Of course, you can restore the original look of the cutlery with thorough polishing. But who has the time to painstakingly polish every single spoon, every fork and bread knife by hand? The aluminum foil trick is much faster and much easier. In an Instagram video, a user shows how the dishwasher hack works.
All you need is a standard piece of aluminum foil. Crumple this up into a small ball. It is important that the shiny side faces outwards. The aluminum ball now goes into the cutlery basket in the dishwasher – select the usual wash cycle, wait and be amazed: the cutlery shines like new again.
The whole thing works because so-called rust film, for example coming from screws inside the machine, now settles on the aluminum foil instead of on the cutlery. To a certain extent, this acts as a lightning rod, as it oxidizes more easily than the higher-quality stainless steel of the cutlery and is therefore more susceptible to rust.