Sticky Situation

Also, I need to vent to the world right now my hatred of "removable" labels that do not easily remove. It's bad enough when you tear the tags and bar codes off of dishes and have to soak your dishes in the sink for a year to get them off. But last night, at one o'clock in the morning, I was scrubbing the remnants of a label off of a binder. It's not something that you normally think to scrub in the kitchen sink. But the label didn't come off easily, and when I had finally scrubbed it off, the glue remained. So I busted out the 409 and the industrial strength degreaser, but nothing worked. I'd write an angry letter to the binder manufacturers, but since I had to rip the label off in about 326 pieces, their company name was rendered unrecognizable.

So as it is, I'm turning in a portfolio today in a green binder with fuzz and gunk stuck to the spine. Wonderful.

15 comments:

stupidramblings said...

I usually use pumice soap.





Oh, and Hydrochloric Acid...

Mrs. Hass-Bark said...

Have you tried Goo Gone? It might be the same thing savvymom is talking about. It is wonderfully marvelous stuff.

Speaking of annoying stickers...I bought an HP printer with a snazzy aluminium (spelled that way on purpose) cover. I took it out of the box and there is one of HP's GIANT stickers on the metal part. The stickers usually come right off the plastic printers. And I should know because I've had about 42 of them. Anyway, the sticker DOESN'T COME OFF!!! Why, oh WHY would you do that?

I'm confident Goo Gone will work. I'm also confident that I won't have time to try Goo Gone until, I don't know, the next century. In the meantime, I have a beautiful silver and black printer with a partially picked-off sticker stuck to it. Stupid HP morons.

Cicada said...

Yeah, see, it's possible to create labels that remove easily. Ever bought a book from Borders? So I don't think that it's my responsibility to buy another product to remove a label that the original company should have made easily-removable in the first place. In fact, once this semester is over, I may start my letter campaign. I'm seriously considering starting to return all products that I buy that don't have an easily-removable label and saying that they're goods that were damaged by the original company when they chose to use that label.

JB said...

stupid- lol

Cicada- I agree with you. Those labels exist and they should be used instead of those impossible-to-remove ones.

ambrosia ananas said...

I recommend nail polish remover. Good for stripping the finish from kitchen cupboards, too.

Best wishes on your letter-writing crusade. Oops, I mean, your worthy, letter-writing endeavors.

Cicada said...

I can't understand why you people keep making suggestions for what I should do to solve the problem. They should solve the problem, since they caused it!

Anonymous said...

Thoro and De-solve-it are good, too.


Err, I mean, fie on evil, overly adhesive companies! Fie, I say!

daltongirl said...

Vegetable oil. This is only good for stuff that won't get ruined by the oil, though.

And I will never shop at Borders again. Partly because I never shop there anyway. But I think the reason I don't is because of their labels. My boycott has hurt them, I can tell.

Tolkien Boy said...

The binder must have been from BYU bookstore. They use something unholy in their adhesive.

Tolkien Boy said...

Couldn't pass this up.

Word verification: Zetid.

As in, "Henry's habit of picking at his toenails is so zetid."

JB said...

Cicada, um. I said I agreed with you and didn't mention how to get the sticky labels off. Do I get points? Or do I just not loose points...this time...?

John said...

I suggest a flame-thrower, because a)you could remove any label
b)it will really speed up the staff at any helpdesk.
:)

photogenic said...

Why is that? The barcode doesn't even advertise anything. I think that it is probably job security for the goo-off employees.

Cicada said...

JB---You break even. You don't loose--er lose---points for telling me how to do the job myself, but you don't gain points for suggesting violent ways of taking care of those who put on the sticky labels. John's winning on that one.

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