Five Things You'd Never Think To Clean - And How To Clean Them

I'm sitting here, on the day before the big three year old's birthday party, when thirteen people are going to descend on my house, bringing the 'under ten' count to a whopping NINE children, and I'm feeling pretty good about it all, actually.  Yesterday the family did about 60% of the party shopping, and today really all we need to do is pick up the uncooked party size pizzas, the balloons, and a few odds and ends.  There are 50 chicken nuggets and 32 mini pogos in my freezer, so if nothing else, everyone is getting fed.

And because well, all I'm going to do today is try and clean the house and keep the children from making each other cry, all I really have to blog about is cleaning.  Unless you'd like to hear my kids fighting?  No?  Okay then.

I bring you...Five Things You'd Never Think To Clean...And How To Clean Them!

1)  Silver (Sterling or Plate)

So I have a few pieces of silver in my house and they get tarnished so quickly.  I don't mind using them like that, but sometimes it's nice to clean them up a bit.  But, and this is the big but, I have no intention of (or time for) sitting around polishing silver the old fashioned way.  Not to mention that I don't want toxic silver polish in the house, and I don't want to rub away at silver plate and possibly thin it or damage it.  My mother shared her technique with me a while ago for getting silver clean without any harsh chemicals or rubbing, and I'm going to share it with you now.

Here's a silver serving dish.  Badly tarnished.

Now, what you do is fill your kitchen sink a few inches deep with hot water, and add a piece of tinfoil to the bottom.  Then sprinkle on about a Tbsp of washing soda.

Add your clean silver to the sink.  Anywhere the tinfoil touches, the silver will clean.

Now, since the tinfoil needs to be touching the silver for the tarnish to leave, you may need to do what I did and hold (or gently rub, no scrubbing necessary) the tinfoil against the metal.

Then just drain the water, rinse and rewash the silver, and dry.  Done.  I wash my silver again at the end only because the washing soda is NOT meant for consumption - it's poisonous.  But it's a product I'm comfortable using in my house under some self-emposed rules.

Look at how nice and shiny it is!

Tomorrow, if my computer decides to work, I'll post another 'thing'.  Spring cleaning is a lot more fun if you can share it with others.

Linked to My Green Resource.