I Tried 6 Different Methods for Removing Stubborn Adhesive Residue, and the Winner Is Very Obvious

I love to repurpose items, reduce waste, and conserve resources as much as possible, and there are many opportunities to do this in the kitchen. One thing I like to save is glass jars, which are great for free food storage. If I’m not careful, though, I end up with a huge collection that just takes up space rather than getting used. 

But this summer I grew zinnias, which are beautiful and prolific flowers. Knowing I’d need containers for placing them all over the house, I began to amass a small collection of jars. I wasn’t using them, though, because they still had labels on them that were so hard to get rid of. I wanted to change that and pull them out of hiding into rotation. 

I decided it was the perfect time to look up how to remove adhesive residue from labels stuck on jars and discovered expert-backed methods to try. Here are the six methods I tested and how they went.

I used a different jar with a clean label for each method I tested — except the final bonus method I tried (more on that later).

Ratings: I rated the methods on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the best possible score. In this case, the rating was based mostly on whether the method worked, although I did take into account how easy each method was to execute and the items needed.

I know there’s a time and a place for some of the other expert-backed adhesive residue-removal tips. Using Goo Gone to remove residue from stickers kids put on windows comes to mind. And I’m sure I remember using oil and baking soda to successfully remove labels from baby food jars many years ago. But for removing stubborn labels from jars, at least these days, nothing beats the OxiClean and hot water method. It’s nearly completely hands-off and you can remove multiple labels at a time, all while you’re doing something else. I’m glad I explored whether other methods could do the job effectively because I discovered that what I’ve been doing is still the best way.