STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Toothpaste *is* good, and inexpensive (white paste kind, not gel). Also, if your sterling has no stones / beads on it, you can do the aluminum foil / baking soda trick:

* Ingredients: ¼ cup baking soda
* ¼ cup salt
* ¼ cup liquid dish soap
* ½ gallon of water

* Equipment: Large pot
* Aluminum foil
* Plastic spoon
* Stove top
* colander or strainer
* towel

Take a large pot, such as a spaghetti pot, and completly line the inside with aluminum foil. Pour all of the ingredients into the pot and stir with your plastic spoon. Collect the sterling silver jewelry you want to clean, place them into the solution, and spread them out on the bottom of the pot so they don't touch each other. Bring this to a low boil for a few minutes. Then turn off the burner and let it sit for another couple of minutes. Then using the colander or strainer, pour out the solution. Rinse well with cold water making sure that all salt is rinsed off your silver. (Salt will eventually corrode metal.) Place them on a towel to dry. Make sure you’ve accounted for all your jewelry before you throw away the aluminum. It will be dirty because the oxides on your jewelry were transferred to it. Your sterling silver jewelry should now look like new.

Non-toxic, and handy to do - especially, as I understand, for *very* tarnished silver - because most people have these items in their home already.

I work with sterling all the time, and don't have much trouble with tarnish - but I keep my sterling away from air (in a closed jewelry case) so that it doesn't oxidize.

This may sound crazy, but after you get it clean, WD-40 helps keep it from tarnishing. Who knew?

I wouldn't use WD-40 on anything that has stones b/c it could discolor or corrode them.  But if they are just silver, I think it would be okay.