Why Does Plastic Get Sticky - T-Tees - Your Answers Await, Life's Questions Unraveled

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You find the darndest things when you are organizing, and not all of them are good. There are plenty of good things to stick to, but plastic gadgets aren’t on the top of the list. If you have something that feels gross like remote controls and hard plastic toys, here’s how to fix sticky plastic.

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My old lovely Bose stereo really does sound amazing, but lately I didn’t want to go near it because the controller for it was sticky on the back. Yuck. It’s over 25 years old, so it’s not surprising that the plastic becomes sticky for old devices like this.

I’ve seen this happen before to my organizing clients’ things, especially old toys, dolls, and game console controllers. Storing things in extreme temps (attics, basements, garages) seems to makes the plastic sticky faster in some cases, but my remote control has always lived inside, in a temperature controlled environment, proving that plastic becomes sticky with regular use.

Why does plastic get sticky?

After a little research, I found that some plastic items have some sort of coating that breaks down over time and becomes sticky. The trick is to clean off the coating to fix sticky plastic.

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3 Ways to Remove a Sticky Surface on Plastic

I tried cleaning it with rubbing alcohol, which didn’t help at all. Don’t waste your time.

How to Clean Sticky Plastic with Baking Soda

Mix just a pinch of each to form a paste, then scrub the sticky plastic item with bare hands. It worked like a charm.

I used less than a teaspoon of baking soda to clean the back of this hard plastic remote control. It took me about 10 minutes to get the whole thing cleared. You can see it in action here on the right side (below).

After rubbing the baking soda/water paste on the device, remove the residue with a damp (not wet) cloth.

If you clean sticky plastics that are electronics, be sure to wipe out the battery compartment and let it dry, or you’ll be dealing with other problems before long, like corrosion.

Don’t do this to Fix Sticky Plastic

Avoid the impulse to reach for a green scrub pad, because that will scratch the plastic.

I was really thrilled with how easy the baking soda solution sticky plastic fix was. Some plastic that develops a sticky film really are outdated, and that sticky film might just be nature’s way of telling you to declutter (click here for how to declutter with the SORT and Succeed system), but that wasn’t the case for the remote control of my beloved stereo.

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Do you keep things for a long time? Have you ever run into the problem of some hard plastic item developing a weird sticky coating? Did this solution work for you, too?

If you were trying to get organized when you came looking for your sticky plastic fix, check out my book, Organizing Your Home with SORT and Succeed to change your life in just 5 simple steps. Click on the image below.