Toothpaste and tinfoil: Surprising hacks for shiny cutlery
Before the holidays, we often find forgotten cutlery in the drawer that needs our attention. Even the most beautiful spoons and forks lose their charm if they're covered with streaks and buildup. Instead of immediately using chemical agents, consider checking your bathroom and kitchen cabinets for solutions.
19 November 2024 07:01
Forgotten, dusty, and coated with residue, cutlery can be easily restored to an almost perfect condition. Toothpaste is not only essential for your morning and evening routine but also practical for making spoons shine with cleanliness. Thanks to the gentle particles in toothpaste, you can effectively remove discolouration and give your cutlery a new shine. All you need is toothpaste, a soft brush, and a few minutes of patience to make your spoons, forks, and knives look like new.
Cleaning cutlery - toothpaste trick
Toothpaste isn't just a product for oral hygiene; it's also an excellent cleaning agent for many surfaces, including silver cutlery. The mild abrasives it contains efficiently remove discolourations and make the silver shine.
Pour about 1 litre of water into a pot, add a tablespoon of baking soda and a teaspoon of sugar, then bring to a boil. Add a tablespoon of toothpaste and mix thoroughly. Drop the cutlery inside and boil for 10 minutes. After this time, take them out and polish with a clean cloth. They'll shine like new, saving you money on commercial polishes.
How to clean silver cutlery?
You'll find many useful household cleaning products in your kitchen cabinets. Salt and aluminum foil can restore the former shine to silver cutlery. Compared to other methods, like polishing pastes or specialized chemical agents, the method using salt and aluminum foil is natural and economical.
Line a bowl with aluminum foil, add 5 tablespoons of table salt, and fill with about 1 litre of boiling water. Place the cutlery inside and leave it for a few hours. With this method, even heavily tarnished cutlery will regain its shine.
How does it work? Cleaning silver cutlery using salt and aluminum foil is based on a chemical reaction. Table salt, combined with hot water and aluminum, creates an electrolytic solution. The silver acts as the cathode, and the aluminum foil acts as the anode. As a result of the oxidation-reduction reaction, the tarnish is transferred from the silver to the aluminum foil, restoring the cutlery's natural shine.
