Pill bottle de-gunking process

[azurelunatic]

Based on a WikiHow article, I have a new process for the pill bottles that don't peel off cleanly.

1. Hot water process. I boil an electric kettle full of water and pour it in my bigger teapot. This time I have some towels down on my "desk" (glass platform over my keyboard) and that's helping immensely. I pour into the bottle and give it a bit. There are some that have to wait until the water's cooled down enough to not crumple the plastic.

2. The missing step that I got from the article: oil. I have an old takeout bowl and I put a bit of oil in the bottom and I'm just kind of rolling the sticky places in the oil. Then I let it sit for a while.

3. Alcohol wipe. It turns the adhesive and oil combination into a whitish fluid goo. Then I wipe it off with a cleanish paper towel.

4. I'm going to have to wash these with like dish soap, but I'm not doing that today.

Comments

[momijizukamori]

Interesting! I usually peel off what I can (mostly... the corners, lol), and then put some warm water on the remaining paper and rub at it to get it up. Then go at it with rubbing alcohol (which will thankfully cut through a lot of tape/label adhesive pretty quickly).

[pnathan]

Yep, I learned the olive oil trick a while back. It works a treat.

[jesse_the_k]

Some adhesives are heat sensitive. I blow on them with a hair dryer for 3-5 minutes and they'll slip right off. Not all, but it's a quick test before I bring out the heavy artillery.