Clean Up Thrift Store Finds With This Eco-Friendly, Home Made Tarnish Remover

I picked up this pitcher today at the thrift store.  I paid a little more than I normally would for a thrift store item, at $7.99.  Not because I thought it had any value whatsoever, but because I just thought it was really neat.  Not sure if or how I will ever use this to pour anything, but I just really liked the contrasting raw materials of silver and cork, and the chain that holds the little cork in the spout.  Just a cool piece!

I realized I had packed away my bottle of tarnish remover already (during a day of closet de-cluttering, since we're trying to sell our house).  But, I wanted to shine this up a bit.  So, I did some online searching for a home made tarnish remover recipe.

I found one that seemed to work pretty well, so I thought I'd share.  It may come in handy if you want to polish up some silver, or find something cool like I did at a garage sale or thrift store that needs a little TLC!

I had to triple the recipe in order to totally submerge this, because it is a large item and I had a big bowl.  But, here is the single recipe:

Dissolve 1 Tbsp salt and 1 Tbsp baking soda in 6 cups of warm water.  Pour it into a bowl that has been lined with tin foil.  (This is not to protect the bowl; the tin foil is actually a part of the recipe!)  Drop in your items to be cleaned, and let them soak for an hour.  Here's my bowl:

After an hour, remove, wash off, and buff dry!

This didn't get my pitcher completely spotless, but really did a good job of getting that blueish-black tarnish off.  I was surprised how well it worked.  I'm thinking if I had let it soak longer, it may have gotten even cleaner.  I'm sure this has been sitting around tarnished for a long time.

Here you see the before and after.  Not bad for items you have in your kitchen!  So there you have it...a cheap and eco-friendly way to remove tarnish from your silver!

Make Your Own Household Cleaners + Cutting Out Single-Use Disposable Items!

Okay, I'm totally mooching off some other great bloggers today but thought these were great ones to pass on. Today I was perusing "365 Days of Trash, one man's attempt to throw nothing away for a year." It's pretty cool, you should check it out! (found via the latest Treehugger newsletter) But, while there I also checked out one of his links to Tree Hugging Family and their post including how to make 25 safe, non-toxic, homemade cleaning supplies. I'm a little leery of the recipes including vinegar, due to the fact that my hyper-sensitive nose can smell EVERYTHING. But, I'd definitely like to try out a few of these ideas!


There's also a great video on there about cutting out single-use disposable items. The man has a good point about carrying around a bag of stuff all day, often with things in it you don't care about. It's such a simple thing to carry around a fork and a re-useable water bottle and/or coffee mug. Since having a baby, I find that I already do that for him. Of course, it's automatic, out of necessity, because they don't have baby-sized spoons, or disposable sippy cups and bottles at every restaurant. (although there is no shortage of disposable bibs, changing pads, sippy cups, etc on the store shelves) Why not do the same for yourself? After all, if you're like me and are carrying around a giant bag for your baby's stuff anyway, it won't take up much more real estate. While I do use my own mug and water bottle, I have not even thought of carrying around a spoon and fork. Just shows you how automatic it comes so so many people to just take the disposable plasticware, use it, and toss it a few minutes later. Anyway, I thought it was a good post, and something I can definitely easily try starting right now!

Why I'm Jealous of my Shower

I had the opportunity last November to hear one of the founders of Method, Eric Ryan, speak at the Designature conference that I volunteered at here in St. Paul. (In case you're just now tuning in, in addition to being the Junk Mail Gems creator, I am an industrial designer) Ryan, if you happen to come across this blog, you did an awesome job. I was the huge, 8 month pregnant woman who held up time cards for you. ;-)

I still remember the day that the Method Dish Soap package stopped me dead in my tracks at Target. They have such beautifully designed packaging. Since then I never could stop myself from checking out every new product I saw on the shelf with each shopping trip. That is the curse (or blessing) of being a designer.

But, after hearing more about Method from Ryan himself, I learned of it's environmental benefits. The products are made of natural, bio-degradeable, and non-toxic ingredients. They smell great, and, here's the kicker...they WORK. For some crazy reason people today think that for a cleaner to be tough and work, that it has to be poisonous and burn off your nose hairs. I got fed up with giving myself the feeling that I was in a gas chamber ever time I cleaned my shower with Tilex, while my husband (a chemical engineer major) repeatedly reminded me how dangerous the fumes were. I got more concerned about breathing this toxic stuff when I was pregnant, and now that my baby is here, and while I plan on installing those annoying child-proof cabinet locks, I'm thinking that it's worth an extra buck to get cleaners that are not "fatal if swollowed."

So, when I was running errands at Target yesterday I finally picked up some Method cleaning products to try...the daily shower spray and the tub & tile cleaner.


This stuff is great! I must say though, after taking a shower, I was a little jealous that my shower smelled better than me. They could put a "body spray" label on this stuff and I'd spray it all over myself. I happen to have been born with a particularly sensitive sniffer, and it was so refreshing not to have to turn on the vent fan and air out the bathroom after cleaning it to clear out the fumes. I actually wanted to sniff the bathroom more because, like the packaging notes, it smelled like a spa. Mmm... Let's just say that as my other poisonous chemicals run out, I will be replacing them with more Method products to try! It did work just as well, if not better, than the nasty Tilex.

I admit that I frequently make a "green" choice based on reasons other than their green-ness...like compact fluorescent bulbs & cloth diapers because they just save so much money in the long run...and now these cleaning products because everything else STINKS and is toxic for my baby. But, I figure, the planet doesn't care why you went green in the end...it's just happy you got there!