Much Ado About Stickers
Image credit: Hornbach
When Lady Owner first saw me online, she noticed it, but she walked past it on the day she visited me in person during viewing. She basically forgot, because there were other things more pressing. Then they won the bid to buy me, the House, and on the day of the inspection with the property agent, a.k.a. makelaar in Dutch, the said makelaar told Lady Owner, “I personally would get rid of the stickers off the windows. There’s a chemical product that you can buy in Action to get rid of stickers.” And she pointed at my windows, covered by what’s called raamfolie here in the Netherlands—all the motives of flowery curves, leaves, everywhere; and bizarrely Greek-style motives on the bedrooms’ windows depicting pillars and naked humans. That was how Lady Owner’s one year-long Battle of the Stickers began.
Here are what I should tell you about what humans in this country love to do to the windows of their houses: a. they put nothing at all, so no privacy, nothing whatsoever, something that’s apparently Calvinist (but even though you can see everything, doesn’t mean you’re permitted to take a look inside); b. they put regular curtains or other types of normal window coverings, because you know, privacy; c. raamfolie.
This is an example of windows covered by raamfolie. Image credit: Praxis
To be fair, some raamfolie or window stickers can be rather adorable, like the example above. It can be silhouettes of old Dutch Houses, or just plain and square. A lot of them are borderline hideous. Mine were hideous. Thus, LO went and buy that said chemical, after finding out that just normal and manual sticker-peeling procedure absolutely didn’t work on these beasts. She closed the door of her office (so cats wouldn’t disturb her) to peel off the sticker there, and proceeded to pass out because of the fume from the chemical (she should have opened the window). She was alright in the end, though, do not worry.
By the way that didn’t really work, as apparently the said chemical is for tame stickers like your children’s dinosaurs stickers that they earn after potty training.
A month then passed. LO accidentally saw a YouTube video about peeling stickers using hot air from hairdryer. It worked! It worked! Still so much work but it was easier than without hairdryer. But unfortunately, there was very stubborn glue residue left on the windows, and unfortunately there were a lot more windows that she could muster her energy for.
So she put the work on hold for a whole year, with half-peeled stickers hanging off my windows, and other windows still covered in glue residue and cat hairs that got stuck to it. Obviously she had to research what the next chemical would be right to use for the glue residue. Finally, after another Christmas was already on the horizon, her husband, MO, went to Praxis and got this thing: Bison glue remover
Take note, because this thing works. Still a lot of work and a lot of toxic fume, but please just remember to open the windows while you work on them.
So here are the steps:
Heat the window sticker while you peel it off slowly.
Spray glue remover on the glue residue and wait for 2-3 minutes. Wear gloves!
Scrape it off with a scrapper.
Spray what remains with vinegar and water solution.
Wipe it off with a wet cloth, and then a dry cloth.
Try not to get poisoned.
Good luck!
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