My Easy, Toxic-free Way to Clean Tarnished Silver
The main ingredient is probably in your pantry.
Why do we often think the solution to a problem is so hard that we go looking for an “easy” answer?
Take tarnished silver, for example. There are so many products on the market that are just a click away, promising to make our silver jewelry shine. And I’ve bought them multiple times - the paste, the shining cloths, and most recently, some liquid in a tub.
But I’ve never felt comfortable using these products, so I thought I’d try something a little different and see if I could remove the tarnish from these items in a more “natural” way with something from my pantry.
Expect to see more newsletters like this one in your inbox, as I do more slow and frugal living experiments in my attempt to use and appreciate the things that I already own.
I have a small collection of silver jewelry that I’ve acquired over the years. The oldest item that I have is a silver cuff with turquoise inlays that I bought at a flea market when I was in college. Over the years, it’s become tarnished and I never reach for it. It’s the same story for 3 other silver bracelets that I own.
I also have 3 necklaces that I haven’t been able to wear. My favorite of the bunch, a skeleton key necklace that my husband brought back from a work trip years ago was ultimately the reason I decided to do this little project.
I was doing a little bathroom decluttering and I came across a tub of sterling silver jewelry cleaner that I bought ages ago. I did use it on this necklace before but it felt really harsh and I didn’t like how “chemically” it was and I knew I didn’t want to use it again.
This got me thinking about how I could remove the tarnish from my necklace using pantry ingredients. So I started with baking soda.
[I didn’t document the state of the necklace before but I have included the “after” further down in the newsletter.]
And it worked so well that I decided to do it to the other items - 2 necklaces, my 4 bracelets and 1 of my husband’s bracelets (he has a matching “Caribbean Hook” bracelet like mine but I couldn’t find it - he said that it’s in his car so I’ll clean it some other time).
What I used:
baking soda
water
bowl
toothbrush
towel
[Disclaimer: baking soda is an abrasive substance and might affect the finish on some items. I wasn’t concerned about that with any of these items since I’ve used other things on them in the past and I like for my jewelry to have a little “character”, which is why most of my items are preloved.]
Steps:
I put down a towel under the bowl and I’m glad that I did because this got messy!
In a bowl, I mixed baking soda and water to form a paste (I didn’t measure anything out - I just added enough of the 2 ingredients so that the mixture wasn’t too runny).
Taking turns, and adding a couple at a time, I placed jewelry in the mixture and covered it with the paste.
Any bowl will suffice but if you have a bowl shaped like a cat’s head, I’d highly recommend ;) I let it sit for a few minutes and then gently brushed the items with a toothbrush.
I also found it helpful to use my hands, especially for the chains.
Once I had cleaned all of the necklaces and bracelets, I decided to clean 2 pairs of earrings - long ones with balls at the end that were a Christmas gift last year and a fun pair that I had bought at a consignment shop sometime last year that weren’t too tarnished, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt!
I’m so thrilled with how well this worked to remove the tarnish from my silver pieces and I’m excited to wear them again! I think my daughter will also be happy to use them!
My husband’s bracelet was probably the worst. Here’s how it looked before and also the photos that I sent him once it was all done:
And when he got home, he brought in his other bracelet and I made another batch of baking soda paste. And voila…
I’m happy that I spent about an hour to clean all of these beloved jewelry pieces. I’ve been trying to focus on all of the wonderful things that I already own lately, and while some of them need some TLC via cleaning or mending, it’s been time well spent.
I don’t know that I’ve ever used baking soda to clean jewelry, but when I saw the headline I guessed the natural ingredient would be baking soda.
Oh no! As a jeweller, baking soda really isn't recommended. It's a mild abrasive and while it might make your jewellery look good in the short term, in the long term it can cause damage, especially with delicate or gemstone pieces.
A gentle dishing washing soap (Dr. Bronner's is great), lukewarm water, and a soft microfibre colour works well and so long as you rinse and dry your pieces thoroughly, you'll remove dirt and tarnish without risking damage.