Ring Rules (do''s and don''ts)

[esp102]

For all you women (and men) who have worn your rings for many years - what tips can you give to newly engaged couples on the do''s and don''ts for safety?

For example, "Don''t take your ring off in a public restroom", "Don''t place it near a sink", "Don''t wear it while chaning your car''s oil", etc...

 

[Gypsy]

LMAO. When you are in the airport... nervous because you are going to show your parents your ring for the first time and you want it to be all sparkly... DON''T take your ring... place it on your skirt... then look around your carry-on for your jewlery cleaner, then get frustrated... stand up to find the cleaner... find it... and realized you''ve lost your ring. In the airport. With a bunch of strangers. And if you do... like I did... pray for a kind stranger to hand your your ring from where it''s gone to.

In general... don''t take it off unless you are at home. And even then... designate two places (like one upstairs, one downstairs) that are SAFE for the ring... and only take it off there.

 

[SoonIHope]

I NEVER take my ring off except to put it in my ring box (which I take with me when I travel too). If I absolutely have to take it off when the ring box isn''t accessible (eg. cooking something messy at someone else''s house) I loop it onto my necklace and fasten it back around my neck until I''m ready to wear the ring again. I would much rather wear it washing dishes (warm soapy water!) etc, than risk taking it off and losing it!!

 

[Cme]

I agree, whenever you do take your ring/rings off.....be sure to put them back in their box.......Our house burned down recently, we lost everything......but a few weeks ago in the rubble, we found a pair of earrings....in their box.....box totally burned...but earings are ok.
Keep ring in its box when not wearing it.

 

[SuzyQZ]

I take off my rings when I get home and put then in the same place, a ring box in a bathroom cabinet. I put them back on when I leave in the morning. I clean them everyday in my US as I brush my teeth (2 minutes brushing/2 minutes in the US). My rings never leave my fingers when I'm out. I've become an expert at washing just the tips of my fingers and the palms of my hands so as not to get my rings full of soap or water marks.

So when I'm home, all jewelry is off in safe place.
When I'm out, all jewelry is on, never leaves my finger, ever!


ETA: I also do all my skin moisturizing at night before I go to bed. I don't like putting on hand cream in the mornings and then putting on my rings. No matter how good your lotion is, you're just asking for smudges within a nanosecond if you moisturize and then put on your rings!

Also, I never wear my rings when I have manicures, too much lotion and oils going on there!

 

[justjulia]

I wear mine while doing everything. I keep a nail brush handy for quick clean ups. I''m too scatterbrained to take anything off-I''d surely lose it.

 

[asscherisme]

NEVER take your ring off unless you are at home, period! And even at home, only put it in once specific place. Never leave it by the sink. And for goodness sake, never never never rinse cleaner off unless the stopper is closed in the sink.

On older married woman told me that when I was engaged and now I have been married 12 years and I tell that to my newly engaged friends. I would rather get soap, lotion etc on my ring and clean it at home than loose it becuase I lost it.


CME, I am SO sorry about your house. I can't even imagine what that must be like. Will insurance rebuild for you? Do you mind if I asked what started the fire? I hope you and your family are OK.

 

[poptart]

I''m so sorry to hear about your house CME. But my tip... please don''t put your ring in your pocket. EVER. I had a friend that did this and lost her engagement ring. It was awful. I agree with Gypsy about designating certain areas in your house for your ring. Mine goes from my finger to the ring box and that''s all. The wedding ring never comes off.

 

[Fancy605]

These are all very good tips! What about sleeping in your ring? I heard that sleeping in it may cause damage.

 

[Kaleigh]

My rings come off when I''m home. I put them in the same place every day, a ring holder next to my bed. I never take off my rings when I''m out. I''d be so afraid of loosing them.

 

[poptart]

Date: 7/20/2006 2:49:52 PM
Author: Fancy605
These are all very good tips! What about sleeping in your ring? I heard that sleeping in it may cause damage.

I think that is right. I''ve heard that the sheets rubbing on the prongs of your ring can cause some of the worst wear and tear, so I don''t wear my engagement ring to bed ever. But my wedding ring is titanium and has like a low relief design, so I don''t really worry about sleeping in it at all. Anything with stones or engravings... I wouldn''t feel as comfortable with that.

