Jewelry: How to Clean Jewellery at Home

jewellery is for women

How To Clean Jewellery at Home

Women are very fond of buying new pieces of jewelry, especially of the latest designs and trends. I doubt there is a single woman on earth who’s not fond of absolutely any type of jewelry. But how many women are fond of cleaning them? I bet none. Reasons might be ranging from being lazy to just not knowing how to clean one’s jewelry. In case the reason is the latter one then you have come to the right place.

Different types of jewelry needs to be cleaned in different manner because of its chemical compositions as every piece will react differently with other chemicals/cleaning materials.

How to Clean Silver Jewelry

Sterling silver is around 92-95% silver with the remaining 5-8 % being copper. Thus, sterling silver will not rust compared to other silver plated items. There are various methods to clean tarnished piece of silver jewelry. The most effective method is using baking soda. Put your tarnished piece in an aluminum tray. Cover it completely with baking soda & then pour hot boiling water on it. Make sure the silver piece comes in contact with the aluminum as the chemical reaction between all these 4 items together – silver, aluminum, baking soda & water makes the tarnished piece to become shiny again. You can also use a silver cleaning paste from time to time which you can get hold of form any jewelry store. Gently brush with a toothbrush to reach the hard to get areas.

How to Clean Gold Jewelry

I learned this technique from my loving mother. Basically what you need to do is boil water with turmeric powder & surf washing powder (you could probably try other laundry detergents). Then turn off the stove & soak your gold jewelry in the hot water. Remove it after 15-20 min & then use a brush on the surface with a toothbrush. Next, rinse the gold item with normal temperature water & wipe it with a cleaning cloth. Your gold jewelry will look as shiny as a new piece 🙂

How to clean Rhinestone jewelry

Use a Q-tip dipped in alcohol, and then wipe it on a paper towel as you need to remove its moisture. Wipe it over your rhinestones & even the metal holding. For hard to reach places you could use a toothpick with a little cotton on the top. Dip and wipe the alcohol the same way you did with the Q-tip and then gently clean your rhinestones. You can also a mixture of liquid hand wash along with water and brush the mixture with a toothbrush over the rhinestones. Also a mixture of glass cleaner & water works in retaining the shine of rhinestones.

How to Clean Diamond Jewelry

diamond jewellery
diamond jewellery

We ladies have at least that one special piece of diamond jewelry. Don’t worry you will get it soon if you don’t already own one 😉 Imagine if that piece itself starts looking dirty & loses its magic touch. To maintain its natural beauty, put some cleaner in a container along with hot water. Then put your diamond piece in the container. Next, brush it with a toothbrush & then wash it. Make sure you wipe your diamond on a towel without cotton wool.

How to clean Imitation/silver/gold plated jewelry

Just rub a drop or two of toothpaste on the palm of your hands & then rub your piece of jewelry between your hands. Rinse with water. You can also rub it directly on your jewelry piece. & then rinse it.

Hopefully the above tips will make your cleaning & polishing job easier & you wouldn’t have to let go of your favorite pieces of jewelry just because they have tarnished!! Oh & don’t forget to use a different toothbrush & not your personal one 😛

Please Note: These are homemade techniques to keep your jewelry clean & sparkling however if done in the wrong way it probably could damage your jewelry piece. The best way is obviously to get it done professionally whenever required. So do not completely rely on the above methods. It’s fine to use them once in a while.

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26 thoughts on “Jewelry: How to Clean Jewellery at Home

  1. Insiya , i also clean my gold jewelry the same way. Thanks to mo. 😀 😀

    Regarding diamond jewlery, wouldn’t the glue be affected by the process? ?:-)

    1. i know moms are so great know 😀

      If the diamond is fit properly as in if the silver/gold encasing covers the diamond completely without leaving a gap for the cleaner to seep in,the glue will not be affected.

  2. I’m a silver junkie… I clean by rubbing a little holy ash on my silver. The old shine and sparkle are restored instantaneously and it’s not messy at all.

        1. Try it, try it !! it works almost instantly !! the best n easiest solution when it comes to all this always comes moms, 😎 doesnt it?

      1. hi smita… u mean just rub the ash on the silver items..dip the items in water first?? today only i was thinking of cleaning up the silver Idols in my mandir.. n c here at IMBB, i get such a simple way.. 😀 :laugh:

    1. In the silver cleaning process all the 4 items have to be mixed together – silver, aluminum, baking soda & water. Because of the mixing process it does not turn black (i have tried it) but if you like keep getting it in contact with just water often it will turn black.

  3. hey Insiya.. i use the toothpaste on an old toothbrush to clean all my gold jewellery.. nvr knew tht the same technique can be applied on imitation n gold plated jewellery too.. thanx for this tip.. :-))

  4. i have a lot of silver jewelery , n i never knew about the method mentioned above….nice post Insiya :yes:
    What i do is i rub it with tooth powder using a cotton cloth or cotton…n it works like magic…the silver is all shiny again… 🙂
    P.S. – the tooth powder i use is colgate…i guess all the white tooth powders work in that case…

  5. does anybody know how to get the oxidized silver look ?:-)
    i mean the look where the silver is shiny and the cuts n the design is black… i know we cud get it done professionally…but i just wanted to know some method to do it myself… if anyone knows do let me know… 🙂

  6. Wow.. Gr8 tips insiya..

    Btw, i have tried many things and found that the best way to shine Silver jwellery is to clean it with Colgate Tooth Powder.. Powder not paste…

    It removes even the dark stains on the silver which occur because of moisture… Try it!!!

  7. silver jewellery can be cleaned by rubbing it with an holy ash. similarly gold jewellery studded with ordinary stones or precious stones like diamond can be cleaned by using a glass cleaner liquid or baking soda or vessel cleaning liquid.

    Thanks,
    Vino

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