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!