Cleaning Seashells for Shell Crafts & Display

Cleaning seashells and your treasures requires a waterproof container. A plastic bowl, a pail, even a plastic cup can be used to hold the items to be cleaned.  Size the container to the job at hand. The more seashells you need to clean the larger the container. Gather your container or containers. You may want to use more than one, so you can separate the small seashells from the bigger ones. This will help lessen the breakage among the small seashells.

The method I use to clean seashells, coral, and other beach treasures is to place them within a solution of clean water and bleach. The amount of bleach to use depends on the amount of organic material attached to the seashells.

If the seashells you are going to clean have very little or no organic materials still attached then make a light solution of water and bleach. This the method I use since the seashells I pick up for my shell craft projects have been cleaned of their organic components by the waves or the wind. Using standard bleach, mix 1 part of bleach to 10 parts of water. That would be ¼ to ½ cup of bleach for each gallon of water.

 I would encourage you not to take seashells that have live occupants. Put them back in the water and let them be. If you find dead ones that still have lots of organic components, such as the fleshy covering over the seashell, remove what you can and discard. Make a solution of 50/50 water and bleach.

Add clean water over the seashells so they are completed immersed. Add bleach to the water per above, and mix the batch up. When you stir the water and seashells it will help disperse the bleach into and around the seashells. Use a large spoon, or a stick to mix it up.

 Since the seashells I gather are fairly clean I just soak them for an hour or two.  Stir the mixture 2 or 3 times to help the bleach/water get into more places. This will help kill off the microbes and critters that may have come along with the seashells. The result is a cleaner, more sanitized product. If you are using the 50/50 mix, then you may want to leave the seashells sit in the mix overnight.

Pour out the water being careful not to pour out the seashells. Rinse the seashells with fresh, clean water.  Rinse 3 or 4 times, this should remove most of the bleach. If you stir the water/seashell mix just before pouring the water our, you should be able to get rid of a lot of the loose junk that came along with the seashells. After the last rinse, add enough fresh, clean water to cover the seashells by a couple of inches.

 Now that the seashell cleaning is done, take the seashells and other treasures out of the container. Use the water to rinse the seashells and any other items as you pull them out of your container. Put out to drain then arrange them on towels to dry. Space them out a bit to allow air to flow around them.

 Any sand that is left at the bottom of the container can be used for shell craft projects. Rinse the sand a couple of more times, stirring it up so any debris will float out into the water. Pour the water out slowly then put the sand out to dry.