I topped a leftover spicy chicken sausage with the typical condiments and ate it with two carrots and an apple.
The apple helped combat some of the heat from the sausage. It was quite spicy!
After lunch, I gathered up a bunch of jewelry to pass along to my mom when she stops by tomorrow with Sadie. (Can’t wait to see my wiggly little girl!)
Yesterday evening I spent some time going through all of my jewelry and picked out a good number of bracelets, rings and necklaces I’ve had for years to giveaway. I’m hoping my mom and sister may like some of the pieces, but what they don’t want will be donated to Goodwill.
As I was sorting my jewelry yesterday, I used a Connoisseurs polishing cloth to get some of the grime off of my silver jewelry.
Clearly this bracelet hasn’t been worn in years and desperately needed some attention.
I even talked Ryan into rubbing some jewelry with the cloth as he watched football. Family fun activity! 
Much better.
Unfortunately a lot of my grimy jewelry didn’t look much better after rubbing it with the cloths, like basically every piece I had from Forever 21.
For some of my other pieces of jewelry, I looked to Real Simple for easy cleaning tips.
- Gold Jewelry: Soak for 15 minutes in a solution of two cups warm water and a few drops of a mild dishwashing liquid, like Joy. Gently scrub with a soft-bristle toothbrush. Rinse with warm water, and dry with a soft cloth.
- Diamonds: Soak for 20 minutes in a solution of one cup warm water and 1/4 cup ammonia. Then gently scrub with a soft-bristle toothbrush, getting into the small areas between the diamond and the setting. Rinse with warm water, and lay on a tissue to dry. If your diamonds are set in platinum, this method will also clean the setting.
- Silver: Rinse in warm water and pat dry. If silver is tarnished, use a silver-polishing cloth or a jar of silver-cleaning fluid, such as Goddard’s Silver Dip (available at drugstores). (Silver cleaner won’t harm gold and platinum, but it won’t clean them, either.) For jewelry with intricate designs, use a silver-cleaning paste, which can get into small crevices. (Don’t use toothpaste or other abrasive cleaners, which will scratch.) Wipe with a clean, soft cloth.
Apparently you can also clean silver jewelry by creating a thick paste with 1/4 cup baking soda and two tablespoons water and then rub the paste on the jewelry, rinse and dry it. (This technique shouldn’t be used with jewelry that contains pearls or gemstones since it might damage their finish.) For more at-home jewelry cleaning ideas, check out this article from Reader’s Digest.
Happy cleaning!
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
I use the water and ammonia one to clean my engagement and wedding rings. It works like a charm. My jeweler actually recommended it! 🙂
This is so helpful. I have a silver Tiffany’s necklace that legit looks black/grey. It needs to be cleaned so badly. I also love Real Simple, they have always have awesome tips.
Dont forget you can take it into any Tiffany’s store for free cleaning 🙂 They make it look brand new
I did NOT know that. Thank you!!
I love Real Simple. I wish someone would send me a subscription for my birthday. (Nov 27) Magazine Subscriptions are great presents.
Thanks so much for sharing this! I actually have a silver necklace I really need to clean this week! This was so useful!
Those are great tips! I need to clean my Jewelery. It made a hugeeee difference on yours!
Thanks Julie, this post is really helpful! Now I just need some help to actually get down and clean!!
I’ve also heard that just plain old dish soap will do the trick on diamond rings. It gets the grease and grime off of them and makes them sparkly shiny again!
Isn’t it amazing how much better you can get (even cheap) jewelery to look with a little polish? I need to do mine too, now that you’ve reminded me! And wow – I knew baking soda had a LOT of uses, but I didn’t know about that one! Thanks for the tip. 🙂
I need to do this too! I’ve been putting it off long enough.
I love cleaning jewelry! It makes it so sparkly 🙂 Especially my wedding rings.
Thanks for all the tips! I need to get on this again, haha.
Love that you used a Real Simple article to help you–I work as an editorial assistant there! 🙂
Um. I want your job, Brigitt.
so cool! you have a set of three-generation fans in my family! my grandma, mom and i all LOVE real simple!!
Those silver polishing cloths work like a DREAM. Seriously, they make my silver jewelry look like new time and time again. Love them.
I desperately need to clean my wedding ring! So many people I know are getting engaged, and my ring is looking pretty dingy next to theirs!
I’ve always used trusty toothpaste to clean all my silver.
Fun to see that you are sharing jewelry with your and sisters. My mom, 2 sisters and I started the purse sharing program. We send each other a purse that we’d like to retire t every few months so we get a little something new without having to spend! Right now I am taking advantage of my mom’s tan Michael Kors bag..new to me!
Cool jewelry cleaning tips!
Love the jewelry cleaning tips! I’m still nervous to clean my platinum/diamond engagement ring by myself though…I would be devastated if I messed it up. Good thing is comes with free cleanings! 🙂
Whoa, your bracelet looks brand new after using the polishing cloth! 🙂 I have so many pieces of jewelry that I’ve held onto “JUST IN CASE the occasional calls for it” but I really need to go through my chest and get rid of things I don’t wear. Thanks for the cleaning tips, I’m off to put a little life back into my jewelry 😉
i really, really need to clean some of my silver jewelry… but the polish we have at home is so stinky!!
