How to Clean and Take Care of Your Gold Jewelry

Everything anyone purchases are bound to get old and turn dirty eventually. However, it doesn’t have to be that way for most things and especially your fine gold pieces of jewelry. There are many easy ways to take care of your gold, yellow or white, jewelry. Of course, the easiest way and with some money is to take them to the nearest jeweler in your area and have them do the cleaning for you, or you can also purchase a cleaning solution from an online store and follow their instruction on how to clean your gold pieces of jewelry. However, if you’re one of those people, like myself who likes to DIY everything, you can easily take care of the cleaning at home with some home-brewed concoction. 

Below are some of the ways and recipes you can cook up using the already available item off your shelf:

Recipe One - This solution should be able to help clean at least the surface level of your gold jewelry, however, it will most likely not be enough for the deep cleaning. 

• Mix dish soap or grate a bar of soap into warm water. Try to get the concoction to be as soapy as possible. 
• Soak your gold jewelry for about 15 - 20 minutes. Beware of soaking the piece with precious stones or diamonds because the solution might loosen the stone or if the water was too hot, it might crack the stone when subjected to rapid and drastic temperature changes. We recommend soaking for about 10 minutes only for pieces with stones or diamonds. 
• Use damp cloths, toothpicks, mini-brushes to gently scrub your gold jewelry. 
• Once done, rinse each piece with warm running water and leave the item to dry or you can dry them with a paper towel. 

Recipe Two - For a more, occasional, deeper clean you can mix Hydrogen Peroxide and Ammonia. Warning: Ammonia can damage certain materials often used in jewelry. Do not use ammonia when cleaning gold jewelry pieces that contain platinum or pearls.

• Add a couple of teaspoons of hydrogen peroxide to half a glass or bowl of warm water. 
• Then add one teaspoon of liquid ammonia.
• Optionally, a pinch of laundry detergent. 
• Once that’s ready, you can drop your gold jewelry in. DO NOT leave your gold jewelry in there for more than 1 minute. 
• Use a kitchen strainer to fish the jewelry out once the soaking is done. 
• Then rinse the jewelry thoroughly under running water and leave the items to air dry or you can dry them with a paper towel.

Recipe Three - Believe it or not, you can brush your gold jewelry with toothpaste the same way you do your teeth. 

• You can use a toothbrush, preferably a softer bristles, apply some toothpaste and gently scrub your gold jewelry. This method, if done frequently, can prevent buildup. 

Additionally, for the nook and cranny and hard-to-reach places with the brush you can use a toothpick to pick out some of the dirt. 

With these easy recipes to clean your gold pieces of jewelry, you should be able to keep them clean and shiny for your everyday wear, casual outing with friends, or going out for any special occasion.