Antique furniture and silverwares are luxury items and they require extra care than your normal household furniture and cutlery. Antique furniture and silverware are made to last long; these items are passed down generation after generation and are used for centuries. So the housekeepers need to know how to take care of these Antique Furniture and Expensive Silverware. These are some points that will help to increase the longevity of these luxury household items. Recruitment agencies, like HazeltonClive, can help you hire the right housekeeper, that will suit your lifestyle and budget.

How to Maintain Antique Furniture

Antique Furniture is different from the regular furniture and the amount of care it needs also vary. They may look the same as normal furniture but the exotic materials and top-level craftsmanship are what makes them so much attractive as a luxury item. 

Antique Woods: Antique wooden furniture needs special care to make it last longer. They should be dusted frequently with a soft, dry cloth. Dusting frequently is important because not only it helps with the appearance but it also prevents the piece from getting contaminated. It is recommended never to use water as it will cause discolouration, rot, and will eventually dry the wood out. Vinegar will also damage the surface of the wood. 

 Bronze and Ormolu: Bronze and ormolu are often used to make or decorate antique furniture. They need to be dusted regularly with a soft brush or cloth, like antique woods, to maintain its glow. Something like a small toothbrush and a bit of wax can be used to clean the nooks and crannies. Ormolu should never be polished as gold does not tarnish. Keep in mind to avoid touching ormolu materials as the faint acid from our hand can damage the surface of the mount. Some furniture is coated with gold using the ‘water-gilding’ technique; this makes the surface of the furniture water-soluble. To avoid any unnecessary mishaps, it is better to just dust-off these materials with a dry piece of cloth or a brush. 

How to Maintain Silverware

Silverwares can be quite expensive and they can be damaged if you don’t know how to clean them properly. Silverwares are seldom used as a regular household item and they need to be taken care of properly to maintain their good condition. A housekeeper should know the dos and don’ts in terms of handling silverware. There are several ways to clean silverware –

Remove Tarnish: Silver tarnishes too easily. Aluminium foil concoction works amazingly well to remove tarnish off of silverware. Put your silverware in an Aluminium pan or a bowl covered with Aluminium foil and put a reasonable amount of baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) over the silverwares to coat them slightly. Then fill the pan with enough boiling water that the silverware gets submerged under water completely. Keep it like that for 3 to 5 minutes and your silverwares will shine as new.

If you don’t have baking soda, mix ½ cup water, ½ cup instant dry milk, and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice in a bowl and soak the silverwares in the solution. Keeping the silverwares soaked for a night should do the trick. 

Polish: After cleaning the silverware thoroughly, rinse and dry them, and polish them afterwards to make them shine. A soft rag should work just fine to polish the silverware. 

Store: After washing and polishing the silverware, it is important to properly store the silverware to maintain its shine. To store these for later use, wrap them in acid-free tissue papers and keep them in zip lock bag for later use. To maintain the shine of silverware avoid it from touching any form of rubber as rubber tarnishes silver.

It is important for a housekeeper to know the difference between normal household items and luxury household items and they should also know the proper way of taking care of these items. Rich people buy antique items as a hobby; it holds an emotional value to them, keeping aside the physical price. So, a housekeeper should have the knowledge so that they don’t accidentally damage these items.