Any suggestions?

[Elle]

This is long, but I have to vent! I am SOOO very angry right now. People are SUCH slobs sometimes! As the manager, I try to keep the hotel looking its best. Rather than having weathered concrete sidewalks around the building, it looks SO much better with the sidewalks painted a sandstone color. It makes it look SO much cleaner and more appealing! I also make sure we have plenty of trashcans around the place so there is absolutely NO excuse for throwing trash on the ground since you don't have to walk more than about 20 feet to get to a trash can.

 

Well, I guess there are just some people that, no matter HOW much you try to make things easier for them, are just SO slovenly that they are just going to be how they are going to be. We have a family like this with us now. They shouldn't be here much longer, though, because they have already, after only two weeks, started with the "I can't pay my rent for the whole week until Friday" routine, and once that starts, I am quick to tell them that it is time for us to part company. The father of this clan of cave bears is working at the Gulf on a jetty. When they first checked in they told us they would be here for six months, now they said they meant seven weeks! These people are such lowlives, we have come to discover that you can tell they are lying because their lips are moving,.

 

However soon they decide to go (or I decide to MAKE them go), parting company will not come soon enough to save my new slippers! I had made myself a pair of Heather's slippers. They were ADORABLE! I did them in a nutmeg brown with a browns to cream variegated medallion on the top of the toe, and these cute little cream-colored heart-shaped buttons on the side. I finished them on Thursday night while I was watching Project Runway, and I took them downstairs to the office with me Friday morning. I put them on, puttered around the office for about 30 minutes, I quickly ran a broom over the area outside the back door so that nothing got tracked into the spa area, and went back in to make a cup of coffee. I noticed the oldest son of "the undesirables" (as I have come to call them) trying to open the still-locked door to the spa. He's in his early 20s, he's not a kid. As much as I didn't want to let him into the spa (we already had to drain it once because of them, we found out they were washing their jeans in it!!!!), they ARE still paying guests here so I was kind of forced to. I figured it wouldn't hurt to wear my slippers since I would be going only about 8 feet to the spa door and it would be on painted concrete that I had just swept. I opened the door, turned to go back into the office, noticed that my right foot felt funny, I looked down and saw that I had stepped in a gigantic wad of chewing gum!!!! It HAD to have come from that big goober that I opened the spa for because nobody else had been out there! I had no sooner come in from sweeping and was at the coffee area when I spotted him out there, so I KNOW that nobody else had been there.

 

So now my new slippers were RUINED, and I had gotten to wear them for a whole 45 minutes before that happened!

 

Does anyone know if it is even possible to get chewing gum out of yarn? I know they say to freeze it with an ice cube if it gets in your hair, but will that work for yarn? I have been afraid to try anything in case it makes it worse, but the more I think about it, what is worse than having to throw the slippers out, which is what I will probably end up doing? If anyone has any hints they would be VERY much appreciated!

[tmpinsnty]

peanut butter? then wash them?

 

make the goober use his teeth.

[Peggy85225]

Check out the solution on eHow.com eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_6461895_remove-gum-wool.html#ixzz100ed7bNA

[Lefthook]

I've succcessfully used the ice thing for carpet, so it might work for yarn. If you might have to throw them out, you'd not be losing anything to try.

[losingmymind2]

Goo Gone works wonders. It certainly won't hurt to try ice first to chip away as much as possible, but then if it's not all gone, clean with goo gone and only rags in the washer with them for a bit of friction. Don't dry in the dryer until you are satisfied all the gum is gone or you will have an unholy mess to deal with.

 

Keep an eye on these cretians, or as my dad would have refered to them 'the jukes'. Are you taking bets on their a) running out on the rent) and/or b) trashing the place, with or without taking things that don't belong to them? Might not hurt to have the local authorities check out their vehicle info just in case they've made a habit of doing this elsewhere.

[annmcc1976]

id say freese it with a ice cube first.. and get all you can out.. then do some of the other suggetsions.. I've never got gum on fabric or yarn before

[craftconnie1]

I'd wet/wash by hand the slippers and freeze them....they will become hard....then gently hit them.... the gum will crack and you can get some of it off.... goo be gone works on small pieces but you may have to 'pick' out the pieces and the whole process may have to be repeated several times ..... good luck and you may need an incredible amount of patience

[RoseRed]

You don't have to throw them both out - just the one if you can't clean it.

 

I wouldn't wash it first and then freeze it - you might crack the yarn that way.

 

1st - freeze the dry slipper and get off as much gum as you can.

Then try the peanut butter. You want to be careful of commercial solvents - they might eat away at the yarn.

