Homemade Jewelry Cleaner

Before I was married and wore a pretty sparkly ring, I never understood why people would say their rings were dirty. Did that ever happen to you? The conversation usually went like this:

Me: "Hi random pretty person I'm trying to make like me. I love your ring."
Random Pretty Person: "Oh thanks, but it's just soooooooooooooooo dirty."
Me: "Wow, you must be super fancy."

But now that I wear a ring every day, I totally get it. My ring gets dirty. It gets dirty and dull and just sort of there. And it needs to be cleaned.

I'm way too lazy busy to make it to the jewelry store to get it cleaned, so I needed an alternate option. I was planning on buying a shake-em-up jewelry cleaner, but then stumbled upon this on Pinterest:

              

It's a homemade jewelry cleaner. With things you already have in your house. Un-be-liev-able.

Here's the recipe, borrowed from here:

• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon dish detergent
• 1 cup water
• 1 piece aluminum foil

Directions:

1. 1
   Heat water in the microwave for 1 or 2 minutes.
2. 2
   Cut a piece of aluminum foil that roughly covers the bottom of a small bowl (like a cereal bowl).
3. 3
   Pour hot water into bowl. Place salt, soda, and dishwashing liquid into bowl. Place jewelry on top of foil and let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Rinse jewelry in cool water and dry jewelry completely with soft cloth. Discard solution after use and make a new batch next time.
4. 4
   According to wire-sculpture.com, "this works well for gold-filled, brass, german (nickel) silver, and sterling silver. I have even cleaned jewelry with freshwater pearls, shell cameos and mother of pearl with no problem.".

I obviously did it IMMEDIATELY, and my rings looked great! Well, in this picture they look scary. But after 10 minutes and a rinse, they looked great!

I'm definitely going to this cleaner over and over - no point in buying money when we have all the ingredients for this one, and it's natural. Who knows what chemicals are in the other one, and I'm not putting my rings I love so much into chemicals if I don't have to!

The reviews for this recipe say it's also great for silver. So if you're the kind of fancy person who has silver that you polish, consider using this for that, too. 

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