This the way my mom taught me to clean and polish silver when I was growing up. I’ve tried a few different methods, but I always come back to this one.
Of course, it all started out with a whole load of really tarnished silver:
And there’s more too. It’s pretty bad how much tarnished silver I have on my shelves. What better time than a chilly Winter day to get cozy and shine up your silver though?
It’s a pretty simple process. You just need a little bowl of water, some toothpaste and an old toothbrush.
Wet your brush, squirt on a little toothpaste and then brush your silver’s pearly whites…er… silvers!
When you think it’s pretty good, rinse it all off with warm water and dry with a tea towel. Here are a couple of candle sticks. One’s the before and one’s the after.
Now, truth be told, I just like to use the toothbrush cause it’s kinda fun. It’s really not a necessary part of the process and if you have something special and delicate, you can just use a soft cloth with the toothpaste.
I had one little piece that I really didn’t want to use anything too harsh on so I just smeared a little toothpaste all over it with my finger, let it sit for a bit, rinsed it and then dried it off with a towel. It still worked!
It worked for everything!
The best part is that if you realize your silver is looking a little sad, you (most likely) always have some toothpaste available to polish it up. No special cleaners or big messy processes required!
Try it out!