Homemade Jewelry Cleaner

I don't know about yours, but my jewelry has been tarnished and filthy for quite a while now.  Since I (usually) only wear my watch and wedding ring every day, I don't usually worry about the state of my not-often-worn pieces.  A while back, I happened upon this recipe and finally decided to try it today.  What attracted me most was that it uses ingredients found in the average home that won't kill you.  Well, that, and that it's super cheap.  Here's what you'll need...

1T Baking Soda
1T Salt (use the cheap stuff)
1T Dish Soap
Aluminum Foil
1C HOT Water in a large glass measuring cup or bowl

Start by heating up the water in the microwave.  I heated it for 2 minutes on high.

Add in the baking soda, salt and dish soap.

Just give it a quick stir with the measuring spoon.  Mixture will be kind of thick and foamy at first.

 Tuck a piece of aluminum foil down into the bottom of the cup/bowl.

Say an Our Father and drop your valuables into the hot lava that could very well eat your jewelry alive liquid.

Wait about 10-15 minutes.  DO NOT WALK AWAY and forget it!  I'm sure it is possible for this solution to actually eat away at certain items and that would be horrible! Rinse under hot water in a strainer.

Dry each piece off and admire how good your once disgusting-looking watch looks!  Well, it still has its scratches, scrapes and dings, but it sure is shiny!

And check out this before and after!

At food.com where I found the recipe, most reviews said it worked great.  For me, it did, too.  However, there were  few that were complaining about silver and copper turning black.  Not sure that copper is a typical metal used for jewelry, but just be aware of that.  It's probably best not to use this on softer stones or pearls if I had to guess.  I did have a small silver chain that seemed to come out okay, so maybe it depends on the amount of nickel in it. Interestingly, baking soda and foil in hot water is the recipe for cleaning real silver, so perhaps the person complaining about it turning black didn't really have real silver.  The gold definitely came out the best, sparkling like new.  My wedding ring is platinum and it came out pretty good, too, but platinum really needs to be professionally polished to look the best.  Always be on the safe side and test it out for a minute or two....unlike me.  I dove in head first, but I'm happy with the results!  This whole batch costs about 10 cents!!!  I honestly think I could have halved the recipe and had more than enough.  If you're doing just a couple of small items, you could even quarter it.  I'm also not really sure the recipe needed the dish soap to be effective.  The electrochemical reaction between the foil and the salt/soda is what makes the solution work.  But the soap probably helps to get grease/grime off of the jewelry if that's a concern.  So, I'd say this is optional.  I think this stuff works way better than the stuff you can buy at the jewelry store or big box stores and the price cannot be beat!  If you give it a try, let me know what you think!

Pin It