 

As a last resort you can try mineral oil. I don't think it'll hurt the yarn but I don't know for sure. Maybe one of the other ladies here would know that.

[happy stitcher]

I would try Dawn on it. Dawn gets gum out of hair, I know for a fact. It disintegrates it. Rub it in and work it with your fingers.

 

I also use Dawn when DH gets oily spots on his shirts during work lunches. Sometimes it doesn't get it all out, but most of the time it does!

 

Good luck!!

[bgs]

How frustrating!:hug

[Becky Morgan]

I know peanut butter works. It's flat amazing. Dawn will get out any goo that's left. Goo Gone probably would work, too. For me, ice gets most of it off, but not as much as peanut butter does. (Can you tell we used to have a kid leaving gum in really weird places?)

[tmpinsnty]

isn't peanut butter marvelous?

[vonnie]

isn't peanut butter marvelous?

 

and it tastes good too:clap

[tmpinsnty]

i have two boxes of those jiff singles on the truck...i love dipping apples and carrots in peanut butter...and i will also be prepared if i get gum on anything

[catlyn]

Goo Gone! I bet Goo Gone will work. It gets latex paint out of carpet......I know Latex paint is not similar to gum, but carpet could be similar to yarn.....if Goo Gone won't hurt carpet....something you have in your house to look at for years and years.....I bet it won't hurt the yarn in your slippers.

Squirt a little on a piece of yarn first and try it out. I bet ya it will not harm the yarn.

[Real Deal]

It sounds like you need to use Goo Gone on the people.

[TurtleLvr]

Use Goof Off. One time we got roofing tar all over our jeans (and the truck's fabric seats) and it took it all off with no problems. Then washed everything and good as new!

 

Hopefully they'll be gone soon. Nothing like people who's only concern in life is themselves!

 

[Momcrochets]

It sounds like you need to use Goo Gone on the people.

 

ditto. is there a can of "goober gone" hanging around?

 

I would call the local authorities with their vehicle info. (just to be safe)...

So sorry you got stuck with such challenging "residents".

[Empress Busy Bee]

Egg white.

You rub raw egg white on the gum, let it sit a few minutes and then wash the clothing.

It gets it out.

I read it in a house hint book years ago. My son got gum on his shorts so I tried it. It works.

You have nothing to lose in trying it.

[Amy]

Reminder: Let's please refrain from name-calling when referring to the hotel guests. Even though we don't know these people and there's no way to identify who they really are, name-calling still detracts from the pleasant atmosphere we like to maintain here at Crochetville.

[tnkycrochetnut]

I am sorry to hear about the problem you are having with chewing gum on your new slippers. The advise the other posters have given about removing the chewing gum does sound like it would work. At least give it a try before throwing away your slippers as you have nothing to lose if it doesn't work. I know peanut butter has many uses besides being good to eat. Years ago I lived next to an old abandoned house and after it was torn down I had a sudden influx of mice. I tried D-Con but it just didn't work or it seemed as if it wasn't working. So I bought several mousetraps and baited them with cheese but still did not have much luck in getting rid of the mice. Finally in desperation I baited some of the traps with peanut butter. Much to my surprise the peanut butter attracted the mice and I got a bunch of mice in just a few short days. It seemed like no sooner would I set a trap before it was going off and catching a mouse.

 

Also you stating that no matter how close a garbage can is nearby some people will still throw trash on the ground brought back a funny memory of many years ago. At the time I was working at a Zayre store which was located in a shopping mall. The owner of the mall was going through some financial difficulites so one of the things he was neglecting was the cleanup of the mall. Soon some of the area residents were at the mall protesting the dirty conditions of the mall. One day during the protest our front line supervisor was standing at the door looking out into the mall at some of the protestors. One protestor had just finished eating an apple and was telling one of the shoppers why they were protesting. As the protestor and the shopper were walking along and talking they passed right by a garbage can, but the protestor threw her apple core on the floor instead. Just as soon as she dropped her apple core the front line supervisor yelled at her saying, "That's it. Walk right by a garbage can but throw your trash on the floor. And then you have the nerve to tell everyone how dirty the mall is." The protestor turned red and went back and picked up her apple core and threw it in the nearby garbage can. All of us Zayre employees got a good laugh at that one that day. We did have to agree with the protestors that the owner was not keeping the mall clean though. A short time later someone else bought the mall and kept it very clean.

 

Keep us posted on what you try in removing the chewing gum from your slippers and if it is successful. I am certain I am not the only one here who would like to know. Good Luck.