Tis the season for dusting off the “good stuff.” If you are like me, then you only use your good china and/or silver during the holidays. This sad, but true fact is something I have tried to break free from, but alas, when you have young ones at home, using grandma’s cherished china every day is not really a viable option.
With Thanksgiving just a few days away and Christmas right around the corner, now is the time to take a refresher course in how to clean the “good stuff.” If you only use your fine china and silver a couple of times a year, then you might consider the following tips on how to keep your treasured dinnerware looking fabulous.
For starters, you should never clean your silver with a regular dish cloth, as it can be too abrasive on the shiny material. Rather, cut-up pieces of flannel or use an old t-shirt made from 100 percent cotton. These inexpensive scraps make excellent soft polishing cloths.
If you haven’t used your silver in a while, then you might have to clean it before setting it out on the Thanksgiving dinner table. To eliminate tarnish build-up from silver use a commercial tarnish removal dip. Read the label on the container and follow the instructions carefully. In addition, you should only leave the silver item in the dip for as long as the package instructions suggest.
To restore silver’s shine you can use a store bought polishing cream. Simply add some of the cream to a soft cloth and rub it on your silver pieces. If the cream gets caught in the small crevices of your silver flatware, use a soft bristle toothbrush to remove it, and then rinse the piece in warm water and dry gently with a clean soft cloth.