Does The Internet's 3-Ingredient Hack For Erasing Glue Residue From Wood Really Work?

Removing stubborn glue stains is the bane of many a home DIYer's existence. It's hard to think of a more unpleasant feeling than scrubbing endlessly at a wall, your own hands sticky with residue, and seeing no progress for your efforts. As you take down your Halloween or Thanksgiving decor this winter, you'll want to keep household glue removal hacks handy to avoid frustration.

In a YouTube video, DIY creator Linda Home shared their favorite hack made from everyday items for removing glue residue from walls and cabinets. According to Linda Home, an equal mixture of baking soda, alcohol, and fabric softener can break down glue as effectively as anything you can get at the store. This sounds like a natural and budget-friendly way to remove stubborn glue stains, but what does the science say?

Alcohol is a common glue adhesive remover, used everywhere from home renovation to medical fields. Lake Washington Institute of Technology educator Ann-Marie Taroc explains why in an article with American Nurse. Alcohol can make glue more soluble, allowing you to remove more as you scrub with less effort. It's a well-tested solution and certainly cheaper than buying glue removal products. As for the other two ingredients in this formula, baking soda and fabric softener, here's what we know.

Like alcohol, the research behind using baking soda for glue residue removal holds up. Usually, however, it is not blended with fabric softener or alcohol. Oil is the more common mixer. America's Test Kitchen editor Chase Brightwell recommends a combination of baking soda, vegetable oil, and citrus essential oil to create what he calls a "DIY Gunk Remover" strong enough to remove stubborn glue residues. Most DIY glue remover recipes that include baking soda follow a similar formula.

Where does this leave fabric softener? Of the three ingredients included in Linda Home's cleaning hack, this one has the least research behind it. No official sources cite fabric softener as a glue residue remover on its own. However, it is often used to remove wallpaper along with a mix of water and vinegar. Wallpaper and sticker residue are different enough that the evidence for fabric softener as a surefire way to remove glue just isn't there. With that being said, however, it's not likely to cause damage and can be worth trying as a last resort before moving on to a store-bought product.

In a nutshell, the science behind Linda Home's glue remover recipe is mixed. Alcohol and baking soda are common hacks for removing sticky residues, though they're not usually mixed together. Whether or not fabric softener works as a glue remover is unclear, but worth trying. All three are worth keeping in a home DIYer's arsenal, but they're possibly more effective when tried separately rather than together.