Returning to a former glory…

I bought two copper pots probably 20 years ago. I was just starting out decorating my fist “adult” apartment and eBay was all the rage. I decided that I needed to have some cool copper pots. So I ordered them from eBay and have had them with me in every apartment and house I've live in since. The other day I was starting to get some flowers and seeds started for the summer and realized that they looked terrible! Our new house has a copper sink (which I adore) and the old owners left some copper polish so my first thought was that I would use that to bring my pots back to their original glory. As I was wiping the cleaner on the pots I realized that I hadn’t even checked the ingredients to see what I was using. And when I looked I saw that it had you wear gloves to use the product. Knowing that wasn’t a good sign, I dug deeper and found that it has ammonium chloride and silicon dioxide. The issue in the silicon dioxide is that silica dust is a health hazard and Ammonium chloride greater than 1% is listed in some states as a concern. So I figured that someone out there has to have figured out a way to clean copper using natural ingredients and boy was I excited to find a ton of different ideas (yes, I am a total nerd) - thank you internet. So what I learned is that you basically just need something acidic to remove the tarnish but you need to be careful to not use something abrasive that can remove the finish of copper. So I decided to turn to my friend Martha (ha, don’t I wish) and see what she has to say. And not only am I thrilled with the ideas that I found on her site. I also was excited to find the reference to The Joy of Green Cleaning book. How have I never heard of this and can I get a copy immediately? The easiest of the ingredients was this:

“Lemon juice and salt are useful for removing tarnish from copper in three easy steps:

1. Squeeze the juice of the lemon in a bowl and then sprinkle the salt into the juice. Reichert does a 75:25 ratio, with three times as much lemon to salt.

2. Stir for a minute until the salt dissolves.

3. Dip a cloth into the solution and wipe the copper.”

So I decided to try it and low and behold, it works! Yay! A toxic free way to clean with inexpensive ingredients I almost always have around the kitchen. Here is another site that has some good ideas including vinegar, hot sauce and ketchup. Some day I’ll do a test between all the different methods and update this post. But for now, I’m happy with my shiny happy pots (cue REM there for people old enough to get that reference)…