Natural Jewelry Care: How to Remove Tarnish From Your Jewelry Using Baking Soda

Use all natural baking soda to safely and effectively clean tarnish off your sterling silver or gold jewelry.  The entire process from start to finish should take you less than 10 minutes.  Learn how in this video I created:

This method is best for:

  • Solid Metal Sterling Silver or Gold Jewelry
  • Jewelry that is mildly to moderately tarnished

Avoid using on:

  • Jewelry with organic materials such as pearls, or soft gemstones and natural materials such as amber, turquoise, shell, malachite, opal and coral
  • Jewelry that is heavily tarnished (additional cleaning methods may be necessary)

Supplies- what you will need:

  1. Baking Soda
  2. Boiling Water
  3. An aluminium baking dish (like a pie tin), OR a glass baking dish and aluminum foil
  4. A soft bristled brush
  5. The jewelry you want to clean

Steps:

  1. Boil 1-2 cups of water and set it aside
  2. Line a glass baking dish with aluminum foil, making sure it is completely covered
  3. Lay your jewelry out in the baking dish, making sure that it is touching the foil (i.e. don’t put a pile of jewelry in the dish; lay it out so each piece is touching the foil)
  4. Sprinkle baking soda on top of the jewelry providing good coverage of the jewelry
  5. Pour your almost-boiling water on top of the jewelry coated in baking soda, just enough to cover the jewelry
  6. Watch the baking soda start to form little tiny fizzing bubbles which will clean your jewelry
  7. If needed, add more baking soda or water
  8. Use your brush to move the jewelry around or really clean the moderately tarnished pieces of jewelry
  9. Once clean (should take about 1 minute), remove the jewelry and rinse under running water until you are sure all of the baking soda is removed
  10. Lay the jewelry out flat on un-dyed paper towels to dry
  11. Once dry, use a jewelry polishing cloth or soft cotton cloth to shine the jewelry

That’s it, you’re done!  It looks like a lot of steps but the whole process should take under 10 minutes (and that includes boiling the water).

Enjoy this all natural and safe method for cleaning your jewelry!


You can find this info on jewelry care, as well as other information about gemstones, metals and their properties on the Resources page of our website.


This post is part of a multi-post Jewelry Care series and focuses on how to remove tarnish from your jewelry.  The other posts in this series explore other means of cleaning your jewelry with an emphasis on natural jewelry care.  The other posts can be found here:

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