How to Remove Hot Glue from Any Surface

Removing hot glue from fabric takes a lot of patience, but is actually very simple. The three steps below show you exactly how to remove hot glue from fabric with minimal damage to your project.

1. Do not touch the hot glue drop on your fabric. If you smear it or attempt to rub it off while still hot it can seep into the tiny gaps between threads in your fabric. Thinner cottons are especially prone to this.
2. Place your project with the spilled glue in the freezer. (Seriously.) This allows the glue to dry extra fast and ensures that it hardens. This should take 20 minutes to an hour depending on the thickness and temperature of the spill.
3. Peel the melted glue from your project very carefully. You will want to be especially careful with thinner fabrics.

This is one of the hottest and easiest tips to remove hot glue from surfaces. Whether you have spilled hot glue on your table or placed it somewhere on your project it does not belong, this tip will do the trick. All you need to remove hot glue from most surfaces is rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs.

1. Allow the glue to dry. This makes it much easier for you to pull the glue off in one, clean chunk rather than clawing at a messy dollop.
2. Once the glue is dry, dip your cotton swabs in the rubbing alcohol and then dab around the edges of the hot glue.
3. Allow the rubbing alcohol some time to react to the glue and then simply peel the piece of glue off the surface.

Getting hot glue on your skin can be crazy painful and seem like an impossible task. The glue burns your skin, and there’s no way you can pull it off with your fingers without burning those too! Unlike others ways to remove glue, removing it for your skin means you have to act fast. You will need to treat the hot glue like any other burn.

1. Make sure you cool down the hot glue ASAP by running the spot under cold water in order to cool it down, stop the burn, and harden the glue. If the burning is not that hot/harmful, you can easily roll an ice cube overtop of the surface instead.
2. Peel the glue off of your skin carefully. If the pain is too intense, listen to your body. Most hot glues should not heat enough to give you more than a first degree burn, but if the burn spot is extremely painful, seek medical help.
3. Run the affected spot under cold water again, apply Neosporin or another antibiotic pain cream, and place a band-aid on the affected area.

Removing hot glue from carpet is one of the most frustrating issues you might come across when crafting. Not only is it probably your fault (we’ve been there), but it can be difficult to find a way to get it up off of the floor without expanding the affected area. Removing hot glue from carpet can be done two ways depending on when you catch the spill.

Learn to crochet the Easy Hexagon Rug.

If you have noticed that you dropped a dollop of melted glue on the floor right after the oops, you can remove it immediately by locating a sharp blade and scraping the glue off of the carpet and onto the blade in an upward motion, taking time to wipe the glue from the blade so it does not spread.

Since using the rubbing alcohol tip will not work on your fluffy, textured floor, you will need a new way to remove glue from your carpet. In order to do so, follow these instructions:

1. Grab a household iron and a thin layer of fabric (something the glue will stick to much better than the carpet).
2. Place the fabric down on the affected spot and place the hot iron on top of the fabric in order to melt it onto the fabric. Be sure to PRESS the spot rather than iron (a back and forth motion) to avoid spreading the glue across a larger surface area.

Now that you've cleaned up the hot glue itself, learn How to Clean a Glue Gun with our step-by-step tutorial.