You Can Use A Common Bathroom Product To Polish Your Silver

Silver is a very popular metal. It is also very durable and beautiful, making it suitable for lots of purposes, including hardware around your home, antique dishes and saucers, silverware and flatware, and jewelry.

However, over time, silver will begin to react to the elements around it, mainly oxygen and water, and begin to oxidize and tarnish. This tarnish will start to turn your silver items black or brown, which is unsightly and can eventually start to damage the integrity of the metal underneath. This can be especially dangerous for antique and vintage items.

According to Roma Designer Jewelry, it can take anywhere from two months to three years to start to see tarnish on your silver items. Tarnish is certainly not a death sentence, but it is something you want to get ahead of. If you wear your silver as jewelry, the oils in your skin will start to tarnish it earlier as opposed to a preserved object. There are plenty of silver cleaning products on the market, but you don't need to break the bank to clean your silver items — one very commonplace household item does the trick just fine.

Simple toothpaste is an incredibly effective, gentle, and cost-efficient material you can use to clean your silver items, says This Happy House Cleaning Cleaning. You can use any toothpaste, but it should be specifically non-abrasive and not a gel toothpaste. Baking soda is also a natural silver cleaner, so a baking soda-based toothpaste would be extra effective.

Grab a soft, non-scratching cloth, like microfiber, flannel, or a paper handkerchief. Remove any surface debris and then apply a small amount of toothpaste to the cloth. Use slow and gentle circular movements to buff off the tarnish and clean the silver. Let the toothpaste sit for at least five minutes but not too much longer. Rinse off the toothpaste with clean water, either under a gentle stream or using a fresh damp cloth. The silver should be clean, shiny, and free of any visible tarnish.