.
Mixing them together was a bit tough but eventually just looks and feels like gritty coconut oil. Smearing wasn’t exactly easy either but I was able to apply it well enough. After doing so I let it sit for a few minutes:
I was able to get the label residue off more or less to my satisfaction but there was more “elbow grease” applied with the homemade Goo Gone as opposed to the real thing:
Warning About Scratches When Using
I’m sure it’s difficult to tell from the above photo but I did notice some fine scratches left on the side that used the homemade Goo Gone which was disconcerting. As such, I would NOT use this recipe for any object that you’re at all concerned about being scratched!!
I suspect that the baking soda both acts as the abrasive to remove the residue but also causes the fine scratches too. Granted, they are relatively fine scratches and would probably not be noticeable in most cases but I’d rather not take the chance of using this recipe on anything that could be permanently damaged (e.g., iPads, television screens, etc).
That said, this homemade Goo Gone recipe DID do the job. User beware.
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