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Silver items, cutlery, trays and jewelry darken over time and lose their shine, and the products used to clean them are often expensive or require patient scrubbing.
That is why a home trick has grown popular that almost does the work on its own: line a container with aluminum foil, baking soda and hot water, then soak the pieces in it.
The trick for cleaning silverware with aluminum foil, baking soda and hot water
The goal of this trick is to restore shine to tarnished silver, in other words, remove the grayish or blackish tone it picks up over time. It works especially well for silverware, trays and other silver pieces that have become stained, and it does so without scrubbing or using abrasive or expensive products.
The trick does not cover up or scrape off the stain: it reverses it through a chemical reaction. Silver tarnish is actually silver sulfide (Ag₂S), a compound formed when silver reacts with sulfur in the air. When tarnished silver and aluminum are combined in hot water with baking soda, an electrochemical reaction takes place: aluminum has a greater affinity for sulfur than silver, so it takes it away. The silver sulfide turns back into silver, and the sulfur moves to the aluminum.
Baking soda acts as a conductor in the water and helps clean the coating on the aluminum, allowing the reaction to take place. And hot water speeds up the whole process.
Step by step: how to mix it at home
The process is simple:
- Line the bottom of a container (a dish, a pot or the sink) with aluminum foil, shiny side up.
- Place the silver pieces on top, making sure they touch the aluminum.
- Sprinkle baking soda over the pieces (about one or two tablespoons per liter of water).
- Cover everything with very hot water, almost boiling.
- Let it sit for a few minutes: the tarnish starts to disappear almost immediately. For heavier stains, you can leave it a little longer or repeat the process.
- Remove the pieces carefully (they will be hot), rinse them with water and dry them with a soft cloth.
Why it is recommended
Beyond the result, the main appeal has to do with the silver itself. Products and abrasive creams remove the tarnish, but along the way they also take away a small amount of silver, in other words, they wear down the piece.
This method, by contrast, does not scrape anything off: it turns the silver sulfide back into silver, so the object does not wear down. On top of that, it is a natural, very inexpensive and readily available alternative, using kitchen ingredients and requiring no scrubbing.