Mini DIY: How to Easily Remove Price Stickers

Here is a mini how-to for removing price stickers quickly and easily, without gunking up your pretty fingernails. I learned this trick from the manager at Webster's Fine Stationers, where I worked once upon a time.

This works best on the little price label stickers that come on things from the thrift store or smaller mom an pop places that still use old-fashioned price guns. However, it also works well on those pesky department store labels that are designed fall apart into a hundred pieces when you try to remove them.

Step 1: Get some Scotch tape. Take a piece, and while still holding on to a corner of it, place it over the sticker you want to remove. (If you let go of the tape, then you'll have two sticky things to worry about removing.)

Step 2: With your fingernail or other object with an edge, rub the label firmly through the tape. The idea is to make the tape stick to the label as much as possible.

Step 3: Pull up the tape. It isn't entirely necessary to do this slowly or carefully, but it's more effective if you do. Usually just the top paper layer of the price label comes away with the tape, leaving that icky papery adhesive behind that is oh so hard to remove. Not to worry, I have a trick for that too.

If not all of the paper label comes out, just keep repeating this step with clean pieces of tape until the printed label is gone.

Sometimes you get lucky and the whole label comes off, but even then, you might still have some adhesive residue left behind.

Step 4: Take a cloth or paper towel dipped in rubbing alcohol and give the sticky spot a good scrub. The alcohol helps dissolve the adhesive (i.e. un-sticky it). You could use Goo-Gone too, but I find rubbing alcohol works just as well, if not better.

Step 5: Voila! You are left with just your clean, sticky-free new item, ready to start beautifying your home. And you won't be keeping a goo-related secret like Sherry at YHL.

By the way, the lamps in these pictures are bound for Part 2 of my West Elm Inspired DIY series. See Part 1 here!

This is also a great method for removing the prices from gifts while leaving the barcodes intact (for return purposes). Just skip the rubbing alcohol step.