Get Sticky Labels Off Of Glass Bottles, step by step

We get quite a few emails asking for a little walkthrough on taking the labels off of wine and Pellegrino bottles, which we first did for our wedding back in 2007 to create little water, lemonade and sweet tea carafes for every table (we even recruited a local wine store to save bottles from their wine tastings for us so we could collect them en masse for free).

When it came to stripping the labels, we experimented with a few distinct ways but in the end nothing worked better than a little hour-long soaking session in hot water followed by a good scrubbing with a textured sponge (or even my fingernails- ever so lightly). After a good soak, everything slips right off.

Then a bit of Goo Gone (or de-gunking alternatives like olive oil, nail polish remover, or citrus juice) can be introduced if there is still some residue, but typically the ol’ soak & scrub approach does the trick on its own. And that method is not an ancient memory because two years later we are still saving fairly bottles and removing their labels to create an ever-growing collection of free glass vases that we like to group on a tray in the sunroom…

… or even use to add a few pops of green color to the floating shelves in the living room:

So there you have it. A little fast and straightforward label-removing walkthrough that may simply assist you repurpose some of the things that could already be in your recycling bin at this quite moment. Long live free decor- especially when it is so straightforward to strip down!