How to Fix Chalkboard Ghosting

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably experienced this at least once…

You wrote on a chalkboard – you probably used chalk markers (since they’re usually waaaaay better than actual chalk at signage) but maybe you used actual chalk. You wrote on it, you erased it, and it erased just fine. But when you came back to it later… You could see the writing and residue coming back on the board – it never fully erased.

IT’S SO FRUSTRATING! This is what we like to call in the biz – ghosting.

In this post, I’m going to talk about how to solve this problem – specifically using VersaChalk’s Natural Cleaning Kit for Chalkboards and Whiteboards. I heard amazing things about it and had been wanting to try it. My normal method doesn’t always work, so I’m always open to products or processes that work better.

Aaaaaaand if you want to win one, keep reading to find out how!

First Things First…

The links below may be affiliate links where appropriate. This means that your purchase through these links may result in a few cents in payment to me, to support creating further resources like this one! That being said, I will never suggest supplies that I do not personally use and fully recommend.

Supplies Mentioned

VersaChalk Cleaning Kit
Chalkboard
Chalk
Windex
Paper Towel

Rather watch than read… and enter the giveaway? No problem! You can watch my hacks to fix chalkboard ghosting (and use the VersaChalk Cleaning Kit for the first time) in real-time by clicking the video below!

Let’s Get Started!

This chalkboard used to say Home Sweet Home and before that, it had a handlettered “A” on it. You can still see ghosting from both of them! You can see HOME at the top, a banner and “A” in the middle, and HOME again at the bottom.

I used Windex and a paper towel (my normal method) to remove them, but it just didn’t work. The ghosting was still there.

On the other side of the chalkboard, was a duplicate of the Home Sweet Home sign with a banner. This was a chalkboard I used to use for workshops, so it had the same design on both sides.

Like I said, I used Windex and paper towel on one side, and the ghosting remained. So I used the VersaChalk Cleaning Kit on the other side to see what would happen.

Let’s See What’s Included…

The kit includes 10 ounces of natural cleaning solution, 1 microfiber cloth, and 2 all-purpose foam erasers.

I love that the kit is 100% natural – I’m always looking to use natural products when I can.

I was super skeptical to see if the natural cleaner was better than Windex. I mean, Windex didn’t do a great job either…

The solution says it removes shadows, ghosting, and ink residue. All natural, non-toxic, no alcohol, no ammonia, and no petrochemicals, which is all great!

Let’s Try It Out…

The instructions basically say to just spray it on the area you want to clean, wait 20-30 seconds, and wipe clean with a cloth or paper towel. For best results, use the included VersaChalk Microfiber Cloth and the Foam Eraser.

Let’s Try It Out Using The Microfiber Cloth…

I put the spray top on and covered the board with the solution and waited 20 seconds. I used the microfiber cloth and wiped it all off.

It came off a lot quicker, cleaner, and better than the Windex and paper towel method (I should have filmed that process too, darnit!).

I cleaned it all off and then remembered that I this side of the chalkboard also had a handlettered “A” on it too just like the other said. With the “Home Sweet Home” lettering gone, the ghosting from the A was much more obvious.

You could also still see both “HOME” lettering as well as the banner.

This is the definition of ghosting, and it’s the most frustrating part of using chalkboards.

From this angle (below) you couldn’t really see much of the ghosting, which was interesting. If your chalkboard looked like this, you probably could reuse it as is without seeing much of the ghosting. But if you’re a perfectionist or if this was for a client, you wouldn’t want any ghosting on there. You’d probably have to buy a whole new chalkboard, which is a real shame.

So I decided to try the solution again but with the foam eraser this time.

Let’s Try The All-Purpose Foam Eraser This Time…

The instructions say to spray the solution on the corner of the foam eraser and scrub.

I scrubbed it A LOT. And I have no idea if I needed to scrub quite so much, but I really wanted it to work.

After one really good scrub, you could still see some ghosting – particularly with the top HOME as well as the A. But honestly, it was infinitely better than before the scrub.

And to be fair, that A had been on there for a REALLY long time at one point. I wasn’t surprised that it kind of damaged the chalkboard.

Hack: If you have a chalkboard like this, erase it as soon as you possibly can after the event or after whatever you’re using it for. The longer you leave it on the board, the more likely it is to ghost.

Overall, I’m super impressed with this kit.

I couldn’t really see the “HOME” ghosting at the top except through my camera. I had a hard time seeing it with my eyes looking down at the board.

I decided to try the foam eraser one more time and scrub those areas again.

Voilà!

Let’s Hear What I Really Think About The VersaChalk Cleaning Kit…

I gotta say – I was really impressed. You could still see a liiiiiiittle bit of ghosting depending on the angle. But overall, this kit worked really really well.

You could probably use Windex, a microfiber cloth, and a magic eraser to get a pretty similar effect without buying the actual kit (sorry, VersaChalk!). I can’t say for certain that it would work quite as well because I haven’t tried both methods back to back.

I can say that I really like that this kit is 100% natural, and I will for sure use the solution again in the future. It’s natural and works a lot quicker than Windex.

Overall, you could still see the A a bit, but it’s so much better than the other side that only used Windex and a paper towel (see comparison).

VersaChalk Cleaning Kit:

Windex and Paper Towel:

Let’s Avoid Ghosting In The Future…

One thing I need to say is if you’re having this issue with your chalkboard and want to avoid it in the future, you should always “season” your chalkboard.

You just need to take a small piece of chalk and rub it all over your chalkboard. Once the chalkboard is covered, take a paper towel and rub the chalk in. This will help reduce ghosting big time in the future.

It’s also nice to have some chalk residue when you’re doing your lettering projects anyway. 🙂

And that’s a wrap!

Overall, the VersaChalk Cleaning Kit worked really well.

To avoid ghosting altogether, you should always season your chalkboard before you use it and not leave your lettering on the chalkboard for too long. If you do those two things, you should really be able to avoid ghosting in the future. 🙂