How to clean silver at home

Every family has silver items. This can be various decorations, dishes and cutlery, as well as interior items. Unfortunately, these beautiful objects later begin to darken and have an unkempt appearance. And jewelry generally looks unattractive and ugly and becomes unsuitable for wear. But everything can be fixed if you know how to clean silver at home and your silver items and jewelry will become as good as new.

There are several reasons for the darkening of silver items, namely:

exposure to moisture. When this metal comes into contact with damp skin or when exposed to humid air, it is sure to darken quickly. Therefore, great attention should be paid to cleaning silver at home;
feature of the human body. If the sulfur content in the human body is high, the silver jewelry will turn black very quickly, and if there is a lot of nitrogen in the sweat, then the metal may not change color at all;
improper storage of jewelry. They need to be stored in a special box and in a dry place;
low standard silver. This reason does not depend on anyone, but if you know how to clean silver, then low-carat items will shine like new;
metal contact with some cosmetics.

As you can see, there are a lot of reasons, but if you know how to clean silver at home, then this rather unpleasant problem will never affect you.

How to clean silver with ammonia

Ammonia helps very effectively

Of course, you can buy an expensive special silver cleaner in the store, but it is best to use folk recipes. They are time-tested, this method will be much cheaper. The most common method is to clean silver with ammonia; for this you need to purchase ten percent ammonia at any pharmacy.

Pour some alcohol into a glass container and place silver items there for about fifteen minutes. This cleaning method will help remove blackness from the metal and does not take much time. After the above time, remove the items from the vessel, rinse them thoroughly with water and dry.

There are other recipes for cleaning silver with ammonia, but you can choose which one you like best.

Recipe one

Place a tablespoon of ammonia in a glass of cold water. Add a little hydrogen peroxide and baby liquid soap there. Place the items that need cleaning into the resulting solution. After fifteen minutes, see if they have become cleaner; if not, let them lie in the solution for another ten minutes. After the visible result is positive, remove the silver items from the water and wipe them with a microfiber cloth. Now you know how to clean silver from blackness using this method.

Recipe two

Mix ammonia and tooth powder. Instead of powder, you can take crushed chalk. You should end up with a liquid paste. Take a piece of cotton wool, apply a mixture of ammonia and powder to the silver item, give time for the mixture to dry. After this, wipe the product with a dry soft cloth. Now you can tell your friends how to clean silver with ammonia.

Effective Methods for Cleaning Silver Items

The most effective methods for cleaning silver include the use of citric acid, soda and tooth powder, Coca-Cola, salt and vinegar. Let's take a closer look at each of them.

Lemon acid

Pour water in an amount of 0.5 to 0.7 liters into a liter jar. Then pour 100 g of citric acid into the water and place the jar of acid in a water bath. You need to find a piece of copper wire and then put it in water.

But it is best to bend one end of the wire onto the neck of the jar, and bend the other end in such a way that you can use the wire to pick up a silver item and, while boiling, take it out and watch the cleansing process. Boil water with silver for 15-30 minutes, then rinse it with water. You can also wash the product in a soda solution. This silver cleaning is very simple, but effective.

Baking soda and tooth powder

It is quite good to clean silver with tooth powder

Take tooth powder or baking soda - it doesn't matter. Then prepare a liquid paste from water and powder. Take a little of the pulp with your fingers and carefully wipe the silver item with it.

To clean silver in this way, you can use a cloth or a piece of bandage that needs to be folded several times.

Clean the product until it shines. You can reach hard-to-reach places with an old toothbrush.

Using Coca-Cola

You can clean silver at home using a rather interesting method: using Coca-Cola. Pour this drink into a vessel and place the products there. Place the dishes on the fire and boil for three or five minutes. This cleaning method will help effectively remove dark, unsightly plaque from silver.

Using salt

Another excellent means for cleaning silver is ordinary table salt; it is available in every household. Pour 200 ml of water into a bowl and add a teaspoon of salt to the water. Mix the salt and place silver objects there for several hours. To speed up the process, you can boil the products in salt water for ten minutes, then rinse them with water.

Using Vinegar

Vinegar is a pretty good way to clean silver; it helps get rid of plaque and mold. You need to heat up a six percent vinegar solution, then soak a soft small cloth in it, then wipe the metal thoroughly.

Baking soda and dishwashing detergent

The most common method is detergents

For those who are interested in how to clean silver, we offer another effective method. You need to make a cleaning solution: add a tablespoon of any dishwashing detergent to one liter of water, and add a tablespoon of baking soda and regular salt.

Pour the solution into an aluminum bowl, place silver items there, then place the bowl on the fire. Boil on a small fire for about twenty minutes, periodically look at the silver objects in the water, it may be that less time is required for boiling.

Boiled egg water

You probably don’t know how to clean silver at home yet. Boil any number of eggs in water and let it cool until warm. Then you place the silver objects in this water. It is clear that the eggs must be removed from it in advance. Surprisingly, the objects are cleaned, after which you wipe them dry with a soft cloth.

Mechanical cleaning of silver

It is worth noting that at home, silver can be cleaned not only by boiling it in some solutions or by soaking it. Thanks to mechanical action, the black film is removed from the surface of silver objects.

But for expensive products, it is best not to use this method, since the surface of the item can be damaged if mechanical cleaning is carried out carelessly. Therefore, it is better not to treat expensive jewelry in this way, but for dishes and other things, cleaning silver at home is allowed using this method.

Using lipstick

This method of cleaning silver items involves polishing them with lipstick. Take a lipstick that you don’t mind, a toothbrush and start polishing the product. After this, rinse the cleaned item with warm water.

Using the eraser

If you are interested in how to clean silver with an eraser, then it is very simple. Almost everyone at home or at work has an eraser; silver objects can be polished quickly and easily. This method can even be used to clean rings, but it will be quite difficult to polish a silver woven chain.

Toothpaste

A lot of recipes have already been proposed, but what else can you use to clean silver? Take regular toothpaste and an unnecessary toothbrush. Apply the paste to the brush, then begin polishing the product. Of course, you will have to tinker, but the result will be good.

I only wear blackened silver, and all the pieces are massive and most of them have cubic zirconia. I clean it once every two months, more often in the summer. I tried all possible methods, but only this one is effective. Ammonia + a little hydrogen peroxide. All! No soap, no water. I make a solution in a glass, lower the silver, stir once every 3-5 minutes. Then I simply rinse it with running water and let it dry on the fabric. Clean from 20 minutes to 30. Don’t overdo it with peroxide, otherwise the silver will turn light yellow. Then, however, when you wear it, it will become a normal color again.