Don’t risk it! Remove your engagement ring during these activities to keep it safe.
A diamond may be forever, but that doesn’t mean you should wear your engagement ring every second of every day. It may be difficult to imagine taking it off during those first few blissful weeks of engagement, but after a while, you’ll probably realize there are times when it’s better left in its box.
Don’t worry. Taking off your engagement ring doesn’t mean you love your partner any less! Taking off your engagement ring occasionally is just part of proper ring maintenance. You want your engagement ring to sparkle for the rest of your life just like it did when they proposed.
So, with that in mind, here is the rundown of when you should take off your engagement ring and why.
Working Out
Breaking a sweat is excellent for your mental and physical health. Unfortunately, it’s not great for your engagement ring. Activities such as running, lifting weights, or playing a sport require vigorous movement and potential rough contact with your hands.
Contact can scratch the band, loosen diamonds, or damage precious stones. Your sweat could even react with the metals in your engagement ring and cause an allergic reaction. All in all, it’s just not worth taking the risk. Leave your ring off for workouts so you can enjoy them to the fullest.
Sleeping
Sleeping may sound like a comparatively innocuous activity. After all, you’re just lying there, right? Unless you sleep like a statue (and even then), it’s better to remove your engagement ring before bed.
Normal tossing and turning can lead to your ring getting caught in your bedding or your hair, which can loosen the setting – not to mention, ouch, your hair! Certain positions can also place abnormal weight or pressure on your ring, which may alter its shape or damage the prongs over time.
Finally, you can scratch your face with your diamond in the middle of the night or experience discomfort from regular nighttime swelling in your fingers. You can’t see your engagement ring while you sleep anyway, so you might as well put it to bed separately for the good of everyone.
Swimming
Can you imagine anything worse than your engagement ring slipping off and sinking to the bottom of the sea? This is a real risk of swimming with your ring, especially in cold water! Colder temperatures can cause your fingers to shrink, loosening your ring to potentially never be seen again.
Saltwater and chlorine water in pools is also bad for the metal alloys making up the band of your engagement ring. Saltwater can create a film that’s difficult to clean, while chlorine will degrade rhodium, turning your white gold engagement ring yellow over time.
House & Yard Work
We all remember the bright yellow rubber gloves our mothers would wear when doing housework. Well, your momma was onto something because you should absolutely wear gloves to protect your hands from abrasive cleaning chemicals.
For the same reason, you should remove your engagement ring before any type of cleaning or yard work. The chemicals present in cleaning agents can dull the metal and potentially damage the gemstones in your engagement ring. Working with yard equipment or gardening should also be avoided while wearing your ring. Dirt, rough contact, and yard machinery can all scratch, damage, and dull the shine of your sparkling engagement ring.
Cooking
Salt, fat, acid, heat! All that sounds like a delicious meal combination, but it doesn’t bode well for your engagement ring. There are the typical hazards of cooking that could result in you hitting your ring against the counter or wearing the finish of your band with some misplaced lemon juice. There is also the potential of your ring harboring bacteria and transferring them onto the food you’re cooking!
Always remove your engagement ring before handling and preparing raw meat. No matter how well you wash your hands, there is always the risk of bacteria getting stuck beneath the setting of your stones or in another crevasse of your engagement ring. That’s pretty gross to think about. Just take your ring off before you start cooking, okay?
Doing Dishes
Much like the swimming example, your finger may swell or shrink depending on the water you’re washing your dishes in. Not to mention the sudsy slippery soap you’re working with.
Don’t risk watching your engagement ring fall down the drain. Sure, you can retrieve it from the p-trap, but that doesn’t really sound like a fun after-dinner activity, does it?
Creative Projects
Are you a DIY expert or a hobby painter? We love that for you, but we don’t love it for your engagement ring. Leave your ring off during home renovation projects, pottery experiments, or any other moment of creative genius.
You wouldn’t want to accidentally catch your diamond on a hard edge, get paint splatter on it, or cake clay into the crevasses of the setting. That doesn’t even mention potential chemicals in construction or art supplies that might dull the finish or damage your gemstones. As a rule of thumb, if you’re unsure – stow your ring away somewhere safe instead.
During Pregnancy
This one isn’t a hard and fast rule, but some women experience swelling in their fingers over the course of their pregnancy. We wouldn’t recommend resizing your ring until after you’ve given birth and your body has had time to adjust and find its new normal. Often, your engagement ring and wedding band will return to fitting normally after your pregnancy.
Avoid the discomfort of a too-snug fit. Leave your engagement ring in your jewelry box while you’re pregnant or wear it on a chain around your next instead.
Where Should You Keep Your Engagement Ring?
You can store your engagement ring in whatever place works best for you, but we recommend you try to make it the same place every time. There’s nothing wrong with storing your engagement ring in the box it came in. It’s perfectly suited to it, and you’ll never have to worry about misplacing it!
Another option is to store your engagement ring in a jewelry box with specialty felt ring inserts. That way, you can be sure your ring won’t scratch against any other jewelry or get misplaced, among other things.
Remember that regular maintenance is required to keep your engagement ring looking its best. Be sure to have it professionally inspected twice a year and follow a gentle cleaning routine every couple of weeks.
