How to remove chewing gum from clothes without ruining the fabric: the freezer trick that actually works

You are getting up from your seat, and you feel it: a cold, clammy spot at the back of your favourite pair of jeans. Someone left gum on the seat, and it is stuck to you now. Maybe it happened at the movies, or on a subway seat, or on a park bench you didn't check before you sat down.

Whichever it is, your first impulse is likely to be to pick at it with your fingernails. Do not do that. All it does is push the gum further up into the threads, and you wind up with a bigger mess than when you started.

According to Mary Gagliardi, known professionally as Dr. Laundry, Clorox's in-house scientist and laundry expert, freezing is the only trick she would recommend without hesitation. The trick works on most knit and woven, machine-washable fabrics, whether the gum is fresh or hardened. This is a strong endorsement from someone who tests stain removal for a living, so it’s worth knowing why the freezer works before you try anything else.


Why does gum stick to fabric in the first place
Chewing gum is not just sugar and flavoring. What’s left when the sweet taste is gone is a stretchy polymer base, usually made from things like polyvinyl acetate and polyisobutylene. Gum sticks so well because the soft molecules of gum make very close contact with whatever surface they touch, explains Professor Terry Cosgrove of the University of Bristol. When you try to pull it off, you’re not breaking that bond. You're simply stretching and sliding the same molecules deeper into the fabric.

That’s the real issue with picking gum by hand. You are fighting the material on its own terms, and it usually wins.

The freezer trick, step by step
Cold changes the equation because gum becomes hard and brittle when frozen, so instead of stretching, the gum just snaps off.

Here’s how to do it, according to the method Gagliardi recommends:
Put the garment in a resealable plastic bag, with the gum side up so it doesn't touch the bag. Put it in the freezer for about 20 minutes or until the gum feels completely hard. Take it out and work fast. Carefully scrape the gum off the fabric with a butter knife or plastic spoon. If the gum begins to soften again before you are finished, return it to the freezer for a few more minutes. After you have removed the gum, wash the item in the warmest water the care label allows.

If you don't have a freezer nearby, just press an ice cube directly onto the gum, but Gagliardi says this will take about 20 minutes because the ice will keep melting as you hold it.

If stubborn residue remains
If a little sticky residue remains after the gum is gone, you have safe backup options. A lesson plan on polymer science from the University of Akron, developed with help from the National Science Foundation, explains how warm vinegar or rubbing alcohol can be used to loosen the polymer bonds in gum, as well as cold. Warm up a little white vinegar until it is comfortably warm, not boiling, dab it onto the leftover mark and gently work it loose with an old toothbrush. Rubbing alcohol works much the same way, but it’s best not to use it on delicate fabrics.

What to avoid
Skip the dryer until you are sure every trace of gum is gone. Heat can make a small problem much worse, so Gagliardi advises always inspecting the fabric carefully before it goes anywhere near a hot cycle. It’s worth skipping oil-based hacks like peanut butter. Reader's Digest's own hands-on testing revealed that the peanut butter method produced an oily stain of its own, just trading one cleanup problem for another.

A quick note on delicate fabrics
Not every fabric is meant to come in contact with an ice cube. Dry-clean-only garments can get water spots from melting ice, so it’s better to leave those to a professional dry cleaner, says Gagliardi. Fabrics with a cut pile like velvet or corduroy need more care too, because if you pick at gum that isn't totally frozen, you'll pull out the pile yarns too.

The bottom line
Chewing gum on clothes feels like a disaster in the moment, but it is rarely so. Forget the dramatic internet hacks and start with the freezer. It costs nothing, takes very little effort, and is the one method that a professional laundry expert will stand behind without reservation. Give it 20 minutes or an hour; that gum should come off more easily, and your clothes are going to be just like before.