Do you have any tips for cleaning jewelry? When Dan and I picked up our wedding rings, our jeweler, Bill, gave us some tips on how to properly clean them. First, he asked me, “How do you clean your rings?” Oh…washing my hands doesn’t also count as cleaning my rings? I thought. “Um, I use generic jewelry cleaner.” I quickly responded.
But, honestly, there was maybe a handful of times that I actually used jewelry cleaner, and the only reason it happened was because my sister was cleaning her rings with jewelry cleaner. Following my sister’s lead, I cleaned my rings by dropping them into the jewelry cleaner container, giving it a quick stir, removing the rings from the container, and then brushing each piece with the little brush that comes with the kit.
Well, I think Bill sensed my inexperience with jewelry cleaning and proceeded to give me a few tips on how to clean my new ring. Here are his instructions:
- In the microwave, heat up 1-2 cups of water for 2-2 1/2 minutes so it’s hot. The hotter the better.
- Add about 5 drops of jewelry cleaner to the hot water and stir.
- Drop in your rings (or any piece of jewelry) and let soak.
- After your rings have soaked for a few minutes in the mixture, remove them and lay on a paper towel so they can cool for a few seconds.
- When they’re cool enough to pick up, softly scrub each piece using a toothbrush with very soft bristles. Bill suggested buying a toddlers toothbrush. (I got the toothbrush pictured above, which is an “extra soft,” from my dentist as a freebie and it works perfectly.)
- Dry off each piece of jewelry with a soft cloth. (The cloth pictured above came with our wedding rings and was made specifically for polishing jewelry. It’s similar to cloths used to clean sunglasses.)
Smart, right? I’d never heard of this trick of using hot water and jewelry cleaner before, but it works really well. And I’m happy to report that now I clean my rings every two weeks, sometimes once a week, using these exact steps.