Taking care of your home just makes good sense. I know, it’s easier to just pay someone to upgrade stuff sometimes, but having a few little DIY tricks in your back pocket can literally make your home sparkle and can save you money. I’ll go for the projects with power tools every time, but this little home update doesn’t even need those. Just a little old fashioned elbow grease will help you polish brass door hardware and keep your entry looking fabulous.

We live in a home that’s nearly 100 years old, so we treasure all of the details, and try very hard not to replace anything that doesn’t actually need to be replaced. Quite honestly, they just don’t make things like they used to, and the original parts of this old house are mostly fabulous.

I’ve been eying up some of the door hardware, and noticed what a beating it’s taken. A lot of newer brass fixtures come coated, don’t ask me with what. Not sure if it’s a urethane layer or some type of plastic coating, but whatever it is, it eventually wears off in places and does what our hardware is doing…oxidizing.

Where the keys and a million other little things hit this hardware starts a scratch, and then oxygen and water eventually make that scratch or dent look like rust or dirt, and it feels grainy, too.

I wondered if there was anything that could make it look and feel better.

Of course, I had to look no farther than my neighborhood hardware store. They assured me that, yes, a little polish would, in fact, clean up that brass. Brasso is widely available. You only need a regular polishing cloth and maybe a toothbrush or other soft brush for some tough jobs. I didn’t even wear gloves.

How did it work? MUCH better than I expected!

You can see that there is still a bit of the protective film on this fixture. I figure that the rest of it might come off the next time I polish this, which will surely be no more often than once a year!

Sorry if you were looking for perfection. I’d probably need a teenager in a LOT of trouble and trying to work off a big mistake to get it completely shiny shiny. (I’m not above using manual chores as a learning tool.)

But for $7 on Amazon for Brasso (check your local hardware store first and support a small business!), and about half an hour of polishing, I’m happy to have a new bright spot in my home.

What are your thoughts on this quick DIY?