 

[Rod]

Date: 7/20/2006 2:16:44 PM
Author: Cme
I agree, whenever you do take your ring/rings off.....be sure to put them back in their box.......Our house burned down recently, we lost everything......but a few weeks ago in the rubble, we found a pair of earrings....in their box.....box totally burned...but earings are ok.
Keep ring in its box when not wearing it.

Cme......I''m so sorry to know you lost everything in a fire. I can only assume that since you are writing on the forum, that you are safe and unharmed?? My thoughts are with you.........

 

[FacetFire]

Date: 7/20/2006 3:02:18 PM
Author: poptart

Date: 7/20/2006 2:49:52 PM

Author: Fancy605

These are all very good tips! What about sleeping in your ring? I heard that sleeping in it may cause damage.

I think that is right. I''ve heard that the sheets rubbing on the prongs of your ring can cause some of the worst wear and tear, so I don''t wear my engagement ring to bed ever. But my wedding ring is titanium and has like a low relief design, so I don''t really worry about sleeping in it at all. Anything with stones or engravings... I wouldn''t feel as comfortable with that.

I thought that was only a concern for gold prongs wearing down on the sheets, but not platinum. Anyone know for sure?

 

[Gypsy]

Mine are gold 14K white. Wear my ring to bed... my prongs haven''t MOVED in 4 years. Seriously, as tight as they were in the begining. Of course they are rather thick prongs.

 

[Rod]

Date: 7/20/2006 2:50:16 PM
Author: Kaleigh
My rings come off when I''m home. I put them in the same place every day, a ring holder next to my bed. I never take off my rings when I''m out. I''d be so afraid of loosing them.

Much like most of the PS responses, my ring comes off when I get home in the evening. It is first cleaned in a jewelery cleaning solution with a soft bristled brush, then dried and put in it''s velvet lined bed for a nice restful sleep. As many of my PS friends know, I also have the JewelJet Steamer and on Friday evenings in addition to it''s gentle cleaning, my ring is steamed clean, dried and put to rest. I keep my ring box in the same location so I never have to hunt for it.

I am a bit different in public though. I can''t stand to wash my hands with soap and keep my ring on. I do remove my ring before washing my hands. It is gently put in a paper towel. The paper towel is put in my pant pocket and the ring returned to my finger after drying.

I also work out at the gym 5 days a week after work (my gym just turned me into a poster with my huge weight loss and progress!!). So my gym bag has a velvet lined pouch waiting to hold my ring while I get some exercise.

I know I add new meaning to "anal retentive!!!" LOL

 

[Cme]

Our house fire was caused by electrical - heating

..we had been gone maybe 10 minutes when they say the house exploded.....they stay it had to be smoldering for a few hours before we left ......We lost everything, including our dogs and parrots..but we are all ok..
As for insurance.....long story.....I will try and keep it short, we were buying the house from fil.....( we paid to get the house out of foreclosure in 1996 and had been paying fil ever since on the agreed purchase price......the house would of ben paid in full march 26 2006.......but it burned...and fil is not being very nice. We had renters insurance which didnt even bein to cover much of anything at all, we took a big loss....As for fil, we asked him for the money back that we paid to get the house out of forclosure ( not everything we have paid since) and he said no !

He is taking his money from his insurnace co and keeping it.
He has even offered to SELL, yes sell us the land so we rebuild something ourself. I told him I''d give him 5.00 foe the land, I dont want him to give us anything........

 

[FacetFire]

Date: 7/20/2006 3:27:43 PM
Author: Cme
Our house fire was caused by electrical - heating

..we had been gone maybe 10 minutes when they say the house exploded.....they stay it had to be smoldering for a few hours before we left ......We lost everything, including our dogs and parrots..but we are all ok..

As for insurance.....long story.....I will try and keep it short, we were buying the house from fil.....( we paid to get the house out of foreclosure in 1996 and had been paying fil ever since on the agreed purchase price......the house would of ben paid in full march 26 2006.......but it burned...and fil is not being very nice. We had renters insurance which didnt even bein to cover much of anything at all, we took a big loss....As for fil, we asked him for the money back that we paid to get the house out of forclosure ( not everything we have paid since) and he said no !

