Fine jewelry can have great value, both sentimentally and monetarily. Routine jewelry maintenance and cleaning are important in maintaining the value and preserving its beauty. This article contains some great tips for those who would like to clean their collection – check out the following info.

What’s the best homemade jewelry cleaner?

Gold and silver jewelry, including plated and rose- and white- gold metals, can be cleaned with warm water and several drops of dish detergent, according to Kimaï founders of Sidney Neuhaus and Jessica Warch. The water and the dish detergent should be mixed in a bowl, and the jewelry can be left to soak in the solution for about fifteen minutes. The next step is to lightly scrub the item with a baby toothbrush or a cotton swab to get into all the crevices. Finally, it will need a rinse with water dried off with a cloth or a hairdryer with a low heat setting to prevent any water streaks from appearing.

Another very good way of cleaning dull silver jewelry at home is to lay it on aluminum foil in a bowl, add baking soda and boiling water, and let it sit for about thirty minutes. The aluminum reacts with the baking soda, and the pieces will look brand new.

For those who don’t have a spare 15 minutes to do a thorough soak, a polishing cloth can also do wonders on gold, silver, brass, copper, and platinum and brings back lost luster. There are also polishing sprays and creams that can be used along with the cloth for extra measure.

What about diamonds and other stones? 

A solution made from warm water and dish detergent is a precious stone’s best friend. The only thing that should be remembered here is that the water has to be warm, not hot because these stones can crack if the water is too hot.

What about fake or costume jewelry?

Warch and Neuhaus recommend using a cotton cloth or swab to gently clean it, but other common household items like toothpaste, baking soda, and even ketchup are sworn to rejuvenate its appearance.

Protection from scratching or tarnishing

Matchett explains that unnecessary scratches can be prevented if it is stored properly. Some tarnishing is inevitable in most jewelry because it is a reaction of the metal to the air, moisture, or specific chemicals – but storing it correctly can help delay this process.

Following these simple maintenance tips will help you preserve the beauty and value of your most precious bracelets, earrings, and necklaces, etc.

Every family has its secrets! Most of the time, these secrets stay buried, and that means no one ever absolutely knows their family 100%. Occasionally, though, these secrets find their way out into the open, and that is when things get awkward. Don’t believe us? Check out these spilled secrets that made for very awkward family reunions. Some of them are funny and others a little tragic, but one thing is for sure, they will never be forgotten by the families.

There are a lot of families across the globe that opt to take in foreign students as part of an exchange program. This program is intended to help the students experience other cultures and educational systems to give them a more rounded life experience.

These programs are not intended to be dating services, but in this situation, that is exactly what it turned out to be. It must be a pretty unbearable reunion when this woman’s kids have to break bread with her new partner.

Occasionally, you stumble across a family that has a bit of a skeleton in their closet, and this one happened to be an alleged accident. Imagine thinking that your grandma may have been responsible for your grandpa’s demise? We have the chills.

For us, this seems like it would be a big secret and one that would definitely make for an awkward family reunion. Plus, we’d probably feel the need to watch our backs.

There are some medical conditions that can only be prevented or treated if you know your family’s medical history. Having this knowledge will make everything easier. Unfortunately, for this family, it seemed that the facts were a little off.

Granted, we can all understand why this father didn’t want to talk about the fact that he wasn’t the girl’s biological parent. Even still, this information was important, and now, everybody knows.

We all have those crazy aunts who just seem to have endless stories about their youth, but there are also those other aunts who are shrouded in mystery. So, when their secrets come out, they tend to be quite outlandish.

For instance, this woman’s great aunt was apparently somewhat of a con artist and was able to get quite a bit of money out of a handful of men. Let’s hope the apple falls far from the family tree!

Having a large family is one thing, but having a family that has 60 siblings is sort of crazy. It happens, though, as this story shows that secrets within a family can result in a multitude of siblings going unknown.

This is especially true when the person that raised you was not actually your father. Who knows what your real dad was getting up to? We have so many questions about this mysterious setup.

Finding out later in life that the person that raised you was not your biological dad can be very traumatic. For some, though, never knowing who their biological dad is can actually be easier.

However, so many people are now getting into testing their DNA that this secret often winds up getting out. And when it turns out to be someone that is already in your family, that gets even more awkward.

