If you have jewelry, it makes logical sense that you would want to maintain it free from damage or discoloration - particularly if it is valuable or has particular importance for you

Proper storage of your items will help you to maintain their safety and cleanliness.

Here is some absolutely perfect tips on how to keep your jewelry from tarnishing and other damage-causing agent.

How to Store Jewelry - What is Tarnishing?

You might have observed that over time some of your beloved jewelry pieces have faded.

Regular jewelry wear can cause a dull gray or black film to develop on the surface of your jewelry when it comes into touch with moisture or air.

Fortunately, polishing a piece will help to reverse jewelry tarnishing. To get things back to their natural hue, try jewelry cleaning agents like baking soda.

Still, tarnishing is not the only way jewelry could start to display aging marks.

Over time your preferred necklaces could also get scraped, scratched, dented, or deformed. Reverse these far more complex than simple tarnishing.

You must preserve your jewelry carefully if you want it to remain tarnished or damaged free. 

What types of jewelry do you have?

Popular jewelry metals abound in variety, and some are more prone to damage than others.

Platinum Jewelry

Platinum is renowned for being quite long-lasting and robust. Although it's not as readily bendable as other metals, it is still somewhat soft and may be easily scratched.

With aging it will also fade. Many others, though, find this effect to be frosted, matte, or antique-like. Sometimes it's known as a "patina."

By removing your ring before exposing your hands to water, strong chemicals, body lotions and other cosmetics, or anything that can scratch it, you can slow down the formation of the patina if you find its appearance objectionable.

You can either get the patina restored by a jeweler or remove it by polishing it back to its original glossy form if you so want.

Gold jewelry

A quite soft metal is gold. Actually, it is too soft to transform on its own into jewelry. For this reason, most gold jewelry is fashioned of a gold alloy.

That is gold mixed with brass, nickel, or another metal to increase strength.

The blend has more gold the more karats the work has. Therefore, even if 18 karats is more pure than 14 karats, the higher karat item will be softer and more prone to misshaping than the 14 karat piece.

Silver Jewelry

Silver is rather soft, much like gold is. Most silver jewelry is thus composed of sterling silver, which is silver combined with another metal, such copper.

Silver is hence well-known for being especially prone to tarnishing.

The copper in the alloy reacts with oxygen when it comes into touch with air. This means that the silver can turn black or green, which often isn't a fantastic look!

Keeping silver free from moisture will help to prevent tarnishing since it accelerates the oxidation process.

Many individuals find it useful to preserve their silver with silica packets and pieces of chalk, which soak up the surrounding humidity, or use anti tarnish strips, which don’s metal damage but neutralize the gases causing tarnish.

Plated jewelry

Many choose to purchase gold plated pieces instead of real gold jewelry in order to get around its high price point.

Made from a sturdy underlying metal, say brass or sterling silver, these are then covered with a thin (normal) or thicker (vermeil) layer of gold. Another somewhat common substitute is Rhodium plated jewelry.

New plated jewelry looks virtually exactly like solid jewelry. Sadly, the plated coating wears down with time and reveals the metal beneath.

If you own plated necklaces, rings, or earrings, you need thus be very particular about how you keep your jewelry to minimize wear and tear.

Gemstone Jewelry

Though a sparkling gemstone is beautiful, you also have to be careful with how you handle these pieces.

If you have gemstone jewelry, make sure to store each item in different boxes and compartments within a cold, dark surroundings.

Some gemstones, including diamonds, are rather hard, so their sharp corners could ruin your other pieces.

With soft minerals like pearls, amber, and turquoise, especially exercise great caution. Also crucial is keeping your jewels out of the spotlight. Certain gemstones, including opals, can lose their purity and suffer damage from sunlight.

How to Store Jewelry to Prevent Tarnishing and Other Damage

Even though some types of metal are more prone to tarnishing than others, most jewelry storage techniques will apply to any jewelry collection – whether you’ve got a large set of precious pieces, or you prefer casual costume jewelry.

Here are some of the best tips for taking care of your collection.

Store your jewelry in a dry and dark place

Light, heat, and moisture are often the main culprits when it comes to jewelry tarnishing. You can’t just store your jewelry anywhere. 

It should be away from direct sunlight, which can cause fading. It should also be in a room that isn’t too hot and humid, such as the bathroom. The moisture in the air can cause tarnishing, especially on silver.

Keep your jewelry organized

It sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to take off your jewelry at the end of a long day and just throw it down on your vanity. 

Keep in mind that your pieces can easily scrape on each other and become damaged when they’re stored in a big tangled pile.

Avoid damage and tarnish to your necklaces by always doing up the clasp and hanging it on a dedicated hook. 

You can also use hooks to store your bracelets. In a similar vein, make sure you don’t just take off your earrings and throw them down anywhere. 

Put the backs back on and place them in a jewelry box or bag so they stay safe.

Use a compartmentalized jewelry box

A jewelry box that’s separated into compartments is probably the best way to store your jewelry to prevent tarnishing. 

At the end of the day, you can put each item in its own little compartment. This way, you can keep your soft amber bracelet away from your sharp diamond earrings, avoiding any unnecessary scrapes and dents. 

Be sure to choose a jewelry box that’s lined with a soft fabric, like felt or velvet.

Use silica or chalk to absorb moisture

Even if you store your jewelry in a location that’s fairly dry, there will probably still be some humidity in the air. 

You can add some things into your jewelry box to keep your silver from tarnishing. Silica gel packets are popular – and if you bought some shoes recently, you might already have some. Otherwise, chalk should do the trick too.

Keep silver in ziplock bags

If you live in a humid location, chalk or silica may not work as well as you’d hoped. If you’re having real issues with your silver tarnishing, you can also try storing it in small plastic bags, ideally, using the ones with anti-tarnish coating. 

Place each necklace, ring, bracelet, or pair of silver earrings in its own ziplock bag and make sure you push all the air out before sealing it up. This should keep it airtight and protected from moisture.

Keep jewelry boxes and bags

Most jewelry comes in a little felt box or drawstring bag. These can really come in handy when you’re traveling, because your jewelry box is probably a bit too big to take on holiday with you. 

Plus, taking all of your precious jewelry on holiday isn’t usually a good idea. Hang onto these little boxes and bags, because you never know when you’ll need them.

Conclusion

Use a soft cotton towel to lightly polish your plated jewelry.

Should extra cleaning be required, gently dry it with warm, soapy water on soft cotton cloth.

It's quite simple. Making sure you wait until it's dry before pack it into the box is crucial.

You will be well on your way to preserve your preferred items tarnish free if you keep your jewelry clean, dry, and securely stored!