How To Remove Plastic Slime From Clothing

Sticky homemade or store-bought slime is a popular plaything. Whether it has been left unattended or forgotten long enough to set on your favorite piece of clothing, there are a few ways to remove slime. Slime that has just found its way onto your clothing is much easier to remove. Slime that has had time to settle into your sheets, wander unchecked through a hamper of clothing or puddle into an area rug requires a bit more time, tools and solutions to remove the substance and its subsequent stain.

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It is cold and sticky yet pulls quickly away from skin and other biological surfaces, metals, glass and plastics. However, slime loves soft materials such as clothing and carpeting and wraps its molecules tightly around each individual fiber. Slime can't help it; it's just built that way.

Whether homemade or store-bought slime, the ingredients in slime can make it difficult to remove from clothing.

Slime is composed of a cross-linked polymer. While it is enjoyed for its thick and flowing properties, it is actually classified as a liquid. Cold and slimy to the touch, commercial play slime is created by combining polyvinyl alcohol solutions with borate ions.

If you have slime that has sat for a length of time or overnight, it needs to be addressed with some simple tools. For slime that has gathered into a hardened puddle, do your best to gently lift the glob from the material. Use a butter knife or other fairly blunt-edged instrument to slowly separate the hardened slime from the soft cloth.

Once you have removed as much of the physical slime as possible and still have some big bits left behind, ice cubes can lure the blob away from the cloying fibers. Let ice sit for a good 10 minutes on the slippery blob to help it to harden and pull away more easily from the material.

Before you throw the item in the washing machine and hope it comes out in the wash, there are a few more ways to ensure the slime completely comes out of the item. To further pull slime away from clothing, you can soak it.

• Hot water method: After all that work, there are still layers to go. If the
  clothing is cotton or another material that may be more damaged by a spin through
  a washing machine, then you should soak it in hot water for at least 30
  minutes. Make the water as hot as possible without damaging the
  fabric of the clothing. This will remove any loose globs of slime from the
  fibers and shake out any dyes from the slime that haven't adhered to the fibers.
• Vinegar method: Soak the item in vinegar for at least 15 minutes. This works
  well on carpeting and larger items that can't be placed into a washing machine.
  Vinegar will evaporate faster than water, so if the stain and slime pieces
  persist, douse the area with vinegar and use a scrub brush to gently rub the
  acid-based cleaner deep into the fibers.

Before drying the garment or item, make sure the stain is completely gone or removed enough for your satisfaction. Once it has made a trip through the hot drying cycle, it will set permanently beyond your cleaning capabilities.

Slime on leggings, T-shirts or other thin-fiber material may require a few passes with cleaner or a few cycles in the washing machine before it is completely devoid of this viscous substance.