When you’re looking into the life of someone who was born during a war, finding information on them can sometimes be difficult. However, there are ways to do so in this day and age, as there are many DNA testing companies available to you.

This person did just that and found out a lot of amazing things about his grandmother who grew up in Germany during the Holocaust. In fact, some of those secrets were probably best left unknown.

Sometimes, love happens in the strangest places. Though it may seem scandalous for this person’s ancestor to have married his stepmother, it might also have been a beautiful love story.

We’re not sure how awkward it would have been with this secret coming out. At least they waited to get involved until the father died. Then again, we bet there were some very judgemental family members that didn’t approve of this union.

Secrets are sometimes left buried because they are too painful to relive. That may have been the case with this family, seeing as how they changed who they were to protect themselves from bigotry.

And in order to ensure that no one would discover their ancestry change, the information was even kept secret from the future family members. But thanks to modern-day technology, a quick DNA test revealed the truth.

Kids sometimes have crazy intuition and often choose one particular family member to discuss these feelings with. That must have been what happened to this 12-year-old when she had a strange feeling about her dad.

Of course, grandma probably should have kept this secret and let her mother tell her that her suspicions were right, but there’s no going back now, is there?! We can’t begin to imagine how the little girl reacted to the news.

It’s pretty much every kid’s dream to have famous parents. Generally, though, this pertains to being celebrities or royalty. Not very many dream about having bank robbers in their families but such was the case for this person.

It must have been a new level of awkwardness when this guy discovered that both his dad and uncles had a criminal past of bank robbing. If we were him, we’d probably do a quick Google search to see if there’s any more information on them.

Being adopted is amazing in the sense that you get to experience and be loved by people you otherwise wouldn’t have met. However, there are always questions about who you truly are. Of course, like many other people, a lot of adopted children turn to DNA tests.

Finding out that you were a result of an affair might be hard, but finding out that you have 9 half-siblings floating around in the world has to be even more startling.

Family drama always comes into the picture whenever someone passes away. In fact, funerals may be one of the places where more secrets are revealed than anywhere else. So, when this family found out that their grandma was actually one of 21 kids, it must have been quite shocking.

Of course, finding out that 10 other kids came from a close family friend and learning how quickly their great-grandpa moved on was probably more awkward than the additional children.

Not all divorces are created equally! Some proceed very amicably, while others…not so much. Unfortunately for this family, the latter was the case, and grandpa let the world know just exactly what he thought of his ex-wife.

Of course, unlike other people, he decided he wanted to write it down and make sure every one of his kids knew exactly what he thought of their mother. We bet it was a therapeutic experience for him but he probably should have kept it to himself.

Sometimes, life throws you a curveball, and for this woman, her curveball seemed to be two teen pregnancies in her family. She didn’t want her family separated, so she did the right thing and adopted her own grandchildren.

Of course, that secret stayed hidden for quite a while until someone opened their big mouth. Now, things are just a little bit awkward but at least the family got to stay together. We’re attempting the glass-half-full perspective.

Sometimes, stories are built to hide things that the family feels are scandalous. In this case, the story was that this boy’s grandfather died in the Vietnam War which later was revealed to be a cover-up.

Instead of being a war hero, this boy’s grandfather was actually a criminal who died while serving time in prison. It must be a tough nut to swallow realizing that the person who idolized had a shady past.

Secrets can come out in many different ways. They could find their way to being revealed at family functions, or it could just be someone going through a bunch of old stuff. No matter how the secret comes out, though, it could lead to some awkward questions.

For instance, take this guy who found a birthday card with the wrong uncle’s name. This led to him learning about a whole different side of his aunt.

We have all seen stories of guys who move to the States and start a whole new family. There is always something that trips these men up, and apparently, this person’s great-grandpa figured out the answer to the problem.

When the secret came out that his great-grandpa had two different families, that was bad enough, but when they learned that the women had the same name, that made it even more awkward.

As kids, we often look at our grandparents and think they are just simply sweet old people. Thinking about their past doesn’t occur to us until we are much older. That may be when those secrets that they’ve been trying to hide come out…

For instance, this kid never got to meet their grandpa but when they were old enough, though, they learned a whole slew of very interesting little nuggets of information.

