How To Clean an Old Whiteboard

When we moved into this house, the previous tenants had left a lot of their junk behind. The property management company had gotten rid of a lot of it, but there were still random odds and ends hanging about that we had to figure out what to do with. One of the things that I decided to keep was this old whiteboard that had been hanging in the kitchen. It is about 24 x 36 inches, so I thought it would be a great addition to my craft room. The only problem with it is that the markings on it refused to come off. It had clearly been used a lot, and I suspect whatever they’d chosen to write/draw on it had been left for a long time. I tried various sprays and cleaners on it, but NOTHING worked.

So I headed to the grand old internet to find a solution. Jackpot! Google sure knows her stuff! There were billions of home remedies to clean old whiteboards, but sadly I didn’t have many of the easier options (such as vinegar, isopropyl alcohol or hand sanitizer). So I settled for one of the lesser-known remedies – TOOTHPASTE!

Now the things I’d read had said to use just plain cheap old white toothpaste. But we didn’t have any. But I figured since ours is a WHITENING toothpaste, it could only help whiten the whiteboard, amirite???

So onto a wet kitchen cloth I squeezed a little bit of the toothpaste. I wasn’t sure how much to go for, but this did the trick perfectly, so I’d say about half a teaspoon is perfect.

I rubbed the wet cloth against itself a bit to spread the toothpaste around, and then I just began to scrub the whiteboard.

I. WAS. AMAZED.

It took hardly any effort at all to remove the old stains. There were a few spots where there were actual scratches in the board and the marker had become embedded, but a tiny bit of extra effort got it up with no problem. It was literally sparkling white in less than 60 seconds.

Once I was satisfied, I simply took a wet paper towel and quickly removed any excess toothpaste (another 30 second job) and then a dry paper towel to make sure it was dry and ready (10 seconds).

The entire process took less than 2 minutes and made my whiteboard look brand new.

I only wish I’d known this trick back when I re-did Mark’s office and couldn’t manage to clean his whiteboard. I’ll never be caught out again!