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Thought it would be a great idea to have a reference point of cleaning tips for folks to refer to. Here are my tips:
Silver paint markers – Folex (available at Home Depot) works like a charm. Dip a cloth into the Folex solution and rub gently on the paint. I’ve done this on a variety of shoe soles and there has been no damage or discoloration, but of course, test a small area first…
Silk tie stains – Tide To Go pens. Works on about 90% of them. If there’s a mark after it dries, rub the area gently with a clean finger.
Pencil marks on wood – Mr Clean Magic Eraser. Used dry. It seems to polish up the wood some, too.
Leather – Trinova leather cleaner and conditioner. Use mainly on clothes, bags, etc.
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I love this idea. May I also add How to repair things? If I had a YouTube channel I would do demos on how to repair things for reselling. One of my favorite things which I use often is repairing small ugly white chips in porcelain items. I use crafting ink pads (the kind used for rubber stamps) and I have a few different basic colors. Use a cotton swab to apply ink from the pad onto the white chip to blend it in with the surrounding color. You can blend brown and yellow to make orange or blue and green to make aqua for example. Rub the colors in with a tissue and repeat until it doesn’t show. Be sure to mention it in your listing and take a photo of “touched up chip”, but when it doesn’t show people don’t really care. And of course I use permanent felt tip markers to repair small odd spots on leather purses or shoes when they are colors that are easy to match.
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One of my new favorite tools in called the “Snag Nab It” I’ve used it for countless snags, pulls, and loose threads to pull them through to the underside of the fabric and make them invisible. I use it several times a week. I used it on a Coogi Sweater back in January. Coogi is notorious for loose and pulled threads because of how easily the 3D designs get caught on things. I made it look like brand new, and it sold for $225.
For leather shoes, I love Dr. Marten’s Wonder Balsam. Makes my Dr. Marten’s shoes (and any other leather shoe) look like new. Also, I’ve discovered black “edge dressing” for shoes and use it all the time. Finally, a small suede brush comes in handy for so many things. I use it not only on suede shoes, but also on any item with a directional nap, like shearling clothing, to smooth out the shearling and make it not look quite so separated.
Oooh…one more. My new favorite stain removers are Grandma’s Secret Spot Remover and Tech Stain Remover. I ordered both from Amazon, and they are amazing. I just used the Tech Stain remover on a vintage Jams World shirt with a stubborn collar stain, and the stain came out completely. -
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I’ve got some annoying industrial strength sticker adhesive to remove from vintage melmac / melanmine / plastic. I’ve tried magic eraser and other basic methods. Is there a product that safe for plastic?
I also bought some vintage Studio Nova flatware with white plastic handles but some have yellowed. Has anyone successfully whitened with a product? Thanks!
I sold some Dark Dansk flatware with dark colored plastic handles having white dishwasher marks. My dad revived with steel wool. They sold very well.
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Great article on yellowed plastics. Old but thorough information http://www.retrofixes.com/2013/10/how-to-clean-whiten-yellowed-plastics.html
Regarding the sticker, a rubber cement remover like this one works on a bunch of sticky residue items. Wet solutions include Goo Gone; WD-40 and rubbing alcohol. Apparently the glue used is different for different brands/applications, so what works on one item doesn’t work on another. I have also used olive oil and a hair dryer, but it didn’t work very well on packaging tape residue.
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Discovered this one by accident:
Removing price tags from ceramics – vinegar and water.
I had some mugs that were in excellent shape but looked like they were stored in a barn, full of dust and twigs. I was washing them in a bowl of vinegar and water when I heard the phone, so just dumped them in the bowl and ran to answer it. When I came back, the price tags wiped off with the cloth I was using, almost no effort. The first sticker was picked off with the usual bother, so I was thrilled!
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We buy a lot of things at auctions, and the auction house uses stickers to identify the consignor (usually a number from 1 to 99). These stick pretty good as they do not want them to fall off when the items are being handled at the auction, but they are hard to quickly get off later. We tend to use a heat gun to get the stickers off, usually within a few seconds, but what we need is a PORTABLE heat gun, as an outlet is many times not readily available.
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Back to the marker on the bottom of shoes, I have a new method that I thought up myself and works pretty well. When the shoes are leather-soled, and the soles have at least a little wear, I gently rub some very fine sandpaper over the marker and it gets rubbed off very quickly.
I think I’ve actually also used this on rubber/synthetic shoes where vaseline didn’t work AND the sole was smooth. Wouldn’t work on soles with lots of bumps and grooves unless you had some pretty small sandpaper tools to “get in there.”
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From the Today show online
How to remove lipstick from your clothes.
https://www.today.com/home/how-remove-lipstick-stains-t108129
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My favorite “wet” method of sticker removal is naphtha or heptane, which are basically the same. They evaporate quickly without leaving a residue and are safe on most surfaces, including plastic and paper — you can use them on the pages of a book and they won’t leave a stain. Un-Du is a form of naphtha that comes in a convenient dropper bottle with a scraper, but it’s kind of expensive. Heptane is often sold as “rubber cement thinner” and you can buy it cheaply in large cans — brands include Bestine and Doc Edington’s — but it’s best to have a smaller bottle to put it into.
Watch out with rubbing alcohol, since it can cloud some plastics and remove finishes from wood.
I also second the recommendation of Snag Nab-It. I have a cat who obsessively kneads and nurses on my shirts, so I’m constantly having to fix thread pulls. It’s very easy to use and you can’t tell the fabric was repaired at all.
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The auction house we go to weekly puts small numbered stickers on every item they put up for bid except those in flats. We all know about using heat guns for removing stickers, but they aren’t portable. We buy a lot of furniture at auction to resell locally, so I was hunting around for a portable heat gun alternative to get those stickers off at the storage unit where we store the furniture. Removing stickers manually has always been a pain, especially in Winter.
What I found is below. It works really well, though you have to practice a bit so that you don’t damage the item. You can get these online. Don’t buy the cheaper one. It’s junk. This one is built well.
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