Clean silver - home remedies for cutlery, coins and jewelry

Cleaning silver is probably a favorite pastime for very few people. Since the black discoloration does not look really nice, cleaning the silver after a while is unfortunately unavoidable.

Clean silver with little effort - very easy with these tips

The unpleasant blackening of silver arises as a reaction to the hydrogen sulfide contained in the air and can therefore hardly be avoided. But don't worry, you don't have to clean and scrub for hours to get your silver back to shine. Some proven home remedies do most of the work for you.

• An old household remedy to make silver objects shine again is the beer bath . Put your silver in a bowl, pour beer over it until the objects are covered. Leave the silver in the beer for a few hours.
• Another very well known method of cleaning silver is using a commercially available aluminum foil . You wrap your silver in the aluminum foil, heat water and add five to six tablespoons of salt.
• Put the well-wrapped silver in the water and let it boil briefly. Then immediately remove the silver from the water bath.
• If these home remedies seem too cumbersome to you, use a commercially available silver immersion bath. However, it is not that cheap to get.
• For very large silver objects, another home remedy is recommended. It is also very inexpensive, but takes a bit of work. You take a raw potato, cut it in half and rub the object with it.
• Alternatively, you can use the notorious silver cleaning cloth.
• Another variant, especially to remove stains on large silver objects, is with the help of baking soda. Put some baking soda on a damp cloth and use it to wipe the silver.
• The toothbrush method with toothpaste is not necessarily recommended because ugly scratches can appear on the silver. Cleaning your silver in the dishwasher is convenient, but also not recommended.

Gently clean silver jewelry and coins

The blackening looks particularly ugly with silver jewelry. With jewelry, however, you should be even more careful when cleaning, so that no stones come loose, decorations are scrubbed off or ugly scratches occur.

• If milk has become acidic in your household, do not just throw it away. It is ideal for cleaning silver again. You don't have to wait for milk to become acidic, buttermilk serves the same purpose.
• Pour the sour milk into a bowl and put your silver in it for a few hours, ideally just leave it on overnight. Then rinse the silver well with water and dry it.
• If you can't get your silver jewelry clean with the milk, try your luck with lemon and baking soda.
• Put your silver jewelry in lemon juice for about 30 minutes. The acidity of the lemon releases grease and dirt. Rinse the silver jewelry under clear water.
• For the subsequent soda bath, mix approximately one to two tablespoons of soda with warm water. Place the silver jewelry in the soda bath for a few minutes.
• Cleaning the silver jewelry or silver coins with the so-called ultrasonic cleaner is even more convenient.

Prevent black discoloration of silver - so it works

Basically, you should try to clean your silver as rarely and gently as possible. With each cleaning, more or less of the silver coating is removed. It is therefore even better to prevent the silver from discoloring in advance.

• Silver changes color due to the influence of oxygen and hydrogen sulfide. For example, if you have silver cutlery or silver coins that you rarely use, wrap them in cotton towels before storing them.
• Another ancient remedy to prevent silver from tarnishing is copper. If you put a few copper coins in your jewelry box, they attract the hydrogen sulfide much faster than the silver.
• Result: The coins change color and your silver jewelry keeps its natural color.

Another, not quite as pleasant, but unfortunately unavoidable job in the household is cleaning the carpet. Of course, we also have some practical tips ready for you.