Cleaning Silver with Baking Soda and Foil

Still purging here, and cleaning up stuff that we haven't used in a long time.  This beautiful silver serving dish was one given to us 8 years ago when we got married.  It's been in storage for probably the five years we've been at this house.  Polishing a large plate like this can seem a scary task, but it actually wasn't so bad with the Baking Soda and Foil technique.  You can see here, the plate started off in a pretty dingy state.

I brought needed supplies to our bathroom, since the bathtub is the only large enough container I had to soak it in. I recommend lining your bathtub with a towel or something so you don't scratch it. I used hot water and let the plate soak for about 10 minutes, flipping it over now and then. I wasn't satisfied with the results initially, so I got a dark towel, and started rubbing the plate. I added more baking soda while rubbing to help get the tarnish off, and it did rub onto the towel, so either use a rag, or a dark towel you won't see it on.

In the end, I have a shiny silver platter that was cleaned with only baking soda, not some crazy harmful chemical. What a difference. Now I need to decide if I should sell it, or keep it.