clean the jewels

Early on in our thrifting career, we found a jewelry cleaning technique on Pinterest that works wonderfully on both real and costume jewlery. We tweaked it slightly over the past year and want to share the new and improved version below. This is the spa treatment that every single piece of THS treasure receives.

You will need:

• aluminum foil
• a shallow dish (we typically use an old piece of tupperware)
• baking soda
• salt
• dish detergent
• hot water (enough to submerge all the jewels in the dish)

Steps:

1. Crinkle up the tin foil up, pull it apart, and line the bottom of the shallow dish. You want your jewelry to have as much contact as possible with the foil which is why crinkling is important..
2. Place your jewels on the tin foil and cover with a generous layer of baking soda, a sprinkle of salt, and a squirt of liquid dish detergent.
3. Heat water in the microwave until it’s barely bubbling or approximately 2 minutes.
4. Pour the water over your jewels and let the transformation begin! You may smell a foul odor, but that’s a good sign – it’s the sulfuric gases released by the cleaning process action.
5. Let it marinate for approximately 5 minutes – every minute or so, push the jewelry around (I use the opposite end of a wooden spoon). The tarnish is actually jumping off your jewels onto the foil!
6. Fish out your jewels and rinse with cool water.
7. Place on a flat paper towel and pat dry with a cloth.

Bonus step: If you have a piece of jewelry that has crevices, use an old toothbrush and a smidge if toothpaste to scrub and polish. Again rinse with cool water and pat dry with a cloth.

Voila!!!

Image credit: The Hunt Shop