William said, “I cleaned my tarnished silver per your directions then washed and dried it. Now I have silver tarnish residue on my towel, and it won’t wash out. How do I get silver tarnish residue out of my dish towel?”
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People often polish items with their shirt or towel, not realizing that the metal tarnish can be transferred to the fabric. Use the steps below to remove the stains.
Removing the Stain
You Will Need:
- A cloth
- White vinegar
- Hydrogen peroxide
- Lemon juice
- A nail brush
- An old toothbrush
- Milk
Steps to Remove the Stain:
- Soak a cleaning cloth with a mild bleach, such as white vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, or lemon juice.¹ A paint thinner, such as VM&P Naptha, may also be effective.²
- Sponge the solution onto the stain. Rotate the cleaning cloth to a clean area as the stain is transferred to it.¹
- If needed, scrub the cleaning solution into the stain with a soft-bristled brush, such as a nail brush or old toothbrush.²
- Rinse the fabric well, then wash it as usual in the laundry.¹
- If the stain is stubborn, try using sour milk. Mix together some vinegar and milk in a bowl to create sour milk, then put the stained area of the item in the bowl.³
- Let the stain soak in the sour milk for about 30 minutes, then wash it as usual.³
Additional Tips and Advice
- Always test a cleaning solution on a small, hidden area of the fabric first to look for any adverse effects.
- Always assume that your cleaning (or polishing) cloth will be ruined to avoid using a more valuable cloth, such as a hand towel that is part of a set.
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Sources
- Field Guide to Stains by Virginia M. Friedman, Melissa Wagner, and Nancy Armstrong
- Removing Spots and Stains by Ibert & Eleanor Mellan
- Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things by Reader’s Digest
Hi,
Maybe you can give me some advice. My mom put her rags she used to polish the silver (with silver polish) into the washing machine. Not realizing this was an issue, I used the machine for my clothing, and although there was a self clean cycle run on the machine between them, my clothing all smells strongly like the chemical silver polish. I’m really quite upset that my clothing and a very important blanket may have been ruined and obviously I can’t improve the situation by using spoiled milk or bleach on my clothes and blanket. Do you have any advice on what I can do or is my stuff all ruined? And how would we go about making the machine clean so we can use it again, or is there no way to safely get the inside of the washer clean again?
Thanks so much for any help you can give me. Sarah
Sarah,
The best thing to try would be white vinegar; it’s a natural deodorizer and also is very effective for cutting through some products (grease & acids in particular, which are common in silver polishes). You can try washing your clothes again in the washing machine and adding a cup or two of white vinegar to the rinse cycle. (Usually people use one cup in the rinse cycle as a fabric softener, but in this case, it may better to use two.)
The vinegar can also be used to clean the machine – run the machine with an empty load and add two cups of white vinegar to the main cycle in place of detergent. You could also try using the product Smelly Washer.
It would be best to clean the washer first, then re-clean the clothes. You may need to clean the washer again afterwards, but it would limit the amount of residue in the washer while re-cleaning the clothes. Otherwise, you will be cleaning both at once and it may take several tries.
Another option besides white vinegar is borax, which works well as a deodorizer and also is alkaline, so it will therefore react with the acids in the silver polish, neautralizing them. About 1/2 cup of borax added to the wash should be sufficient.
Source: Wikipedia – Sulfamic acid
Source: Flitz – How to Polish Silver
Source: HowToCleanStuff.net – How to Deodorize Clothes
Source: HowToCleanStuff.net – How to Deodorize a Washing Machine