Easily Remove Super Glue From Any Surface With This Household Staple

One of the only downsides to arts and crafts, projects, or fixing household furniture and appliances with super glue is that it tends to drip. No matter how well you prepare the floors and other surfaces by covering them, it is difficult to completely escape having blobs of glue show up in random spots. Superglue is notoriously impossible to clean up from floors, wood, and other surfaces. Most people just give up on cleaning the stain and learn to live with it. However, you can easily remove superglue from a lot of surfaces in your home with hydrogen peroxide.

Superglue usually comes in small packaging, but it is a very powerful binder. It can hold together a wide range of materials, which is only bad news for us when it gets stuck somewhere we don't want it to, like our laminate floors, metal objects, or even our skin. The glue contains cyanoacrylate as its active ingredient, much like nail glue. Hydrogen peroxide reacts with it, breaking down its chemical bonds to the point where scraping it off would be much easier. Of course, vastly different materials would require more or less time to get the job done. The process, however, remains virtually the same.

If you accidentally drop some super glue on a hard surface such as metal, hydrogen peroxide is ideal for removing it. Soak a cotton ball or pad in 3% hydrogen peroxide and hold it on the glob of glue for some seconds. Repeat this over and over again until the glue weakens. Try scraping it off with a credit card or hard-bristled toothbrush. The goal is to soften the super glue up enough to make it budge. Be careful while doing this so that you don't scrape the surface of the metal and damage it.

If you are working on a project and accidentally drop glue on your clothes, hydrogen peroxide could potentially work, but you have to make sure not to use a highly concentrated product. Peroxide is a bleaching agent and could ruin your fabric if you go all out. A bottle of 3% peroxide would work since it's weaker and safer. You can try it out on an inconspicuous patch of fabric first.

Once you've confirmed that it won't stain, dip a cotton pad in peroxide and soak the glue. Keep applying the peroxide and pressure until the glue weakens and then scrape it with a brush. Repeat this until the glue comes off. Note that the quality of the super glue makes a difference in how easily the stain comes off. A cheap tube of dollar-store super glue would come off quicker and easier than a bottle of heavy-duty glue.

We know all too well how children's curiosity about the bond can lead them to experiment with it and eventually clamp their fingers shut or drop the glue down their ears. Getting superglue off of the skin is more common than you think. When you're trying to remove it from an organic surface such as your skin, you have to be extra careful and avoid scraping. Usually, it'll come off on its own as long as it's on the surface like your palms. However, to fast-track it, hydrogen peroxide will do the trick.

Depending on the location of the glue, you could use a firm cloth, cotton pad, or Q-tip. Believe it or not, some people have accidentally used super glue as ear drops, and had to get it dissolved using warm peroxide. You can stay on the safe side and use room-temperature peroxide to soften up that glue. Heating it might denature the solvent and doing it on top of a direct flame could be hazardous if you don't know what you're doing. If you do get glue in hard-to-reach, sensitive areas like your ear canal or nose, you'd best visit a physician.