8 ways to remove permanent marker stains
Lil’ Duck and his friends have found the Sharpie permanent markers on occasion and boy can those make a mess! Thankfully, it can be removed, although I still need to work on the carpet. With this list, be careful as to the surface, as some of these things will ruin certain surfaces. I’d suggest spot-testing and using common sense (i.e. not putting bleach on carpet, not using chemicals on skin, etc. 
). Now if only I could get red koolaid out of carpet…
- Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
(also works for crayons, but don’t use it on skin, of course)
- WD-40
- Anti-bacterial hand gel
- Hairspray
- Cooking spray
- Nail polish remover
- Bleach (depending on the surface)
- Goof Off
*Updated to add other suggestions….
Eagles Wings suggested acetone for taking sharpies right off of plastic or hard surfaces (keep away from children, of course).
Renee said that rubbing alcohol will also remove permanent markers from smooth surfaces.
Mz Jay had an incident where:
My daughter got her hands on a thick black permanent marker(sharpie) she drew on paper but quite alot of it got on the kitchen table that has a wood finish on top. I used toothpaste and a toothbrush and it removed all the marker on the table! I let the toothpaste sit on all the marks for about 5 minutes and got an old toothbrush and scrubbed away! My table does not have any marker left on it, and the best part is that the toothpaste did not ruin my wood table or the finish thats on it. I would suggest using the white toothpaste rather than the gel types that are on the market.
Works for me Wednesday sounds great! thanks so much for the tips and I am off to find some more!
THANKS FOR THE TIP! I am soooo sure I will be needing it sooner then later! Now red koolaid, if I find out something I will let yah know!!!
In this house, nothing can escape the wrath of the Magic Eraser! That product was a godsend to my human pet who manages to get something semi-permanent onto something else every single day.
Never heard of goof-off. Hmm
I have some red crayon stains or SOMETHING on my sons carpet. Little streaks… The carpet shampooer didn’t get it out. I have no idea what it is but wish I could get it up.
good to know- we’ve got a fetish for sharpies around here. ya know, they make invisible (clear) kool aid now. it’s about time!
Thanks for all those great suggestions…
anything for pee pee in carpet??? we had a mess at our house this morning…still nothing as big as yours the other day….
Hey also Acetone will take sharpies right off of plastic or hard surfaces. I used to use that when I worked in a photo lab for taking sharpies off of negatives….
Blessings
EaglesWings
Will any of these take Sharpee off the skin of a 13-y/o pretending she has a tatoo?
We are in a lease house–moving out in one month. Little Darlin’ has never written on the walls–I thought my teaching was SOOOO good–until two days ago. He got one of the markers we’re using for marking boxes and practiced making 4’s on the nice white wall in the big boys room. I’m happy to report he’s still alive after the incident. :0)
Carol–you’re a kick!
I have been wondering about the Mr Clean Eraser….thanks!
Cooking spray! Who would have thought?! Thanks for the great tip!
If you catch it early, club soda will take out red koolaid. The Queen of Clean (as in Linda Cob) recommends club soda even for old koolaid stains (at lest it will make it lighter pink). She says that, after using the club soda and blotting it with a clean towel, use Spot Shot Instant Carpet Stain remover (from Walmart). if the stain is still set, saturate with hydrogen peroxide or undiluted lemon juice. Wait 15 minutes and blot.Conitinue to apply, checking progress to make sure you aren’t lightening the carpet. (Taken from Talking Dirty with the Queen of Clean by Linda Cobb. I recommend it and Clean it Fast, Clean it Right Edited by Jeff Bredenberg. Both books are life savers and aside from old household/cookbooks (which I also collect) are a great help in keeping thiings from being completely ruined with a house constantly full of children.
Great idea!!! I love the magic eraser! And no thoes red shoes on my site are “Dorthy’s, from Wizdard of Oz”, not mine, but I do have a cape that looks like thoes shoes =))
Thanks for the ideas. I keep Sharpies in a cup on my desk at school, and even high schoolers sometimes use them for nefarious purposes!
Cooking spray? I didn’t know that. Red kool-aid is forever. Have you considered just pouring it on all the rest of the carpet?
rubbing alcohol will also remove permanent markers from smooth surfaces…I don’t know about the carpet.
But you CAN take rubbing alcohol to make a tie dye shirt with sharpies… color the shirt with sharpies, place over a container to catch the alcohol and then pour the alcohol slowly…the ink runs and dyes the shirt. tah dah!
thank you for this. Last week I had a battle with my son, a marker, and the wall…. I wrote about it here: http://thedomesticdiva.org/p-nut/?p=28 …. I definately could have used some of the items you mentioned.
*makes a mental note*
I LOVE LOVE LOVE WD40. It is so great and I love to use it on mirrors & picture frames to get that sticky residue from the back of the stickers off.
Great tips- I love tips like these!! Thanks for visiting us!
I love Magic Erasers. There isn’t much they can’t do! Great suggestions. I had never thought of most of those!
Sharpies are the devil’s invention. We have likely dozens of these in the house because Mr. Right signs many, many autographs due to his profession. Once a few years ago, Halfpint took a black one to my 3-day-old satin & velvet comforter set. This was when money was verrrry tight. I’d saved for more than a year to buy this set. I cried. And cried. And cried. Wonder if any of these would have saved my pretty, pretty bedding?
