How To Remove Chewing Gum From Carpet

There’s nothing worse than coming home and noticing you have just walked chewing gum through. You look down and see a big white blob stuck to the carpet. But don’t panic, removing chewing gum from the carpet is easy. If you’re lucky it may be loose enough for you to pick up with a tissue. However, depending on your carpet type it may have already stuck to the fibres. The best thing to do at this point is to leave it, walk away and come back later.

With fresh eyes, you can now see that the chewing gum has gone hard. With a spoon tap the gum to double-check all of it has hardened and is ready for removing. Now the trick is you need to freeze the gum, by doing this it will break up easily. Some say heat or hot water will remove it but all that does is turn it back to a soft sticky residue that will just become a mess. You want to remove the gum without ripping or damaging the carpet fibres.

There are two options for freezing chewing gum, first is to buy some freezing spray that comes in a can. Most hardware stores or online shops sell this. You can then spray the gum and freeze it instantly. The second option which takes a little bit longer is using ice. Take some ice cubes, place them in a small clear bag and place it onto the gum and leave it to freeze.

Once the gum is cold and frozen you can now begin to scrap the gum, it should break up into pieces and lift off. Using only a plastic scraper, guitar pick or something blunt. Take your time not to pull at the carpet or damage the fibres, be patient and work slowly. If you find it is starting to stick again re-apply the ice or freezing spray.

Once the gum is removed you can now rinse the area with a sponge and warm water. Dab the area not rub, and gently rinse the carpet to finish.