These are some great tips! I always forget to polish my engagement ring and then my fiance so kindly reminds me. 😉 I use this jewlery cleaner, not sure what it’s called. Its red and in a plastic container. You just drop your jewerly in this container for 30 seconds and there is a brush to scrub it and it comes out sparkly clean! I think you can get it at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I got mine as a gift.
If you have any gold, you should try to sell it! Places are paying high for it. It could help with your car repair! 🙂
oh gosh i have SOOOO much jewelry that needs a good cleaning! thanks for the tips!
I really need to clean some of my silver pieces, they are getting pretty tarnished! Good idea!
My mom has this little bottle that she soaks her gold jewelry in, but I never use it since I prefer silver with my skin tone, but if an outfit calls for it I’ll wear gold.
What brand of chicken sausage do you buy? JW because I eat it all of the time! I love the Johnsonville variety but I don’t know how many Johnsonville products they sell in Flordida(I’m from Wisconsin and live near the factory). It’s always nice to try new brands so I thought I would ask. 🙂
Great how-to post! Unfortunately, most of my jewelry is super-cheap , so when it turns colors there’s never any going back. At least I have a reason to buy more so often!
Too funny. I have a pair of sterling silver earrings that I stopped wearing when I tried to clean them in the jewelry cleaner that came with my gold ring…and they proceeded to tarnish like no other. This weekend I took to the baking soda method and they’re finally silver again! It took 24 hours covered in baking soda paste (and, let’s face it, I wanted to see if it was working, so I also polished them several times before re-covering them), but I can wear them 🙂
Great post! I have been meaning to clean up some of my jewelery…. 🙂
wow, can’t believe the difference between the two bracelet pics!
Every time you make those chicken sausages I think about how good they look and how I definitely need to try them!! Do you just get them at any normal grocery store?
Yay for getting to read ONE blog post today! I love jewelry (obviously you know this from the necklace hehe) and need to look into cleaning. I have a few old items that really need some TLC! Happy cleaning/donating! Feels good to get rid of things!
Thanks for the cleaning tips. I have quite a few pieces that I thought were just gonners because they were were tarnished, but I’ll have to try this to get them new again.
I’ve used toothpaste to clean my silver jewelry before… whoops… didn’t know it could scratch it!
Thanks for all the info on cleaning jewelry. I have such an assortment of inexpensive junk pieces and usually just end up throwing them away when they get a little tarnished. I guess I should invest the time into just polishing them up instead of wasting more money on new crap.
P.S. It’s weird how even though I’m vegetarian, that chicken sausage actually looks kinda yummy. I think it must just be the good lighting you used 🙂
Thanks for the tips! Most of my jewelery is really cheap and not worth the was, but I have a few pieces in dire need of some TLC!
Oh man, the greatest silver polishing tip ever involves a dish, tin foil, baking soda, water and that’s it!. It’s not awesome for heavily tarnished stuff, but it does a great job to renew your silver.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5078306_clean-baking-soda-tin-foil.html
It’s a trick my mom taught us!
You have an awesome jewelery collection! I wear the same staple pieces every day.. I’ve had my earrings in since high school graduation I think!
I clean my diamonds with toothpaste and a small brush….It gets them so clean and shiny, but I should probably ask my jeweler if it’s safe!
Funny enough, my Tiffany’s jewelry (the whole 2 pieces I own) looks the worst as far as tarnishing, go figure! I’m obsessive about cleaning my engagement and wedding band but I’ve always used the jewelry cleaner solution, I didn’t realize water + ammonia worked. That sounds easier and cheaper!
It must have been in the air! I went through all my jewelry this weekend too and blogged about it. I put a link to your page as well for more ideas.
For me, I just had to get things organized and get RID of the stuff that I wasn’t wearing. Found some cool ideas on Pinterest (Thanks for the intro) for storage that you might like.
Love the cleaning tips! Maybe next weekend I’ll do my good (better) jewelry. 🙂
I love Real Simple cleaning tips! They know how to clean everything.
Actually for cleaning silver there’s a much better tip…
Get a non-metal bowl and line the bottom with aluminum foil (shiny side up), put hot water (as hot as you can handle) on it, put your silver items on top of the foil, then sprinkle some baking soda — ta-dah! Instant anti-oxidation. (shouldn’t be used if there are stones, specially pearls, but ok for all-silver items)
I bought an ultrasonic machine for my rings, and that is amazing as well (I got the silver plate for it, which also does a great job!).
Those are some nice jewelry tips! I just use a random jewelry cleaning kit from CVS and it works like a charm! My ring if not cleaned makes a nice home to things like avocado, bread crumbs and such:)
I just read a post on FB from Real Simple and they suggested using old bangles as napkin rings. Just a thought for the ones your mom and sister don’t take!
You should be a part of a contest for one of the finest websites on the web.
I’m going to highly recommend this site!