DIY Jewelry Cleaner: 4 Simple Steps to Cleaning Your Jewelry

Is your jewelry going rusty because you don’t use them as much anymore? Do you want to learn some useful tips for cleaning your jewelry? Are you thinking about using a DIY jewelry cleaner to polish your trinkets with?

The jewelry market is one of the industries that got hit the hardest by the pandemic. The good news is that some parts of the industry still found success despite the pandemic. Yet, it’s also because of the coronavirus pandemic that it’s harder to get access to jewelry cleaners now.

Thank the heavens for DIY jewelry cleaners!

This guide will teach you how to use a DIY jewelry cleaner for the maintenance of your jewelry. Keep reading to learn more about how to use a DIY jewelry cleaner. 

1. Knowledge Is the Key to Successful Jewelry Cleaning

Before you clean your jewelry, you need to know how to do it right. As each piece of jewelry is different, the cleaning method for each material is also different. Certain materials don’t react well with generic jewelry cleaners.

For example, gold jewelry needs to go into a gentle bath solution. If you want to clean silver jewelry, some ingredients help remove tarnish. Semi-precious stones can look shiny and new again when you let them soak in a solution of water and dish soap. We’ll discuss more on this below.

Most pieces of jewelry will do well when you soak them in water and solution. In contrast, pearls are very porous, so you need to be extra careful with them so they don’t lose their luster. Pearls are the opposite, so never soak pearls or leave them to soak.

A wiser decision is to research and educate yourself before you buy jewelry. Learn how easy or challenging maintaining a piece of jewelry is before you buy it. This way, you can avoid the obligation of cleaning them or taking them to the cleaners if you don’t have the time.

2. Create Your DIY Jewelry Cleaner  

After you’ve equipped yourself with the knowledge of cleaning jewelry, it’s time to create your DIY jewelry cleaner.

You’ll notice that the most common DIY jewelry cleaner is the solution created by liquid dish soap and water. It’s the best homemade jewelry cleaner. It’s affordable, often available, and straightforward.

Make sure you use mild liquid dish soap. Use this solution for gold and semi-precious stones. For gold jewelry, use sodium-free seltzer water to mix with mild dish soap.

Be careful when you use anything stronger than liquid dish soap. You can also use baking powder and boiling water as a homemade jewelry cleaner. It’s great for sterling silver, gold, silver, and costume jewelry metals.

As a note, be careful when you use boiling water on jewelry with crystals glued onto it. It can melt the glue that’s holding the crystal in. The trick is to avoid soaking the jewel-laden piece in the water for over 90 seconds.

What to Avoid Using as DIY Cleaners

Never use strong acids to clean your jewelry with, especially with metals such as silver. Don’t believe people when you hear them suggesting toothpaste as a jewelry cleaner. Toothpaste can indeed remove tarnish from silver, but it’s too abrasive for the metal.

For that same reason, you want to avoid lemon juice and other acids. You can use denatured alcohol to clean off the residue from diamonds. However, avoid using it on other stones and pearls. Considering the drop in the diamond market from the pandemic, you want to keep what you’ve got safe and well-maintained.

Liquid dish soap is the safest and strongest DIY jewelry cleaner you can get. Even then, you must mix it with warm or room-temperature water before you use it on any jewelry. Mild dish soap is strong enough to wash off the dirt on your ornaments and won’t affect the metal.

3. With Care and Patience, Clean Your Jewelry

Now that you know what to use as a jewelry cleaner, let’s discuss how to clean your jewelry. First, place gold and semi-precious stones in a dish soap and water solution. Let them soak for about five minutes.

Afterward, remove them from the solution and brush the crevices to remove the grime collected inside. In most cases, you want to take a soft toothbrush for children. Afterward, place them on a strainer, rinse with cool water, and dry with a soft cloth.

Silver jewelry like silver chains for men will have a different style of cleaning. Dull silver can become shiny again when you rub dish soap and water solution on it with a cloth. If there is heavy tarnish, dip the silver in a baking soda and water paste.

Use a soft cloth to work the paste into the crevices. Finally, rinse the silver jewelry, then buff and dry.

Pearls are quite fragile, so you have to handle them with care when cleaning them. The proper way to clean pearls is to lay it on a soft cloth and to use a soft makeup brush. Dip the end of it into a mixture of warm water and a little shampoo.

Brush the mixture over the pearls. Then use a damp cloth to clean the mixture off and rinse the pearls. You can also do this with other porous materials like turquoise and amber.

4. What to Consider Before Cleaning Jewelry

If you’re unsure about how to clean certain pieces of jewelry, always research first. For example, you have a ring that has both gold and silver materials plus a pearl inlaid into it. You may need to take certain steps so both materials get cleaned well.

Once you’re done cleaning and drying your necklaces, make sure you clasp them before you store them. Doing this will not only protect the necklace. It will also keep you from the troubles of having to deal with tangles when you need it again.

Keep Your Jewelry Clean and Lustrous

That ends our guide on how to use and create DIY jewelry cleaner. We hope the steps above help you learn the best way to keep your jewelry clean and presentable. We hope you learned something useful about the maintenance of various jewelry materials.

Did you enjoy reading this informative jewelry cleaning guide? Do you want to learn more about proper jewelry maintenance? Check out our other content for more guides on the other ways to care for your jewelry.