When you are young, you sometimes make mistakes. It is hardest when these mistakes lead to your girl getting pregnant. Of course, at that age, no one wants to get married. Unfortunately for this guy, it was a must.

After 60 years, this secret finally made its way out into the family, and we’re sure grandpa felt a little awkward when it did. It definitely didn’t put him in the best light!

Some kids just never leave home. In fact, many guys live with their parents well into adulthood and never miss having a family life of their own. However, it looks like this guy wanted to have the best of both worlds.

He ended up telling his family that he had a family with a wife and two kids at the age of 40. Yet he still lived with his mother her entire life. It must have been quite the shock.

Teenage pregnancy still has quite a stigma attached to it, especially when the woman is younger than 18. Knowing this, we can’t imagine how it would have looked when a 13-year-old got pregnant in the 1930s.

As a result, we can understand why the family chose to keep the lid on this. But when you decide to keep such a huge and life-changing secret quiet, it always finds a way of revealing itself.

This next family took the saying “Keep it in the family” to new heights. Growing up thinking that a certain person in your family has one type of relationship and then learning that it was a complete lie later in life has to be hard.

When this guy’s dad found out that his cousin was actually a sister, we are sure family get-togethers became more interesting. Also, we have to ask ― now knowing this information, does it change the current relationship?

It is definitely one thing for family secrets to come out at family gatherings, but when these secrets come out at school, that has to be extra embarrassing for the kid.

This girl was just minding her own business when somebody came up to her and said they were her brother. The response of her mother seems to indicate that this boy was probably telling the truth, and that had to be a crazy situation to be in.

Even though family means you’re bonded together, sometimes there are people within the family that you just can’t stand. Most would just ignore them and try their best not to socialize with them even when there are family get-togethers.

Then there are those who are vindictive, like this woman who decided she wanted to set the house on fire and blame that person. We bet she was utterly ashamed when the secret came out.

When a soldier goes to war, that means that he has to leave his wife behind. Oftentimes, thoughts of this sweetheart waiting for them at home is the only thing that gets them through all of the horrible experiences.

However, such was definitely not the case for this family. The soldier returned home only to find that his fiance had married someone else. And just before you think it couldn’t get worse, that man was the soldier’s father…

A spouse having an affair is a secret that most people would like to keep between the couple involved. So, when the whole family is let in on the drama, it becomes an awkward situation when it comes to family get-togethers.

In our opinion, the fact that the husband knows that his wife is having an affair doesn’t change much. If anything, this makes it even more stressful when it comes to dealing with the family.

Sometimes, things happen in life, and unfortunately, there’s only one way to deal with them. So, when it comes to pregnancies at a young age, this often means an adoption cover-up story.

Often, these stories are kept quiet for a while but eventually, someone somewhere manages to spill the beans. This young person found out that they had a sister who was quite a bit older than them, and it seems like he may have been the last to know.

When things go bad in a marriage and one individual in the relationship is not mentally stable, it can be quite challenging. Typically, though, that challenge doesn’t lead to a person ditching a whole family and pretending like they never existed.

Thanks to the miracle of DNA sites, many of these types of secrets are being revealed. Unfortunately for this great-grandfather, it was his secret that came to light.

There are a lot of different ways to get out of a marriage if you are unhappy. The most common, of course, is divorce but apparently, this person’s great-great-grandfather found another option that he liked better.

Instead of doing it the legal way, it appears that this person’s distant relative just played dead and went off and found another life. It had to be awkward when all the wives showed up altogether at the pension office.

As kids, we sometimes don’t necessarily think about our parents’ lives before we came along. This may be why so many big secrets in families have to do with paternity.

But if you’re going to keep a secret as big as this one then you can’t pick and choose who to tell. Otherwise, someone will become loose-lipped and reveal it. Just like what happened at this terribly awkward Christmas dinner.

Sometimes, love has a mind of its own, and unfortunately, we can’t always control who we fall in love with. However, we can control whether or not we keep it a secret from the person who it will hurt the most.

Apparently, this aunt didn’t think it was important enough to mention to her own daughter that she had taken a liking to her previous boyfriend. Now that is a scandalous secret that’s probably best kept in the closet.

