Last Christmas, my mother-in-law surprised me with my first piece of silver! She warned me it would eventually tarnish and require a little maintenance, and well, 6 months later it was definitely overdue for a little TLC.
Removing tarnish by hand can be a daunting task, so I chose a much easier route of letting my pot soak in my sink for a few minutes.
De-Tarnish Your Silver
This method is so great because you likely already have all of the supplies you need at home. And it works on jewelry too.
Supplies You’ll Need
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Aluminum foil
- Almost boiling hot water
De-tarnish your silver {in less than 2 minutes}
Materials
- Aluminum foil
- ½ cup salt
- ½ cup baking soda
- Almost boiling hot water
Instructions
Line your sink {or a dishpan} with aluminum foil, shiny side up.
Pour the baking soda and salt into the sink.
Fill sink two-thirds full with almost-boiling water. Submerge silver for 1 - 2 minutes.
Rinse with hot water, and then immediately dry with a soft cloth.
Ta-da! Like brand new, in less than 2 minutes! Wild, right?!
Why this method works
The foil, soda and hot water produce a chemical reaction that sucks the silver sulfide, or tarnish, from the silver item, and onto the foil. After cleaning several pieces, you will notice that the foil has become quite dark.
Happy de-tarnishing!
This is great to know and Kevin will appreciate it greatly. He polishes my silverware piece by piece! 😉
I def pinned that one! I hate polishing silver! Thanks for the tip! xoxo
Wow! That's awesome! Do you think this would work on jewelry?
What an awesome tip.
It does work on jewelry. Have some earrings soaking right now that I left on in a mineral hot spring. 🙂
This makes it look so easy!
Looks awesome! It's amazing what a cleaning will do. I have some silver pieces I've bought at the thrift store that I need to clean.. this is perfect! Thanks.
Wow, this is awesome. I waste so much time polishing silver or putting it off for too long. Perfect timing too, mine's in major need of a cleaning. Thanks for sharing!
THANK YOU SO MUCH! You just saved the day! My hubby was helping out with the dishes and decided to put some of our pretty silver in the dish washer… EEEeeek! I know. Bless his heart, he felt so bad when I pulled them out and they had turned.I told him no worries although I was a little worried :/. But thank goodness I read your blog today because now I'm confident I can make the silver serving ware good as new! Thanks girl 🙂
This is awesome to know! Thanks for sharing. I always go to Tiffany and Company and buy their silver polish pads which are not cheap. xo
Definitely saving this tip!
I have a big silver punch bowl…wondering what to do to polish it. Hopefully I can find a big dishpan. Might have to polish it the old-fashioned way.
This is fantastic!! Love your blog. You're darling!! Newest reader!
WOW! What a difference! That's nuts! Great tip!
Whoa!! I need to try this – great post! Thanks 🙂
Wow this saved me at least an hour, I will look at silver the same again. Thank You.
Have to tell you: Remember when you were a little kid and you sang "I'm A Little Tea Pot"? Well, the song was right. Teapots are short and stout. Coffee Pots are tall. Yours is a coffee pot. LOL
Will this work on brass also? I have brass and silver wine holders??? Their not called glass so idk the proper weir for them at the moment?
I’ve done this quite a few times on silverware. They ate much better but on some there appears to be a light coating of white/tan powder that I can’t polish off with a cloth.
How do I get that off?
Thanks
I also tried this and there is a slight tan milky haze to the silver plate when looked at closely but from a distance it looks silver. My piece was inherited and neglected for a long time before my ownership, maybe it’s permanently discolored. I hope not. :/
I had the milky white effect appear too, and it does not come off. I think the only safe method is good quality polish and elbow grease. My English mother-in-law always kept an empty candy tin that was pierced in her silver chest. In it she put a small block or two of camphor (available online). This kept her silver shiny much longer, but not forever. I’ve had success with it as well.
I just did this with a silver teapot — almost black. The tarnish was gone seconds after I put the pot in the sink! Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, for this tip. It’s wonderful!
Can I used this method on silver “plated” teapot?
Cleaning silver has always been a problem, considering that they make up majority of our household items and jewelries. Thanks for this insight, it is conforting to know that there quicker ways to de-tarnish silver wares.
I just tried this on my mother’s old art deco tea servers. It worked in minutes and they were near black! Thank you so much for this tip, saved me on time and chemicals as I had everything in the cupboard for this.
Would this work on copper?
did not work, left my silver teapot and bowl pitted and spotted. Later I tried silver polish and would not remove it, I am afraid they are damaged forever. J. Carol
Everybody loves a shortcut but please don’t use this method on your treasured silver. The reaction that takes place, moving the molecules of tarnish from the silver to the foil, is also taking a tiny bit of silver with it. Plus, as a shortcut WD-40 is faster and safer. But for the real treasures stick to the hard work of silver paste/polish.
Wow! I thought my silver tea pot was ruined but this took all the tarnish off. I think the trick is to not leave your pieces in long. I turned mine constantly and took it out, rubbed it with a soft cloth and then dipped again. I also rinsed the salt off with cool water and rubbed again with a clean cloth. What an amazing thing. My teapot is so shinny again.