How to Secretly Open Sealed Envelopes

Depending on what’s inside, opening an envelope can be a wonderful, exhilarating experience that no one will even know if you do it right. This wikiHow teaches you how to open an envelope so discreetly that no one will know that you peeked.

Table of Contents

Open envelopes with steam

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Heat water on the stove. Heat the water in the kettle until steam begins to rise through the faucet. We will use steam to loosen the glue on the envelope. Note: steam can cause envelopes to become damp or warped, so in order for everything to look new and intact, you may need to replace the envelope with a new one.

If the steam coming out is thick and strong, place a spoon in the kettle to disperse the steam. This will limit the possibility of paper warping due to the dense heat.
If you don’t have a kettle, simply heat a small pot of water until steam rises.

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Place the seal on the envelope into the steam. To avoid burns, use tongs or oven mitts to hold the envelope into the hot stream. Hold the envelope in the hot steam for about 20 seconds to soften the glue. ^{[1] X Research Source}

With commercial envelopes with a long glue line, you need to run the entire envelope back and forth in the steam so that the glue in all positions softens.
Envelopes should not be left in the steam for more than 20 seconds as this will cause the paper to warp.

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Use the envelope opener to lift the envelope flap. Place the envelope on the table and carefully slide the tool under the top flap to slit the glue. Open the envelope cover and take out the contents inside. You need to proceed slowly to avoid accidentally tearing the envelope, but fast enough before the glue starts to stick again.

If the sealing lid doesn’t open easily and tends to tear slightly, continue to steam the envelope to soften the glue.

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Let the envelope dry. After viewing or replacing the contents of the envelope, allow the envelope to dry completely before sealing it again. To prevent the paper from creasing, you can place a sheet of wax paper on top of the envelope and then press a heavy book on top. By pressing it flat while it dries, the envelope will look like new.

You can also iron the envelope flat. However, you need to avoid leaving the iron on the envelope for longer than a few seconds because, unfortunately, concentrated heat can cause the paper to yellow or burn.

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Re-seal the envelope. It is possible that the original seal of the envelope has lost its stickiness after being exposed to steam, so you need to use another method to seal it again. To keep envelopes looking like new and never opened, follow these methods:

Use dry glue. As the name suggests, this glue is relatively dry so you can discreetly re-glue envelopes. Apply glue to the inside edge of the envelope flap and smooth it down. The envelope will look like new.
Use wet glue. Milk glue, super glue, or any wet glue will do if you don’t have dry glue. However, you need to use as little as possible so that the envelope doesn’t wrinkle with moisture.

Frozen envelopes

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Place the envelope in a plastic freezer bag. To prevent the maple from getting wet and wrinkled by ice, you need to put it in an airtight bag. Otherwise, the envelope will crumple and become suspicious.

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Place the sealed envelope in the freezer for a few hours. The low temperature of the freezer will cause the glue to lose its stickiness. You can freeze it for any length of time, as long as it takes at least a few hours for the glue to come off. ^{[2] X Research Source}

To achieve the desired effect, you must use the freezer, not the refrigerator. The temperature of the refrigerator is not low enough for the glue to lose its stickiness.
If a freezer isn’t available, you can place the envelope in a sealed plastic bag and dip it in a bowl filled with ice. This method is quite risky because if the plastic bag is opened, water will seep in and damage the envelope and its contents.

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Open the envelope. After a few hours of freezing, you should be able to open the envelope easily with just your bare hands. If the envelope flap is not easy to open, use a special tool or knife. If you feel the glue hasn’t lost its stickiness, don’t risk it, keep putting the envelope in the freezer overnight and try again. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

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Re-seal the envelope. When applying this method, the glue when frozen will lose its stickiness, but will stick again as soon as defrosted. To re-seal, simply wait a few minutes for the envelope to warm to room temperature and pull the envelope cover down. The envelope flap will stick and show no sign of being opened.

If the envelope flap doesn’t stick when you pull it down, use dry glue to reattach it.
If no dry glue is available, you can apply a thin layer of milk glue or super glue to seal the envelope.

Advice

Avoid holding envelopes too much. Every wrinkle, dent or bend can raise doubts about the security of the envelope.

Steps

Open envelopes with steam

Frozen envelopes

Advice

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