Learn how to clean your engagement ring at home and bring the sparkle back…
Remember when you first got your engagement ring and you couldn’t stop looking at it?
The sparkle represented everything good to come and you couldn’t resist peeking at it throughout the day when you should have been concentrating on other things (or was that just me who loves a good bit of sparkle?). Then over time, the sparkle dulls just a little as you forget to take your ring off when you wash the pots, cook the tea or do the cleaning and eventually you don’t even bother trying to remember to take it off (again, that could just be me though).
My engagement ring is a diamond solitaire that Mr Frugal presented me with more years ago than I care to remember – you can see it here in this pretty poor photo…
I love my sparkly engagement ring and it was the perfect choice for me when we got engaged and although I don’t wear it all the time, I do still love it. 😉
A couple of months ago, when we were clearing out my Dad’s flat as he moved into a care home bless him, we found my Mam’s engagement ring in a drawer with some of her other jewellery,
It was an extremely emotional discovery as you can probably imagine. I thought they were lost as I hadn’t seen them since she died and finding them was the best feeling, especially as my Dad is unwell at the moment and I’m very aware that he’s not the Dad I’m used to which is really hard to see.
My Mam had super slim fingers so the ring didn’t fit me at all but it didn’t matter, just seeing her jewellery brought back a lot of good memories and as sad as it sounds, just holding the ring made me feel closer to her.
She loved her engagement ring and wore it all the time so finding that, and her other treasured jewellery made me happy beyond belief – it’s just not something I could put into words!
Anyway, I took the rings home and popped them into my own jewellery box with the vague notion that Miss Frugal might want to wear it someday. But then at Christmas, Mr Frugal surprised me with the most amazing present – he’d had the ring re-sized for me to wear!
It was the most amazing, thoughtful gift and I don’t think I’ve taken the ring off since I got it – which means it’s needed a couple of quick cleans. Cleaning it isn’t as simple as it was with my solitaire because it’s much more intricate with more places for dirt to hang on to but I can still do it at home easily enough without sending it off for a costly clean by the jewellers.
Before I tell you how to do it though, it’s really important that you only try and clean your engagement ring yourself if the stones are diamonds, sapphires or rubies. Other precious stones like emeralds and opals are porous so they can be damaged by home cleaning. The ring itself should be well made too and not fragile – if you have a ring that needs extra care then home cleaning isn’t for you.
Now the warning partis out of the way and we’ve established your ring is well made of diamond, ruby or sapphire stones then let’s get to the bit you’re after…
How to clean your engagement ring at home
- Before you start on the actual cleaning process, have a close good look at your engagement ring – check that there’s no damage to the metal claws and that none of the stones are chipped, damaged or loose in their settings. If anything isn’t as it should be then I would take it off straight away and get it to the jewellers before wearing it again. They can fix it for you and usually, they’ll give it a clean at the same time too.
- Assuming everything is OK then half fill a small cup with warm (not hot) water and squirt in some washing up liquid. Give the mug a quick swirl to mix in the soap a little and then pop your ring in there.
- Leave for 20-40 minutes.
- Brush gently with something like a baby’s soft toothbrush (like this one which you can pick up for about a pound from the supermarket). You can pop a few drops of the washing up liquid right on to the toothbrush and gently brush it around the stones (including the back of them if this is possible).
- When you’re satisfied your ring is clean, dry it using a microfiber cloth (microfiber cloths are lint free and non-abrasive so perfect for this and many other cleaning jobs around the house – these are the ones I have)
- You can then, if you have one, use a metal polishing cloth to finish it off. Personally, I wouldn’t go out and buy one if you don’t already have one though.
Simple, hey?
There are so many ideas floating around the internet on what to use – toothpaste, baking soda or even high tech home ultrasonic jewellery cleaning kits – but they can do more harm than good so when it comes to cleaning your engagement ring at home, simple is definitely the safest and probably the most effective way to go.
Now, go and clean your engagement ring and get your sparkle back!
PS – if you’re planning a wedding then you might like to read about my super thrifty wedding at Gretna Green.
Don’t miss out on future posts like this – receive updates directly to your inbox by email by adding your email address here and hitting subscribe. You can also follow me on Twitter, BlogLovin or Networked Blogs and I’d love to see you over on my Facebook page and on Instagram
Pin ‘How to clean your Engagement ring at home’ for later:
