Cleaning Gold Jewelry Cheaply

You can clean your gold jewelry to remove any tarnish and bring back its shine with this rather inexpensive process. Most jewelry cleaners on the market today are few small containers that are priced typically between $5 and $10. A large gallon jug of commercial degreaser (typically a purple color) that can be found at any wal-mart or target or even almost any automotive parts supply store will work just as well if not better than the stuff in tiny super expensive jewelry cleaner jar. The large gallon jug of industrial degreaser normally costs roughly $10 for almost 20 times the amount of cleaner that's in the smaller jewelry cleaner containers. Obviously the industrial degreaser is the first thing you should get.

Once you have it just follow these simple steps to clean your gold jewelry:

1. Use a set of rubber protective gloves, especially if you have sensitive skin. Pour a small amount of the degreaser into a dish sized plastic container. Fill it roughly 1/4 full, or just enough to cover the jewelry items.

2. Put your jewelry items (even diamonds) in the degreaser filled dish.

3. Swirl the jewelry items around in the dish. At this point you should see the degreaser becoming a little cloudy and dirt and dead skin cells begin to come free from your jewelry.

4. Continue to swirl the jewelry in the cleaner for between 1 to 2 minutes and then remove them. It's very important to make sure that you don't swirl so much that the degreaser splashes out, and that you don't leave your jewelry sit in the solution for extended periods of time, 2 minutes is plenty for heavily soiled items.

5. You should still be wearing your gloves at this point. Take the items out and place them in the cup of your hand. Using a toothbrush, scrub the items to remove any stubborn dirt that may be left.

6. Rinse your jewelry off with plain old tap water until all of the degreaser is removed and you should be left with clean jewelry. If not, repeat the process.

This process will not restore a "Buffed Shine" to your jewelry as that is a whole process of its own that we will be discussing later. This is a great treatment for in between buffs or to just keep the jewelry you wear every day a little bit cleaner. It has certainly saved us a lot of money throughout the years and the only time I've had a bad effect is when I left the jewelry in the degreaser to soak for longer than 20 minutes. That's why we only recommend a soak time of 2 minutes, although you can be the judge for yourself. Some items with old skin lotion buildup may require a slightly longer soak or more aggressive scrubbing, but I've yet to find anything that won't come up and off the items with this technique. Stay safe and good luck!