Sterling Silver Care: 10 Ways to Prolong the Life of Your Jewelry

Your jewelry can last a lifetime with the right amount of care. Here’s a helpful guide to day-to-day sterling silver care to keep jewelry looking beautiful.

Keyword(s): sterling silver care

Sterling silver normally lasts 20 to 30 years if the owner cares well for it. However, your sterling silver can last forever if you care for it properly.

Made up of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper, sterling silver requires some special care. If you own any sterling silver jewelry, you should know how to care for it well. You wouldn’t want your jewelry to wear out in just a short period of time, especially if you spent good money on it.

If you want to learn how to make your sterling silver jewelry last, keep reading. We’ll teach you the best tips in sterling silver care.

1. Wear Your Sterling Silver Jewelry Often

If you’re worried about your sterling silver jewelry dulling out, you should wear it more often. Believe it or not, your body’s natural oils will keep your sterling silver shining.

The more often you wear your sterling silver jewelry, the nicer and brighter it will look.

Leaving your jewelry sitting in a box or drawer will only allow the color to dull out quicker. The materials will be sitting still, leaving the copper composition of the sterling silver to oxidize.

2. Remove Your Jewelry While You’re Cleaning

While you’re cleaning your home, you shouldn’t be wearing any of your jewelry. This rule especially applies to your sterling silver pieces.

If you do wear your jewelry while cleaning, it will be exposed to numerous chemicals. The most worrying of these chemicals is sulfur.

When thee kinds of chemicals come into contact with your jewelry, it can become ruined. Even just the fumes of cleaners can destroy pieces of jewelry. Whether you’re deep cleaning or doing a light cleanse, you need to make sure to protect your jewelry.

3. Keep Your Jewelry out of Direct Sunlight

If sterling silver jewelry is left outside in the sunlight, it can become tarnished. Tarnished jewelry becomes discolored and rusted. We’re sure that you didn’t sign up for dark grey silver jewelry.

A great way to avoid tarnished silver is by taking off your jewelry before going outside. If your jewelry is left directly in sunlight, tarnishing can happen even quicker.

Even if you’re going outside for a swim, you should still take the jewelry off. Just remember to wear it again really soon. You don’t want the jewelry to sit in a box or drawer without being worn for long periods of time.

4. Put Your Jewelry on Last

If you want to take extra special care of your sterling silver pieces, you should make sure to put your jewelry on last. By this, we mean that you should put on your jewelry after your clothes, lotions, perfumes, makeup, and everything else.

If you were to spray perfume on your chest while you have a sterling silver necklace on, you may end up accelerate the tarnishing process. You’ll literally spray the color of your silver away.

5. Store Your Jewelry in an Air-Tight Space

As we discussed, sterling silver can become tarnished and oxidized. One of the biggest culprits in the tarnishing and oxidizing process is actually the air around us.

If your jewelry is kept out in a bowl or hanging on a hook, it can become tarnished more quickly. This is understandable as it is exposed to the oxygen in the air while it is out like that.

We recommend keeping your jewelry in an air-tight container. This will prevent constant exposure to air.

6. Keep Your Jewelry in a Cool Place

We all understand how jewelry can be when it is kept in a hot place. You don’t want to overheat your jewelry and ruin in by keeping in hot temperatures.

You should be keeping your jewelry in a cool, dark place. By doing this, you’re minimizing the amount of light and heat exposure that is being placed on your sterling silver jewelry.

7. Be Careful What You Store Your Jewelry With

If you are storing your jewelry in a box or other kind of organizer, you should be sure to avoid putting other things in the organizer with your jewelry.

You shouldn’t store your sterling silver jewelry with paper, cardboard, or cotton. These materials may contain sulfur. As we discussed earlier, sulfur is not good for your sterling silver.

If your jewelry is packaged with these materials, it may end up becoming tarnished quicker than it normally would be.

8. Store Your Jewelry Separately

If you want to be safe, you may just want to store your jewelry separately. Not only does this keep your pieces from becoming tangled. It also prevents scratching.

Your sterling silver may easily show scratches if it is against other pieces of jewelry.

9. Invest in Anti-Tarnish Strips

If you’re looking to add an extra layer of protection for your sterling silver jewelry, you may want to consider investing in anti-tarnish strips. All you have to do is store these with your jewelry.

These magic strips will help slow the silver tarnishing process, keeping your jewelry looking newer for longer.

10. Take the Time to Clean Your Jewelry

You should clean your jewelry regularly, especially if you do find that your sterling silver is tarnishing. We recommend cleaning your sterling silver jewelry with good, old-fashioned soap and water.

Normal soap and water are gentle enough to use on your jewelry. You should start with this cleaning technique before looking for any stronger cleaners.

If you find a cleaner that is too strong, you may end up hurting your jewelry more than you’re helping it. When in doubt, just lightly clean with plain soap and water.

Putting Your Sterling Silver Care to the Test

If you’ve ruined your past sterling silver pieces or you’re simply looking for new ones, we recommend that you start with a clean slate. Put your sterling silver care to the test with our sterling silver pieces.

Here at Roma Designer Jewelry, we create beautiful pieces that hold all of the premium quality you expect your jewelry at half the price. Feel free to look around at our entire selection. We have pieces that you’ll want to wear all the time.