Keep your earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and rings in good condition to maintain their value and sentimental significance. Your jewellery can be harmed in a variety of ways from ordinary wear. These delicate jewellery items can have a short lifespan due to tarnishing, scratches, loose prongs, dullness, and damage.
1. Keep Your Jewelry Clean and Dry
Jewelry cleaning is important to restore shine and remove any oils or dirt build-up. But if you’re cleaning a gold necklace or cleaning pearl earrings, you may need to use different tools for different materials.
To maintain your pieces, remember a few things:
- Many jewelry types can be cleaned with warm water and a mild dish soap. Be careful to use a gentle cloth or brush for cleaning, especially with soft gems like pearls that are easy to scratch.
- Avoid any cleaning products not specifically designed for jewelry. Many cleaners can contain harsh chemicals that can damage gems or metals.
- Put water into a separate bowl to rinse jewelry rather than over the sink, where it’s easy to lose a piece down the drain.
2. Keep It Out of the Gym and Spa
As a general rule, if you’re going to swim, sweat, or steam, don’t bring your jewelry with you. It’s common for people to keep a pair of earrings on in the pool or wear a ring in the shower. But moisture, as well as the pool chlorine, (and even the pH of your sweat) can discolor your jewelry. Additionally, it provides plenty of opportunities for your favorite items to get lost or broken. Here are some ideas:
- Keep a small cloth jewelry bag in your gym or swim bag to have a safe place to store your jewelry before workouts.
- Place a ring bowl by the bathroom sink to remind you to remove your jewelry before showering or washing your hands.
- Wear your pieces only during dry activities and dry places—that means taking them off when gardening, cooking, playing sports, and cleaning.
3. Avoid Contact with Lotion or Perfume
Precious metals, colored gems, and pearls are very sensitive to chemicals. That can include even the products you put on your skin. If you’re applying perfume, make sure to do so before putting on your jewelry rather than spritzing afterwards. The same goes for any sort of makeup setting spray, lotion, or skin refreshing spray. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- Be careful, especially of pearls and porous gems—they can have permanent surface damage from some cosmetic chemicals.
- Make sure that your skin is completely dry after applying any sprays before putting jewelry on.
- If your precious metals become exposed to any chemicals, immediately rinse and wash off any residue with a gentle cloth.
4. Get a Protection Plan
When investing in a new piece of jewelry, make sure you understand what the jewelry warranty covers. Repairs and replacements can be expensive. An extended jewelry warranty, also known as a protection plan, provides you with coverage to replace or repair any defects or breakdown that comes from wear and tear.
- Rings: coverage for broken, bent or worn prongs, and coverage to reset any gemstones. If a defect occurs in the setting that results in a cracked stone or lost gemstone, see if you are eligible for a stone replacement. This can be a big money saver.
- Necklaces and bracelets: coverage to restring stretched pearls, repair or replace chains with knots or broken links, and repair or replace broken clasps.
- Earrings: coverage for broken or lost earring posts and earring repair.
5. Store Your Jewelry Properly
When you're not wearing it, keeping your jewelry in careful storage can help prevent damage and discoloration. Storing jewelry together can get them entangled with one another, which risks scratches on soft gems or broken links on necklaces. Here are some storage tips:
- Keep padded boxes or cloth bag pouches that new jewelry comes in.
- Look for jewelry storage that allows you to have some separation between pieces to avoid tangling or damage, such as with padded ring boxes with individual slots.
- Use a padded box or cloth bag to keep pieces separate from other items when traveling.
- If keeping pieces in long-term storage, seal them in vacuum storage pouches to keep moisture and air out.
