Cleaning Silver Jewelry

Silver jewelry can be a wonderful accessory suitable for just about every conceivable situation. However, if you don't take care of the silver properly, then you can quickly end up with a darkened, tarnished mess that looks completely horrible. Luckily, a fairly simple method exists that you can use to begin cleaning you silver jewelry today. While this method will work, and it is amazingly simple, you can also take your jewelry to a jewelry store and have them professionally cleaned. The only problem with that is that professional cleaning can sometimes be a tad expensive.

Materials needed:

• Aluminum foil
• Hot water (the hotter the better, just be very careful)
• 2 tablespoons of salt
• Soft clean cloth
• Medium sized bowl

Procedure:

1. Line bottom of bowl. Tear off a decent sized sheet of aluminum foil, and use it to line the bottom of the bowl. Don't worry about making the aluminum too smooth, as long as you have the entire bottom and sides covered.
2. Put the water in the bowl. Pour the hot water into the bowl and fill it up half way. By only filling the bowl halfway, you will ensure that it will not overflow when you put the jewelry in later.
3. Add salt. Pour the salt into the bowl of water, and then stir. Continue to stir the salt water mixture until the salt has completely dissolved.
4. Place the jewelry in the bowl. Place or drop the jewelry into the bottom of the bowl. Continue to place the jewelry into the bowl as long as you have space along the bottom. Do not pile up the jewelry too high so that you can ensure that everything get's nice and clean.
5. Soak the jewelry. Allow the jewelry to soak for about 10 minutes. During that time, periodically agitate the water by swirling it around. This will help ensure that the cleaning mixture gets into all the various nooks and crannies. The mixture works remarkably well at pulling off the tarnish on the jewelry.
6. Remove and rinse. After the time has passed, remove the jewelry and rinse it off. Set each piece aside for closer inspection. Pour out the hot salt water, and remove and dispose of the aluminum foil.
7. Inspect and repeat. Take a look at each piece of jewelry, and see if there is any tarnish remaining on them. If you find any, set them aside to repeat the entire cleaning process along with any remaining jewelry that you haven't been able to clean yet. Repeat the entire process as many times as necessary until you have removed all of the remaining tarnish from the jewelry.
8. Dry and store. Use a clean soft piece of cloth to dry off the clean jewelry. Place each clean piece of jewelry in a dry clean storage place to help prevent any further tarnishing.