He is taking his money from his insurnace co and keeping it.

He has even offered to SELL, yes sell us the land so we rebuild something ourself. I told him I''d give him 5.00 foe the land, I dont want him to give us anything........

Oh, I am so sorry! I can''t even imagine how hard that must be to go through. It''s amazing that you guys got out okay. My heart goes out to you, especially for the loss of your pets...that has to be one of the hardest parts (I know how close I am to my dogs, and how painful that would be for me). I hope things start to look up for you soon...you certainly deserve it after all you''ve been through!

 

[esp102]

>> I do remove my ring before washing my hands. It is gently put in a paper towel. The paper towel is put in my >>pant pocket and the ring returned to my finger after drying.

Well, if I''m with her and she wants to really wash her hands well before we eat at a restaurant - she can give me her ring to hold until she gets back to the table - then put it back on.

 

[CaptAubrey]

One tip from the Capt.: If you''re a manicure girl, take your ring off before you go and leave it at home. My MIL had hers stolen off the tray while she was having her nails done. She thinks someone just saw it, walked past, and scooped it up. Gone.

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 7/20/2006 4:08:49 PM
Author: CaptAubrey
One tip from the Capt.: If you''re a manicure girl, take your ring off before you go and leave it at home. My MIL had hers stolen off the tray while she was having her nails done. She thinks someone just saw it, walked past, and scooped it up. Gone.

Great tip. I don''t take mine off during a manicure, and skip the lotion massage.

 

[asscherisme]

CME, I am so sorry. FIL is making an awful situation worse through his greed. And your poor dogs

On the topic here- I use to sleep with my engagment ring until I was about 6 months pregnant with my first (10 years ago) and then I had to take my rings off due to swollen fingers until he was about 6 weeks old. Since that time I hate to sleep with rings.

I use to work with a woman who scratched her cornea with her ring and required surgery.

But I always wear them during they day. The only time I did not was at the end of my pregnancies. My fingers swell big time when I''m pregnant.

 

[Mara]

hah like i would leave my ring on a tray at the nail salon? never!! i wear my juicy pants or similar which have drawstrings on them and if i have to take my ring off at the salon for the massage or whatever, i tie it onto my pants with like 3 knots. if i end up going and don''t have the pants on...i put it in my purse in a small pocket. but i almost always wear pants with drawstrings when i go. or shorts or whatever.

cme so sorry to hear about your loss, especially the pets. that is one of my secret nightmares, that something will happen to the house when we are gone and the dog won''t be able to get out.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

What about keeping rings off counters/away from pets? Our cat used to always be on the counters, batting things around that looked interesting to play with.

I also suggest having a reliable safe to store the precious stuff when not worn or while away.

cheers--Sharon

 

[JulieN]

no swimming.

 

[Cehrabehra]

Date: 7/20/2006 2:16:44 PM
Author: Cme
I agree, whenever you do take your ring/rings off.....be sure to put them back in their box.......Our house burned down recently, we lost everything......but a few weeks ago in the rubble, we found a pair of earrings....in their box.....box totally burned...but earings are ok.
Keep ring in its box when not wearing it.

I''m so sorry for your loss... glad you were able to find at least one thing

 

[JoangA]

I will take my ring off to wash my hands while in public, but first I wash the ring, then I always but it in my mouth, hold it between my lips till after I wash and dry my hands.. Sounds kind of yucky, but that''s my line.

 

[Mara]

Date: 7/20/2006 5:41:58 PM
Author: JoangA
I will take my ring off to wash my hands while in public, but first I wash the ring, then I always but it in my mouth, hold it between my lips till after I wash and dry my hands.. Sounds kind of yucky, but that's my line.

HA HA be careful with this one!!!

