Home Cleaning Tip #1 – How to make your own jewelry cleaner for pennies!

Find out our secret to getting wedding rings, engagement rings and other fine jewelry clean using a household product you may already have in your home.

When it comes to saving money, let’s face it, we all could use to save a few bucks. We visited Susan Saffron Jewelry in Dallas, Texas and spoke with owner Susan Saffron. Susan explained, “The jewelry cleaners on the market are fine products and will clean your wedding and engagement rings and all your other jewelry well. However, they cost more than you need to spend.”

OK Susan, you have my attention, I like saving money! So what is the secret sauce?

“Mr. Clean.” Susan told us. “It uses essentially the same ingredients and does the exact same job at a fraction of the cost. The jewelry will look as god as if you used a commercial cleaner.” So why do many people purchase these expensive products? Susan explained further that most consumers simply have no idea what the ingredients are, so they are afraid to try something in fear of ruining their fine jewelry. And apparently, most jewelers do not want folks to know you can pick up a bottle of Mr. Clean for under five bucks and it will last you a lifetime! Saffron swears by the product and has been in the jewelry business for over 25 years.

But alas, we had to try out this new tip before we could share it with the world. So we set out to perform an experiment. We picked up a bottle of Mr. Clean for $3.98 and a jar of jewelry cleaner for $12.95. We then cleaned a wedding ring and engagement ring for our test, since they would be comparatively the same level of “dirty.” We submerged one into each of the solvents for five minutes. After soaking, we rinsed them off and dried them, then placed them back together and compared the results. What did we see? Our rings were sparkly clean and both looked exactly the same. We could not tell which one was in either solvent, thereby confirming Saffron’s cleaning tip to be a winner.

We also asked Saffron if there was any other solvent that could do a better job. She told us, “Other than professional cleaning using ultrasonic cleaners, which use sound waves to essentially shake the dirt loose, there are no better cleaners than those on the market, including Mr. Clean.” So we went back to Saffron’s to get our jewelry cleaned professionally, to see the difference. After spending about ten minutes with a jeweler, the rings came back looking amazing. Hands down, this was worth the drive in. The wedding set looked brand new and sparkled like it was brand new. We asked Susan to explain why it was such a dramatically difference, “There are a lot of crevices in jewelry, especially in wedding and engagement rings. The professional cleaners and our jewelers use methods that get every spec of dirt out to make jewelry look its best.”

Most jewelers offer free ultrasonic cleaning of your jewelry. Another great reason to visit your jeweler on a regular basis is to have fine jewelry inspected on a regular basis, to ensure the settings are not compromised in any way and to look for any hairline cracks or damage that can occur from normal usage. This will help protect your investment by ensuring the expensive stones are not lost. Saffron recommended visiting your jeweler about twice a year. The inspection, she explained should also be a free service. Saffron never charges her customers for cleanings.

Thanks Susan for the great information! Susan Saffron Jewelry Boutique can be found online at www.saffronjewlery.com and have been in business for over 25 years.