How about four parts water,one part ammonia and about a tablespoon of dishwashing liquid (Dawn,Palmolive,Joy,etc.) . Soak costune jewelry in in, rinse in plain water, polish with a soft cloth. No good for pearls. Or watches, obviously.

I love this stuff, too. My house is a very traditional 1920s center-entrance colonial. Ho hum. So every so often I do something a little wacky to it. On our mudroom closet doors, which just pull open without any sort of latch mechanism, I used great big glass, flower-shaped cabinet knobs from Anthropologie. People comment on them all the time.

Hi there - I had one (actually, I think I still have it somewhere). It worked well, and I used it quite a bit at first but then the interest just faded away after about a month. It was one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" things. However, your question was whether they work. In my experience, yes, quite well! Hmmmmm....maybe I should dig it out again. I wonder where it is! LoL. Suzieque

I think cleaning IS hard labor if it's done right! I always hated doing it (and eventually hired a cleaner), but now it is physically impossible to do so. Yes, I have had things stolen, My husband was doing math tutoring for a girl and asked her parents if they knew of any good cleaning help (we'd just moved and needed someone badly). They gave us the name of their cleaner and raved about her. She worked for me for about 3 months, and finally, before a party when I got out all the sterling flatware to polish it, I realized that she had stolen one entire place setting, probably one piece at a time. I would notice a piece was missing but though perhaps a plate had been taken out of the kitchen/dining room (against the rules in my family) and had the missing fork/spoon on it. My husband asked the people if they had had this problem, and they admitted that they're just fired her for stealing, too! I have had workmen steal When we were doing major remodeling, the workmen arrived early one day and I was not quite ready for them, and left my "everyday" jewelry on my dressing table - frantic to get dressed. When they left that day, I could follow the footsteps of the drywall men down the hall and into my bedroom (they had no reason to be there). And yes, my jewelry was gone. One piece had tremendous sentimental value. I immediately called my GC, she spoke to the head of the drywall company. Of course, they all denied they had taken it and when confronted about the footprints, said they were looking for the bathroom (they walked right past it to get to my bedroom and yes, the door WAS open!). Couldn't prove anything, so nothing I could do. BTW, that "bonding" meant nothing if it could not be proven! My homeowner's insurance did pay, but the piece with sentimental value, was irreplaceable. Since then, I have always kept my jewelry that I was not wearing locked up. No, it is not a lock that one could not jimmy, but it would damage the wood and be a bit obvious. When I leave town, the alarm is on and all jewelry that doesn't go with me is in the large safe (weighs about 700 pounds). I don't lock up all the silver, but if the time comes for me to have health care workers, I will have DD put all the silver in the safe. I do lock up any with major value or big sentimental value to me. By the time they died, virtually all my mothers good friends had had all their silver and jewelry stolen piece by piece, by their caregivers. It is not unusual. I have friends who have had the same thing happen to their mothers/MIL's.