How to Store Your Silver Tea Set

If you own a silver tea set you will want to store it in such a way that tarnish or damage to the set does not occur. Cleaning silverware was once relegated to the maids and servants, however as most people are not fortunate enough to have their own maid the task of ‘polishing the silver’ usually falls on homemakers. This can be a rather arduous and fairly boring task, especially if you have a lot of silverware that needs attending to. However, it is a well established fact that keeping up with the polishing and cleaning, as well as using your silverware regularly, will help to keep it looking great. If you leave it for too long it will be much more difficult to get your silverware into pristine shape than it would have if you were attending to it once a week or so.

There are a few simple guidelines, which if followed, should help your silver ware to stay looking good and tarnish free.

Humidity causes tarnish to form, therefore store your silver tea set in a low humidity location if you can. This may be difficult if you live in a particularly humid area, and if this is the case you may want to look for different ways to limit damage from humidity. There are several different products on the market that are designed specifically to absorb moisture in the air, so you may want to investigate these options and then purchase the most suitable product. If you store your silver teapot in a closed glass cabinet you may also find that it helps to rig up a low wattage light inside the cabinet. This has a twofold purpose. It will probably help to keep the air inside the cabinet from becoming too filled with moisture. It will also nicely highlight your prized possession.

If you have small items, such as tongs and teaspoons as part of your silver tea set do not bundle them together for convenience sake using a rubber band. Rubber bands causes silver to tarnish. Instead, just lay them flat beside the rest of the pieces. Or, if you must keep them in one place, put them in a small container beside the rest of your set, or store them in a regular cutlery draw. They are not usually show piece items, so it is not necessary to keep them on display. However, on plus with keeping them with the rest of your tea set is that you will not be in danger of misplacing them or having them become mixed up with the regular cutlery that you use daily.

You can also buy specially prepared cloth that is designed for wrapping and storing silver. There are several options available, and you can also find these items online. The article must be completely enclosed and wrapped in the cloth for optimum protection, so you may need to buy several different sized pieces of cloth. This is useful for many silver items, however most people prefer to display their tea sets and wrapping them and tucking them away somewhere will not accomplish this purpose.  It is a good idea if you need to store your tea set away while relocating for example, as that way you can be sure that while in storage it will remain in great condition.

3M tarnish strips also work well, especially if you store your silver tea set in a cabinet. Directions suggest that you place one or two strips on each shelf, or more if your cabinet has more than two cubic meters of storage space. These strips do work very well, but they do not provide indefinite protection. You will need to remember to replace them every six months or so as after that they lose their effectiveness. You will also probably want to place them so that they are not easily visible, possibly on the underside of the shelves or in a corner of the cabinet.

Finally, something worth noting is that silverware that is in regular use will not tarnish. Stored silver tends to tarnish much more quickly that any silver ware that is in constant use. You may want to keep that in mind, opting to use your silver tea set at any given opportunity. Just remember after use to clean it before storing it away again.