Ditch the chemical option

Tewshooz - it's all your fault. 😄

I posted the other day that I was not going to post on this blog anymore and got such a wonderful comment from Tewshooz that I changed my mind.

I do not have the energy - nor motivation - to create the long posts from before, but will try and keep in contact with you all via shorter, pertinent posts if I feel that I have something worthwhile to contribute.

With that said - here goes...

Every year before Christmas in preparation for festive family get togethers, my late husband, Ronnie, and I used to clean the brass and copper items that we had collected during our years together.  This "collection" included items which Ronnie had inherited from his mother.

Said cleaning involved using Brasso - a chemical rubbing compound.  And was always a mission.  It took literally hours and left us (me) with aching arms and fingers from all the rubbing.  And the process left our hands and nails filthy and imprinted with dirty Brasso residue.  As well as the surface on which we had cleaned the copper and brass items.

It was one of our "together" chores and I haven't had the will to do it since Ronnie passed away.

Until I saw a post on Facebook recently which reminded me that the brass and copper hadn't been touched in 5 years.

I was blown away.

Partially cleaned copper using toothpaste

All it took was a small squeeze of toothpaste and a plastic pot scourer.  And literally 5 minutes of my time.

I have previously successfully used cooled wood ash, but, being in short supply of wood ash at the moment, toothpaste more than adequately gets the job done.

Why has man cast aside harmless cleaning methods and adopted the use of chemicals.  All that does is benefit the corporations and their shareholders.  And harm the environment - and landfill - with waste and chemical residue.

And, unlike Brasso, this cleaning agent contains no health warnings - and no harmful chemicals are required to get the job done.  If toothpaste is good enough for my teeth (and mouth) then it is certainly OK for my hands and fingers.

Sparkling clean copper thanks to toothpaste

Can you see the difference between the clean and the "still to be cleaned copper?

You can see in the last photo that there are a number of copper items which are sorely in need of a good clean.  In honour of Ronnie I will try and sort that out before Christmas.

The copper "collection" still in need of attention