I had a pretty, sparkly thing with red plastic discs on it that looked not-so-shiny anymore. It was time to toss, but then I remembered the purple rags, got a squirt bottle and began to clean each shiny disk by hand (picture a berry branch with discs).

Obviously that was about to be a career move. So I suddenly upended the branches over the rag, squirted the bejesus out of the thing and then gave a gentle rub between two purple rags and voila! Shiny again! Took less than three minutes, didn’t make a mess, and my shiny red discs didn’t come off, and I love them again. The purple rags are so absorbent and gentle.