Craft cutting can be an exciting, rewarding hobby. If you’re new to crafting, you may notice that your Cricut mat tends to lose its stickiness over time. As you continue to cut things using the same surface, it can also build up residue and gunk.
If left unchecked, this residue can make your Cricut mat even less sticky and prevent your materials from sticking properly to the mat when you cut them. That can lead to sloppy, uneven cuts. In bad cases, you may barely even be able to operate your machine correctly without a sticky Cricut mat.
Some crafters buy new mats whenever their old surface gets dirty or loses its stickiness. However, this method can become very expensive, very quickly. If you’d prefer to save a bit of money and extend the life of your old Cricut mats, you should learn how to clean them.
Cleaning your Cricut mats will remove any leftover gunk or historical residue. If you follow the proper process, you can also inject some stickiness back into the mats once you’ve cleaned them off. Keep on reading to learn how to clean a Cricut mat and bring back its coherence!
Cleaning Your Mat
The first step in this process is to clean your Cricut mat. You can use a few different methods for this process. Which way is the best for you will depend on how dirty the mat is, as well as how large the mat is.
Specific techniques may be less of a hassle with smaller and cleaner mats.
When evaluating how dirty your mat is, test its stickiness by pressing it lightly against your shirt or another cloth. If it still feels pretty sticky, the mat should only need a quick once-over to make sure it’s clean. If it’s partially sticky, you may want to run over it with a cleaning agent seriously.
If you can’t feel any stickiness at all when you test the mat, you’ll need to do some serious cleaning. Though it’s possible to clean a Cricut sheet thoroughly, you’ll also have to use separate chemicals to make it sticky once again. Take this into consideration as you plan out your budget for cleaning your Cricut mat.
Lint Roller
A lint roller is a great tool to give your Cricut mat a quick clean if it’s not too dirty. While this method won’t work on Cricut mats that need more serious cleaning, a lint roller can add some life into an aging Cricut mat in almost no time.
To clean your Cricut mat with a lint roller, first, make sure that the lint roller is fresh. Then, drag the lint roller across the Cricut mat. Make sure to cover the whole surface without leaving any gaps! If done correctly, this technique should remove most of the residue buildup from your Cricut sheet.
Newer lint rollers may even be able to add back some stickiness to the mat. While it’s not a viable substitute for really cleaning the mat with a sticky agent, the lint roller does have natural adhesive. If you need to augment the Cricut mat’s natural stickiness rather than re-sticking the surface from scratch, a lint roller might be just what you need.
Baby Wipes
Baby wipes are another quick and painless way to clean a Cricut mat. This method also won’t work if the mat is seriously dirty. Make sure you’re only cleaning off light residue and that there’s no severe buildup on the face of the mat. Then, grab some baby wipes, and you’re ready to clean the mat!
Before you use the baby wipes, remember that you must have alcohol-free and bleach-free baby wipes for the technique to work correctly. If the wipes contain either alcohol or bleach, they could ruin the mat altogether. You can destroy the mat even if there are trace amounts of either substance present. It’s best not to risk damaging your mat; wait and buy proper wipes for this strategy.
Once you have alcohol-free and bleach-free baby wipes at your disposal, you can clean the mat by running the wipes over them. If there’s any stuck-on grime or residue, you can give it a light scrub to try and dislodge it. However, baby wipes don’t handle heavy-duty cleaning. If some gunk’s seriously stuck onto your Cricut surface, you’ll need to use a more advanced cleaning technique to remove it.
Goo Gone
For dirtier Cricut mats, use an adhesive remover to clean the mat thoroughly. This method will destroy any adhesive remaining on the mat and force you to re-stick it once you’re done. You will also certainly clear off any filth. If the mat has accumulated a lot of grime thanks to constant use, an adhesive remover is an easy way to clear it all off without needing to replace the mat entirely.
To clean your Cricut sheet, spread some adhesive remover (like Goo Gone) across the surface of the mat. Make sure that it covers every edge of the surface; spread it out with tools such as a paper towel if you need to. Let it sit for a short time to sink in and do its work.
After about 15 minutes, you can scrape the adhesive remover off of the Cricut mat. Any surface with a clean edge will work. Many people cite a credit card as one of the best examples of a scraper. Wash the mat to make sure you’ve removed all of the adhesive removers safely and successfully.
As we mentioned above, using an adhesive remover will destroy any natural adhesive clinging to your Cricut mat. The lack of glue is less than ideal, particularly if you need to use the mat soon. Thankfully, it’s not hard to use adhesives to re-stick the mat. Read on below for more detailed steps on the technique!
Re-Sticking Your Cricut Mat
Once you’ve cleaned off your Cricut mat, you may find that it’s lost a bit of its former stickiness. Since stickiness is essential to proper die-cutting, you’ll need to get that stickiness back as soon as possible.
Plenty of different adhesives can work to re-stick a Cricut mat. Every cutter is different. Some prefer Elmer’s stick glue, while others swear by 3M spray-on adhesive. You should know that it will likely be more comfortable to spray on an adhesive to re-stick your mat. At the very least, it will save you the time you spend fumbling around to find the resin itself.
Summary
Die-cutting is an intuitive and enjoyable hobby. But if you’re not sure how to clean a Cricut mat, it can quickly become an expensive one as well. Learning how to clean and re-use your Cricut mats is an essential skill for any crafter.
Cleaning and re-sticking your Cricut mats will extend their lives and save you from needing to buy a costly replacement. If you do decide to clean your mats, follow our step-by-step guide above for the best information on both cleaning and re-sticking!