Cleaning Silver - 1Earth Antiques and Appraisals Magazine

Easy does it when it comes to washing your silverware

A little soap and water keeps your silver clean

A little soap and water keeps your silver clean

If you think taking care of sterling silver is an arduous process, think again: Washing silver with soap and water every two to three months is the best way to care for it.

It is important not to clean it too much. For the most part we recommend using silver cleaners sparingly and only for harsher stains.

Hand washing is the best way to care for silver, but a dishwasher is also acceptable as long as the pieces are not dried in the machine.

If you have very old silver, you may not want to put it in a dishwasher because over a period of time it will take the oxidation away and discolor the silver. We do recommend using silver polish from time-to-time to enhance shine, however.

Use it and love it. This is not like the vintage car that you leave in the garage. You can't hurt it. It's not going to tear or break. Wear makes it more beautiful as it ages.

We recommend storing silver in cloth-lined cases to keep it from tarnishing. Wrapping pieces in acid-free tissue-used by museums to preserve their sterling collections-also minimizes tarnish.

One thing people do that is not good is they store it in Saran Wrap. People do it because when you take the Saran Wrap off it is shiny, but it's really not good for the silver.