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How to Clean Your Silver With Household Basics

Silver is a beautiful but unfortunately quite fragile metal, which can quickly develop tarnish, stains or scratches if not stored properly. Luckily you don’t need to use any harsh, toxic chemicals to get your silver all nice and shiny. There are ways to clean your silver with household basics. A few warnings though. For any valuable or truly special piece, it is always safest to have them professionally cleaned. If you decide to go for household ingredients instead of products with synthetic chemicals, remember to avoid abrasive cleaners, which might scratch your silver. And last, be sure the dark smear is actually tarnish and not the base metal beginning to show through.

Toothpaste

For small silver items such as rings or earrings, the best silver polish is white tooth paste. Rub gently into the tarnish and then rinse the paste with warm water. Repeat the steps if necessary. Finally, polish dry with a soft cloth.

Baking soda

For bigger pieces, use baking soda and a clean, damp sponge. Mix some baking soda and water to make a paste. Rub the paste very gently into the silver with the sponge. Rinse the paste carefully with warm water and polish dry with a soft, clean cloth. For badly tarnished silver, leave the baking soda paste on the silver for an hour or so, before cleaning off with the help of the sponge and warm water.

Aluminum foil

Wrap aluminum foil over your tarnished silver. Make sure that the silver touches the aluminum. Heat some water in a kettle. Add a small amount of salt and some baking soda to the hot water but make sure that the solution won’t bubble over. Take the kettle of the stove and place the aluminum pack into the solution. Remove after a few minutes. Repeat the steps if necessary.

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