Pages

Friday, November 21, 2014

Shiny Silver - hack that works!

You know those "life hack" memes you see all over Pinterest and Facebook?  Yeah, well, I saved one of them before I became a complete Pinterest whore.  

Have I ever mentioned how much I love Pinterest?!  Because I have... and I do!  I LOVE LOVE LOOOOVE Pinterest! 


Anyway, yesterday, in my "free time" (complete and utter sarcasm) I came across a life hack that I had actually BOOKMARKED on my computer.  How did I find such a creature?  Well, in my quest for complete and total organization (read that as "I am a complete OCD organization freak"), I spend about 15 minutes a day every few days decluttering bookmarks and digital files on my computer.  When I stumbled upon a bookmark, it was a broken link that I promptly deleted but I was able to ascertain what it was by the html address so... I started to Google the concept of what I had saved.  This led me to a science-based report that had evidentiary links which led to further theory-based proof experiments and yes -- my 15 minutes turned into a complete and total tangent that let me to this...



A photo posted by AprilD (@ardriggs) on
It is seriously the most amazing thing.  I don't put a lot of stock into many of those life hacks but this folks, is the real deal!

I have some jewelry that came in those BEEEEEEEEEUTIFUL turquoise boxes tied with white satin ribbons.  You know the ones I'm talkin' about!?!  

 photo b7e9f50d-8f28-4369-8e11-eeb8dda7089f.jpg


Tiffany & Co. jewelry is just the epitome of wonderfulness oozing with amazing and covered with special!  I'm not a girlie girl, but I luffs me some Tiffany & Co.  However, without proper and frequent polishing, like any silver, it tarnishes.  No one wants to wear Tiffany silver that looks like it's been dredged in suet from your fireplace.  Seriously, does this not look like your mom's cookie sheet?  Sad panda, ya'll.  It's been like this for several years.


 photo image17.jpg

But this simple process took it from bad to BEAUTIFUL!
 photo image11.jpg

So, you want to do it too?  Let me tell ya just how simple this is!

First you take some type of plastic basin.  I used an empty Rubbermaid container.  I lined the bottom with aluminium foil.  Shiny side up!  I got my trusty tablespoon and added two tablespoons of both salt and baking soda.  

I'm telling ya, this is really complicated! 

Here's the hard part.

Add your silver jewelry right on top...

 photo image14.jpg

...and then cover it all with boiling water... 


 photo image13.jpg

... and wait five minutes.  Oh... to be noted -- this part stinks.  Not the waiting... just the whole soda, salt and the idea that you're creating a chemical reaction to release the sulfur and oxidized film on the surface of your silver means that it literally STINKS!  

I rolled my foil so that it had little "handles" so that I could pull it out of the water bath, I transferred it to a bowl that had warm water in it (to rinse) it off... and then used a soft towel to wipe each off.

And look how it SHINES now!?!



 photo 557ea911-474b-4b37-bf0b-9f0ed00f023d.jpg

1 comment:

Paula said...

I have a set of real silver flatware inherited from my ex's grandmother...I have done this to it in years past. It really is a miracle. Thanks for reminding me. I will Pin it! And don't you just hate it when you find something fabulous and the link doesn't work?