The reason being is that if you ever do something and inadvertently go "Oh!"...that ring falls out of your lips and onto the floor! I know because this happened to me! I used to do this when I put lotion on etc and once while sitting in a movie threatre...I squeezed too much lotion out onto my hands accidentally and it was an impulse to go 'Oops'...yep ring falls out of my mouth and down the crack between the two chairs into the dark movie threatre!! On hands and knees scouring the floor for a few minutes, hoping and praying it didn't ROLL down the slanted floor and some lucky theatre go'er is finding it down in row 2....OMG thank god I found it!! After that NEVER put it between my lips again.

 

[Grace]

Don''t forget that you''ve put your rings in your pocket, then go to bed and then wake up an hour later and remember you need to wear those pants again and throw them in the washer, get up in the am, still groggy put clothes in dryer, take shower, finally wake up some, go to retrieve pants, open dryer and see winking from the top of the lint trap one diamond engagement ring...and no diamond band to be found!!!! Yes this happend to me while on vacation in Brazil. We were staying at a relative''s house while they were away and believe me, when I saw that ring, i flipped out! I went through every piece of laundry tried to look down into the trap on the dryer and the washer...no luck. My husband tried to comfort me saying at least it wasnt the e-ring, and it could be replaced... I was heartbroken, how could I lose the symbol of our marriage after only 6 months!!!! (yes, very melodramatic)

Well, we went to the beach the next day and we stayed for a week. On the last day I got a phone call from my mother who also lives in the same area. She had gone over to the house we were staying in and taken the whole dryer apart and gotten my brother to help her turn it upside down and shake the darn thing around (my mother is nothing if not tenacious)

Low and behold my tiny little band came rolling out!!!!

My mom didnt even believe it was really my ring, my brother had to convince her that it wasnt a toy ring

Hooray for tenacious mom!!! Needless to say, if you are even a little bit foregetful like me, DONT PUT THE RINGS IN YOUR POCKETS

( I still laugh at the idea of my mom knee deep in dryer parts shaking this poor machine within an inch of its life to make it give up its stolen treasure)

 

[phoenixgirl]

Don''t take the ring off for airport security -- a friend''s mom was asked to do this (it must have been a fake or unscrupulous security agent, I think it was overseas, but I don''t really know the whole story), and when she got to the other side it was gone. My sister had a Tiffany''s bracelet that she bought to commemorate a miscarried baby, and she took it off to go through security (I should have told her this rule -- jewelry never sets it off) and then got pulled into extra security and forgot to get it.

Plan ahead and don''t wear the ring at the beach. My mom noted that I was only wearing my band on the beach, and I said, "Mom, there''s a reason people search the beach with metal detectors!" Plus I hate it when it gets gunky with sun block.

I don''t wear it in bed. I''m afraid I''ll accidentally scratch myself or DH with it. At home I put it in a box. In situations where I am afraid it could get lost like visiting friends or family, I put my rings around my watch band and clasp it. I figure that way if a dog or child gets into my stuff, it will be harder to lose.

Cme, I''m very sorry to hear about your fire and your FIL.

I have a hunch that karma will get him in the end for screwing over his family for money. I am glad that you and yours made it out safely.

I actually had a kitchen fire three months after getting engaged, and I was cleaning my ring in the bathroom at the time. When I realized how bad the fire was, I ran out (from a 3rd floor condo) with no shoes, no ring, nothing. I didn''t even grab my purse which was hanging right by the door (it was pitch black with smoke so I would have had to feel around for it). So while all of us would HATE to lose our engagement rings, I guess the best advice is to remember that the only things that can''t be replaced in some capacity are you and your loved ones, so get good insurance for the ring! (Let''s all admit it -- having to replace a lost ring would probably be fun for most of us).

The end of the story is that the ring was fine -- it was just about the only thing that wasn''t all smokey since it was sitting in the cleaner. I must confess that while I was waiting to get back into my place, the only thing I thought of was my ring. (A kindly fireman had already brought me my purse).

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 7/20/2006 3:22:30 PM
Author: Rod
.

I also work out at the gym 5 days a week after work (my gym just turned me into a poster with my huge weight loss and progress!!).
e

Congrats on the Rebuild Rod campaign

I am doing gym now 5 days a week too! You need to join our weekly workout thread Rod - guys ARE allowed!