Spot Shot Carpet Cleaner is amazing … we use it daily around here it seems and has yet to disappoint us. We use it on everything, maybe it would work on red kool-aid. Worth a shot!
Thanks for visiting today!
Thank you Thank you Thank you….now THIS is good info!
I’ve recently discovered silver permanent Sharpie marks in some of Snuggle Bug’s board books. I think I’ll try the nail polish remover to see if I can get them off. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks also for your comment on my WFMW (alternate use for a pot rack) post. As always, I appreciate you stopping by!
i’m going to try that next time! thanks!
I knew about some of those, but not others. It’s always good to have more things like this in one’s repertoire! If one thing doesn’t work, another might. Thanks!
Great list. They should market it with permanent markers.
Thanks for the tips! Wordless photo to funny! Thanks for stopping by.
Baby wipes work surprisingly well, too!
Thanks for stopping by my WFMW on the One Weigh blog and my foodie blog!!! The link above is actually my main blog (yes, I blog in three places… LOL)
Thanks for the great tips!!!
Wow – WD40? I’ve never heard that being used before as a stain remover.
I must print this list out and keep it handy for future reference!
Any tips for getting crayon off of the red footstool? It’s a cloth footstool. I’m afraid anything I use will result in dying the red.
Never heard of Goof Off. What is it?
Goof off is especially handy for when your 2 year old smears your very expensive Estee Lauder lipstick all over the carpet
I’ve had great luck with Mr. Clean erasers and Sharpie Stains. As well as dry erase marker stains. But I’m not so good with cleaning cloth …
Thanks for the tips. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve had Sharpie marks all over the place. I thought those suckers were permanent!
What a great list. I’ll definitely keep that handy. Thanks for visiting my blog today.
Isn’t Mr. Clean’s Magic Eraser the best thing to hit the market?!! It will remove most anything from most any surface! Luv it!
I LOVE those magic erasers. Thanks for some great tips!
I have the red koolaid/gatorade stain getter outer. I’ve never read you blog before but just had to give you this tip! Mix equal amounts of ammonia and hot water. Spray the stain. Take a towel and place over the stain. Go over the towel with an iron on its highest setting and watch the stain transfer! It was amazing. I did this 5 or 6 times over the stain and it was gone. It was an old stain too! Test in an area first. Hope it works!
i have a red shirt that has multiple black sharpie stains on it and the magic earaser didn’t help.
I used nail polish remover to take off black sharpie from an actual picture….and it work very well.
My daughter got her hands on a thick black permanent marker(sharpie) she drew on paper but quite alot of it got on the kitchen table that has a wood finish on top. I used toothpaste and a toothbrush and it removed all the marker on the table! I let the toothpaste sit on all the marks for about 5 minutes and got an old toothbrush and scrubbed away! My table does not have any marker left on it, and the best part is that the toothpaste did not ruin my wood table or the finish thats on it. I would suggest using the white toothpaste rather than the gel types that are on the market. Good Luck everyone!
the way to get red coolaid from carpet is to use a white hand towel or dish towel wet it and lay on the spot and then take a hot clothes iron and place on the wet towel over the red stain and it will remove it
the same method used for removeing coolaid is also used for candle wax and melted crayon on carpets
i have used the dollar store brand of srubbing bubbles to get red kool-aid out of my grand daughters white shirts.it works great.just spray it on,rub a little,let sit for 30 mins.spray again then wash as normal.this also worked on kool-aid that has set into the shirt and dried.
My son had put numerous red Sharpie marks on our camel colored microfiber duvet cover. Zout Stain Remover worked like magic on it. The marks immediately began to “bleed” and rubbing them with my fingernail practically made them disappear. I then put the duvet cover through a regular wash cycle and it came out just like new.
OMG..this websit is god..i got a guitar about christmas of ‘06, on the back i wrote, ” tom rocks!!!” in big letters. then it never worked.. so i was like..omg wut am i gunna do? so iread this website..and i used hairspray and it all came off…u ROCK..not me
Does anyone have a clue as to what makes the Mr. Clean sponge work so well? I just can’t figure that one out!
wat a great website, i recently damaged the top of my R5 driver(golf) and try to cover it up with permanent marker, soon enough the permanent marker didnt go black and i was left with a horrible brown mark, i used NAIL POLISH REMOVER, it came straight off without taking the origninal paint off, and there is no sign of thew mark that damnaged it in the first place
thank you
Im a 16 yearold, i have flag and everyone sighns it when there in my room but one day i lifted my flag of the wall and gess what i saw stains from a pernament marker.so i whent google and found this website…so i whent to my sis and asked “can i have ur nail polish” then i ran out of that the next tip was hairspray so i asked “can i have ur harispray?” the funny looks i get now from her lol but the good news that its gone and im glad thnx
Alex
The Mr. Clean Magic Eraser worked really well. My daughter had written her name on her really expensive calculator and we found a cheaper one and I had a fit. So we tried that and it worked really well. Thanks for the tips!