Top Tips to Help You Care for Your Jewelry

If you care and treat your precious jewelry well it will bring you pleasure for many years to come. We recommend that you have your jewelry professionally cleaned and inspected at least once a year but are also some simple things that you can do at home to help your precious jewelry look its very best for even longer. Here are our top tips for caring for your jewelry:

In short: Five core jewelry-care tips: clean with mild dish soap and warm water (avoid chlorine and bleach), store pieces separately in a lined box (diamonds at Mohs 10 will scratch softer gems), remove rings before workouts and sunscreen application, get professional checkups every 6-12 months, and insure pieces over $1,000 at 1-2% of appraised value annually with Jewelers Mutual or BriteCo.

Always store pieces of jewelry separately

Different gemstones have different hardness and can easily scratch or knock each other if stored together so think about how you store items of jewelry. Keeping your pieces of jewelry in separate soft-lined compartments is the ideal method of storage so try to keep the boxes and packaging that it came in as this is the easiest and often the best way to protect your jewelry from dust and damage. This will not prevent silver from oxidising, so possibly consider storing items in airtight bags to minimise this, while silica gel packs will absorb moisture and sulphur in the air that can cause jewelry to lose its shine. All jewelry should always be stored away from direct sunlight, damp, and extremes of heat or cold. Wrap gold, silver, precious and semi-precious items in acid-free tissue or cotton to keep them away from dust and moisture. Take extra care with pearls, which are soft and vulnerable to scratches and other damage. Always ensure that any fastenings are closed so items do not tangle or catch each other.