How to Clean Silver Jewelry
Whether you are just starting to wear jewelry, or you have been wearing jewelry for as long as you can remember, it is important to note that all things must be cleaned at some point.
There are all sorts of different types of jewelry: watches, rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, etc. No matter the type of jewelry item, all of them need to be disinfected sooner rather than later.
Piercing is a popular way of putting jewelry on display. If you have ever gotten a piercing, whether it was in your ears, nose, or somewhere else on your body, the person giving you the piercing usually stresses the importance of cleaning the piercing area. Sometimes people forget that taking the jewelry piece out and cleaning it is very important.
With that being said, there are a handful of ways you can clean your jewelry, and depending on what type of material the piece is made of, the cleaning process is a little different.
Different Methods of Cleaning
There are a handful of different ways you can go about cleaning things, some are more productive than others. For example, you could clean your kitchen floor with a mop and plain water, or you could disinfect and clean your kitchen floor with an actual cleaner. There’s no wrong way, one is just more effective than the other.
There are many benefits to cleaning jewelry, not only for health reasons but also for visual appeal. Some people have come up with a lot of creative ways to make their jewelry shine, sometimes brighter than when they bought it!
Here are four different ways you can go about cleaning your jewelry, whether you just want it to shine brighter or you want to simply disinfect it. Cleaning your jewelry can be as easy as combining four ingredients into a bowl or plopping the jewelry into a single solution.
You can try all of these different ways or stick with the first one you pick, either way, feel free to try them all. The most popular disinfecting method is using hydrogen peroxide.
Hydrogen Peroxide
When people use hydrogen peroxide to clean their jewelry they typically add baking soda as well. The mixture is going to mostly be made of baking soda and only a few drops of hydrogen peroxide.
You rub the concoction onto the jewelry piece and leave it for at least ten minutes, no more than 15 minutes. Once the time has passed you can take out the jewelry piece and use a small toothbrush-like scrubber. Make sure the bristles aren’t too harsh, though, because it could damage the jewelry piece. After you have scrubbed off the residue, the jewelry piece should look as good as new.
You can try this cleaning process on a ring and see how effective it is for you. If you like this method, try a necklace and maybe even try to do multiple pieces at once!
Baking Soda, Salt, Water, and Aluminum Foil
This cleaning method is similar to the hydrogen peroxide cleaning method. It’s the most popular method when trying to get rid of tarnished silver. Silver becomes tarnished when it reacts with gases and becomes discolored on the surface layer.
In order to start this cleaning process, all you need are four simple ingredients. The measurements might vary depending on how much jewelry you are going to put into the concoction at one time. But it’s equal parts salt and baking soda and warm water.
Once the baking soda and salt dissolve into the water, you add a piece of aluminum foil then wrap the jewelry inside. This process only takes about 15 minutes to complete.
Cleaning With Soda
As wild as it might sound, simply submerging your jewelry in some Coke might do the trick! The acid in the soda removes the tarnish on the jewelry and makes it come out as good as new within minutes. It might not really be cleaning it, but it does do a good job of removing the dirty look from it.
When doing this type of cleaning it is important to check on the jewelry piece during the process, it really doesn’t take that long to remove the tarnished look, so be aware.
You can also clean your jewelry with a lemon base soda, this one takes about an hour to do. It’s the same process, just submerging the jewelry into the soda, however, this type of soda takes longer to get rid of the tarnish.
Toothpaste
You know the moment when you only have a few more drops left of toothpaste in the tube and you can’t quite get it all out but you don’t want to throw the remaining ounces out? Well, you are in luck, because now you can put that toothpaste to good use! Just cut open the container and smear the remaining toothpaste onto a dirty jewelry piece. That way you aren’t wasting the toothpaste and you are being productive by cleaning your jewelry.
You don’t have to wait until your toothpaste tube is near the end of its lifespan, but it might just make you feel more productive knowing you used every ounce you had.
Just Clean Your Jewelry Pieces
There are a handful of other known ways to clean your jewelry pieces and some of them might be more productive than others. Some of them might not be easy to do, it might be easier to just call your local jewelry store and ask them to help you out.
If you don’t have the money for that, or you simply don’t want to ask someone to clean such a small thing for you, then try out these cleaning ideas listed above.
Most of these ideas only take 15 minutes or less, but if you don’t want to risk ruining your jewelry pieces, do your research before you start your science experiment. Good luck and may your jewelry shine as good as new!