Having a family member just disappear is very scary and until you get answers, you will anxiously wonder where they went and what happened to them. Though sometimes, finding out the truth might be more hurtful, and such was the case here.

It seems like this man wanted to start fresh, so he left his family to move over to his other family across the pond. Yes, you heard that correctly. This family drama is so shocking it belongs on Primetime TV or something.

Having an affair is a horrible thing to do to your significant other. That affair is even worse when it is with someone who they are close to, like a cousin, who they have let live in their home.

This person found out a secret about their grandfather that definitely tarnished his image. Even though the couple has been married for a long time, the betrayal in this relationship seems to still be a sore subject.

When you’re trying to balance two families and keep the secret from each one, you have to be pretty clever and a little devious. This person’s great uncle managed to keep this massive and juicy secret until he met his end.

Finding out that your father had another family is bad enough but then to know that the kids shared the same names as you must have been astonishing. This man was like a double-agent spy with his own families.

When you think of your mom, the last thing you want to think of is her being with anybody else other than your father. Sometimes, though, you wind up learning new information about her after her passing, which can only be described as crazy.

Finding out that your mom had more than one affair, including one with a neighbor, definitely brings a new light to asking to borrow some sugar.

Other than an affair, one of the biggest secrets that a family keeps have to do with criminal activities. And while we’ve heard a few shady stories concerning this subject matter, this one for sure takes the cake.

We bet this grandpa’s life could be used as inspiration for a blockbuster movie. After all, there’s mob involvement, the FBI, and well, of course, the infamous Charles Manson. Does it get any more scandalous?

Few dastardly duos hold people’s imaginations more than Bonnie and Clyde. They may have been criminals, but their illustrious crime spree has led to many books, movies, and inspiration for Halloween costumes.

So, finding out a secret that your grandma and her family actually helped them hide from the law may be a little awkward at first, but it is also a pretty cool piece of information! At least, we think so!

One of the hardest things parents have to do is to agree on a name for their children. Do you choose a family name? Or go with a popular name? Both of these options seem very tame in comparison to this family secret.

Finding out that your dad was able to finagle your mom into giving you the middle name of one of his past girlfriends seems a little sneaky to us. Plus, it could lead to a very awkward conversation in the future between their mom and dad.

While separated from their family overseas, servicemen and women sometimes look for companionship. Though this is not right, it can be understood, as they feel isolated, alone, and probably scared.

When these olden-day rendezvouses took place, sometimes a love child came from this. This grandpa and his sisters managed to keep it a secret from his wife because they knew the immense pain it would have caused.

It is always nice if your parents like the person you are marrying, but it is not a necessity and shouldn’t be the cause of murderous intentions. There is a good reason why this secret stayed a secret because it definitely gives a different outlook when it comes to true family history.

It seems a little excessive to reach out to the local mafia and see if they could potentially get rid of someone you don’t like just because they’re planning on marrying into your family.

Writing in a diary can be very therapeutic. It allows a person a place to house their deepest, darkest secrets. Unfortunately, unless they destroy these diaries, any of those secrets that they wanted to keep hidden will eventually come out.

Finding out through journals that your dad isn’t your dad could be a little awkward and a little hurtful. After all, that’s something that maybe should have been told to the girl, especially once other people knew about it.

Ancestry DNA and other DNA testing sites have become the bane of some people’s existence. After all, many people have discovered lost family members and such through utilizing these tests.

Here’s something that you don’t hear every day ― this woman’s father was supposed to be dead but a DNA test revealed he was alive and well and living in Colorado with a new family. Ouch!

During prohibition, there were a lot of shady things going on. After all, people had to make ends meet, and if you were someone who ran a bar or brothel or both, that meant you may have to have thought a little bit outside of the box.

Imagine finding out that your grandparents were these kinds of people and the only way in which they were able to keep a lid on it was because they were in cahoots with the chief of police.

None of us want to think that someone in our family has killed other people other than in times of war. Even then, it seems unfathomable to many of us that our dear doting grandfathers or great grandfathers are cold-blooded killers.

Wow, what a chilling topic… Turns out, this person’s great-grandfather was keeping such a secret that now is out for the whole family to know. How would you feel if you were in their shoes?