Home Interior Blog

Silver objects never go out of fashion and almost always look great in any home interior. But after some period of time, you start noticing tarnish on your favorite silver figurine, frame or any other object.

This doesn’t mean you should get rid of those objects, you can simply clean the silver all by yourself.

Firstly, you should know that the cause of tarnish doesn’t have anything to do with the way you take care of silver. It will appear at some points, because silver oxidizes when it is exposed to air. One of the components of tarnish, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), is in the air.

Many things like food, wool and even your fingerprints can cause the silver to tarnish. If you use a silver object a lot, the tarnish will appear more often.

If the silver object is not used and is kept somewhere, you shouldn’t polish it more than once a year. Otherwise the metal will be removed by too much polishing. Here’s how to clean silver:

• Don’t put silver into a dishwasher, as it will turn white from the heat and detergent.

• When washing silver, avoid wearing rubber or latex gloves, as this will result in corrosion.

• Use sponges, as steel is corrosive to silver.

• Add baking soda and salt to hot water, apply it to a soft cloth and start rubbing the silver object with it.

• Rinse under running water.

• Dry the object with a soft towel.

Keep in mind that light tarnish is yellowish and if you don’t take care of it, it will make the silver brown in color after a while. If you don’t do anything about it and the tarnish turns dark gray and becomes very thick, you might not be able to remove it at all. In this case the only solution would be saying “goodbye” to it.

That’s why you should take constant care of the silver in your house so it can be a great decoration for your home interior.

Photo: © joel.parham

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