Sticky and ugly.

If there’s anything you truly need in your household, let it be an adhesive remover spray.

One bottle lasts you forever. We’ve got ours for nearly 5 years, the bottle has gone all rusty but it works every single time.

# – This is the shiznit.

Use it to remove the idiotically designed Malaysian road tax from your windscreen. Use it to remove stubborn labels from your bathroom’s sanitary-wares and cookwares. Most of all, use it to remove cheapass warning labels from your Ikea loots.

And that’s precisely what I’ve been doing lately – spending hours peeling off cheapskate Ikea sticky labels from my not so cheapskate furniture & knick-knacks. If it hadn’t been for my trusty adhesive remover spray I would probably be spending more time than I already had.

It is quite frustrating to have spent so much money on something and then end up at home peeling off stickers like a pathetic loser :P

I believe some of you may have chosen to live with the damn stickers constantly calling out for your attention every single time you enter a room as I had previously considered doing, but really we all deserve so much better!

So here’s a tutorial for you guys who are in similar predicament and would like to escape your destiny..

First of all, peel off the main part of the sticker. With your fingers. Yes, it is a frustrating and time consuming task.

My bf had experienced some sort of divine intervention where he soaked the entire label with adhesive remover and it literally slid off but I on the other hand have not had such luck. You can try though…

# – Peel off the main sticker. This is the hardest part of the task. Gather courage and patience before embarking on such activity.

# – They peel off like this, in little tiny pieces. Absolutely designed to annoy the hell out of you.

# – Even after you’ve peeled the main label off, sticky glue residue can still be clearly seen.

# – Spray adhesive remover onto the sticky residue till they’re soaking in the solution. Becareful when you’re spraying you don’t want the solution to end up everywhere. It’s got quite a distinctive “inhale-can-die” smell. I used thick paper towels to absorb the stray sprays.

After a minute or two, rub off the residue with a paper towel. In some parts you may have to rub harder or even use your nails to scrap it off, but it won’t take that much of an effort.

# – Shiny again!

We got our adhesive remover from either Ace Hardware or Eneos. I don’t remember, I often confuse both.

20 thoughts on “Sticky and ugly.”

  1. Actually, Road Tax is not so difficult to remove.. just takes a bit of patience. I re-use some of them to stick my friends’ kids’ full moon picture cards on my bookcase glass panels. To re-use, I have to gently peel it off the windscreen whole.

  2. Hehe… I do the ol’ school way cos I’m so cheapskate one :-)

    For road tax, just park your car in midday hot sun for 1 hour then manually peel off slowly!

    For stubborn sticky adhesive residue, I just use bit of turpentine solution that costs 80 sen (should be cheaper in mon & pop shop btw) for an 500 ml bottle!

  3. Putting a very sharp knife under the sticker and lifting it off whole is possible too. Just take care not to scratch your item.

  4. BTW my best solution for road tax now is to buy those road tax holder from a car accessory shop like Brothers then laminate the road tax..no more sticky window problems!

  5. Good tips!

    I bought a nice looking container with big ass sticker and feel like killing the manufacturer/or whoever responsible for it

    *going to Ace Hardware this very minute*

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