We'll use the hobnail milk glass salt and pepper dips with miniature silver spoons and the gold napkins I monogrammed with silver napkin rings. When I started pulling everything out of the cupboards and drawers, it was pretty obvious that the silver was very tarnished and would need a good cleaning. Yuck! I actually garage saled a beautiful serving dish with a silver base a few years ago because I figured I'd never take the time to clean it, so would never use it. Rats ... big mistake!
I'm not planning to use the salad serving set since I got a gorgeous beaded pair last year, but I figured I'd clean them along with the other pieces.
The Internet is truly my friend. I did a search for removing silver tarnish and this wonderful site popped up with extremely simple directions. All you need is aluminum foil, baking soda and boiling water.
After I poured the boiling, bubbling baking soda water over the silver pieces, the air actually reeked of sulfur. It was pretty stinky, but I figured that meant it was working.
And as it says in the directions, since our silver was so tarnished, I reheated the water, added a little more baking soda and soaked it again. That water turned so gray and dirty.
I rinsed off each piece and took an old dishrag rag to it.
The tarnish easily wiped right off and everything sparkled.
That was a pretty quick, satisfying, successful cleaning project. From now on, if I see an interesting piece of silver at a garage sale or flea market, I'm buying it!
