Hello! It has been a long time since my last post. Since things have finally calmed down, I want to talk to you about cleaning and resticking your Cricut mat. Before I begin, I want to mention that this is original thoughts and the products mentioned are not sponsored.
I have been using my Cricut for months now making decals of my squadron’s patch. This has turned my standard grip mat into a gunky mess. It had also lost some of the stickiness and my vinyl was coming up while cutting. I began looking online to find a way to clean and restick the mat without having to purchase an entirely new one. Thank you Pinterest—I found numerous posts about how to clean a mat and restick it. I decided to try out the most common method and post about it. I figure I would write a post helping the other skeptics fighting the urge to just throw out a perfectly good mat. Unfortunately, I did this without taking a picture of the mat before the process.
To begin, the methods that I read about described using unscented wipes or dawn dish soap to clean the mat. I began with unscented flushable wipes we have in the house. It got the gunk up, but it required a lot of scrubbing on my part and I went through the wipes like crazy. I got halfway through the mat and decided to switch tactics. I got a damp paper towel with dish soap. This method worked better than the wipes. The gunk came up much better and I did not have to scrub as hard. After cleaning, I let the mat dry.
The next step in this process is to restick the mat. Online I saw numerous products mentioned. I went to the craft store and found Krylon Easy-Tack repositionable adhesive for ten dollars. I taped the edges with painters’ tape and followed the directions on the can. My tip for you: do this in a ventilated area and place a newspaper down to protect the surface you are spraying on. This will stick to surfaces and make those surfaces sticky—it is important you do not get this stuff on anything you value.
Note: DO not spray around items you do not want to become sticky. Lay cardboard down and spray out doors for ventilation.
The Result
Overall, I think that the dish soap is the best way to clean your mat. I used Ajax and it took the gunk off well. The mat was still a little sticky despite cleaning it but based on what I read, that seems to be common. To revive the mat and make it sticky again the Krylon adhesive worked great. My mat felt like it was brand new and held my vinyl. This image is the end result with the plastic covering on.
My Tip: keep the plastic cover and place on the mat after every use. This will keep your mat clean longer.
I hope this post helped!
