How to clean silver: 6 very effective homemade tricks

To clean this material and make it shine, it is not necessary to buy special products.

Silver is a simple material to clean; however, there is a belief that it needs special professional products to achieve this. This is not the case.

Objects made of this material, such as coins, decorative objects and jewelry, tend to tarnish or darken, tend to tarnish or darken over time, giving an oxidized appearance.. But you should know that silver does not oxidize, it only has a reaction to hydrogen sulfide that causes it to look dull and tarnished.

Let's see what it is necessary to know to have clear how to clean the silver.

6 homemade solutions to clean silver

To make your silver pieces shiny and shiny you do not need to buy any special product, it will be enough with some elements that you will surely find in your pantry.

Just remember to protect your hands with gloves and do it in a well ventilated and clean room (having passed the roomba before and having the surface where you are going to clean the silver completely free of dust motes) and use some of these products.

1. Lemon

If the stains are recent, this trick with lemon can be enough to clean the silver..

To do it you only need half a lemon and rub it with salt. With that half of lemon, rub the silver polishing it, and then let it act for a few minutes and rinse. After this, finish rubbing with a soft cloth.

This trick can be used to frequently clean silver, this way you will not allow it to tarnish and you will be protecting your valuable objects and preventing them from looking old and dull.

2. Baking soda with vinegar

The combination of these products manages to undo the opaque layer that appears on silver objects. For this cleaning option, you need a tablespoon of baking soda and ¼ cup of white vinegar. You have to add the baking soda to the vinegar and when it is dissolvedand when it has dissolved, submerge the items.

If the items you want to clean are very large, you can pour a little of the solution and rub with a clean cloth. Then, to dry, rub with a dry cloth and polish a little.

This trick is very efficient to leave the silver clean and protect it from dullness. It will surely be one of your favorite tricks, as it manages to clean metals in the best way.

3. Toothpaste

Toothpaste not only cleans our teeth. To the surprise of many people, one of its alternative uses is that it polishes some metallic objectsincluding silver.

How to clean silver with toothpaste? First wash the objects well with hot water and neutral soap. Then apply toothpaste on the silver to be cleaned and rub hard for a few minutes either with a cloth or a soft bristle toothbrush.

To finish, just rinse again and dry very well. When you see the results, you'll be amazed at how well the toothpaste works. toothpaste works to clean and shine silver.

4. Aluminum Foil

Want to make your silver look like it was just bought? Aluminum foil is a very effective trick to clean silver objects.

You need a container large enough to hold the items you are going to clean. Wrap it in aluminum foil, fill the container with hot water and add salt.. Make sure the water covers the objects and leave them there for about 10 minutes. After removing them, dry them and polish them with a soft cloth to bring out their shine.

As already mentioned, it is important that this is done in a ventilated room and that you use gloves because it could give off gases that could become annoying.

The aluminum foil in combination with salt will help you to clean the silver and make it shine again.

5. Water with salt

Another simple but very effective solution to polish silver jewelry or other decorative objects is to combine water with salt. It is necessary to add a spoonful of salt in a cup with boiling water and let it soak overnight. and let the silver objects soak overnight.

The next day take out the silver and polish it very well with a dry cloth rubbing it. The water with which it was cleaned should not be used again, if you are going to clean more objects, it is better to prepare a new combination of water with salt for each silver item you want to clean.

6. Banana peel

Of all the properties and benefits that bananas have, this may be the most surprising. A curious fact about this fruit is that the inner part of the peel has active ingredients that help it to remove dirt from metal objects..

So just take the peel of a banana and rub the silver object until you remove the stains and get a shine. If necessary, change the banana peel until you get the desired result.

This trick to clean silver is very simple and can be useful for frequent cleaning to prevent its opacity and stains.

Bibliographical references:

• Emsley, John (2011). Nature's building blocks: an A-Z guide to the elements. Oxford University Press. pp. 492 - 498.