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.
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.