Photo credit to eLLenTY on Flickr

For the past 6 years of marriage, all of my good china and silverware have been packed in boxes as we moved all over creation. We have gone from tiny apartment to not-as-tiny townhouse to rental and so on, until now, where we finally have enough room to break open the boxes, throw away the newspaper wrapping, and…be completely terrified at the prospect of taking care of this stuff.

Needless to say, my “silverware” in the interim has been decidedly not silver. We’ve made do with $1 packs of forks and may or may not have used measuring spoons when ours disappear (I blame little boys going on digging expeditions). That kind of silverware doesn’t need any special treatment. That kind of silverware probably doesn’t even look silver anymore.

I have to assume that real silverware will look silver, but I want to be sure before I worry about polishing or whatever it is they need.

How to Tell if It’s Silver

As it turns out, genuine silver isn’t 100% silver. Still, it does have to meet a certain percentage to make the grade, and when it does, it will be proudly marked. If you want to know if that bowl or spoon is really the real stuff, look for a marking somewhere on the item that states its purity. To be considered “silver” and not “silverplated,” it has to be made up of 92.5% silver, so those are the magic numbers. Markings will vary, so anything from “925/1000″ to “Sterling 9.25″ to “S/S” (for Sterling Silver) could be indicators.

Other ways to tell if it’s silver: polishing silver with a soft cloth will leave black marks on the cloth, magnets are not attracted to it, or a jeweler’s chemical test can confirm it.

How to Clean Silver

Now that you know what you’ve got, you need to know how to take care of it. Acidic foods or even the air can tarnish your silver, and polishing helps to restore its shine.

One thing you absolutely want to avoid is abrasive cleaners. Don’t try to scratch or scrub the tarnish away. That will just damage the silver even more. Keep some soft cloths on hand and only use those on those beautiful, shiny dishes.

Toothpaste can polish- but make sure it's just the white paste and NEVER use a toothbrush! (Photo Credit: ToastyKen on Flickr)

There are plenty of commercial cleaners you can buy to polish silver, but in my book, if it isn’t something I can eat, it’s not something I want to eat off of. It almost breaks that rule to share this trick, but I will nonetheless:

White toothpaste will polish silver. Rub some on, then polish off with a soft cloth. Easy peasy. You don’t want to use gels or anything with kid-enticing glitter, though. Just the plain old Arm & Hammer type paste is what you are looking for.

Speaking of Arm & Hammer, baking soda continues to wow us with yet another use. If you don’t want to polish your silver with toothpaste, you can make a paste of baking soda and water. A thicker paste will set up on it nicely, and then you can sponge it onto the silver, rinse with hot water and polish with a soft cloth. For bad cases of tarnish, you can let the mixture stay on the silver overnight.

Truly, is there anything baking soda can’t do?

Okay, so it can’t unpack my china & silverware. Now that the cleaning question is resolved, though, I think I might have the guts to handle that one myself.