I had two years ago intended to switch from throwaway paper to cloth napkins. Then a neighbor moved out and gave me a bunch of his stuff including two huge cases of personalized napkins he had made when he ran a wine company. They read, "louis the wine guy" and had a picture of a little man holding grapes. I gave a case to the local natural food store and finally, this week, the case I kept has run out. This makes today the first day of cloth napkins. Mikey and I are both confused. . . "how often does a cloth napkin get used before hitting the wash?" We both recalled today how some meals render a napkin tragic and not reusable without washing while other meals one barely uses a napkin. Does that mean we'd use it again? I have no idea. I guess we'll wing it and see what feels right. Hooray to the end of the throwaway napkin!
20100715
Cloth Napkins
I had two years ago intended to switch from throwaway paper to cloth napkins. Then a neighbor moved out and gave me a bunch of his stuff including two huge cases of personalized napkins he had made when he ran a wine company. They read, "louis the wine guy" and had a picture of a little man holding grapes. I gave a case to the local natural food store and finally, this week, the case I kept has run out. This makes today the first day of cloth napkins. Mikey and I are both confused. . . "how often does a cloth napkin get used before hitting the wash?" We both recalled today how some meals render a napkin tragic and not reusable without washing while other meals one barely uses a napkin. Does that mean we'd use it again? I have no idea. I guess we'll wing it and see what feels right. Hooray to the end of the throwaway napkin!
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6 comments:
Make some nice napkin rings. If each one is different each member of the family can easily identify their napkin at meal time. Mine are each different animals: giraffe, rhino, elephant...etc.
Unless a guest is a regular, that napkin hits the laundry after one use. Other than that, it completely depends on the nature of the meal(s). I am sure you will send the napkins to the laundry after 1 serving of BBQ ribs. At the other extreme, after a week of fairly neat meals you may feel like you are washing something clean.
I've been making us cloth napkins for years, and we've developed strategies for giving them longer useful lives.
I make them from thick, sturdy cotton that's absorbent but with a linen-like quality. I make them about 20" square with half-inch hems.
When I make a new round of napkins, we demote the old ones. They get used for those meals that destroy napkins quickly (i.e. wings, barbecue). If we're having a seriously messy meal, we use paper towels or some of the paper napkins that take-away places always inflict on us, despite our requests.
We always hang the napkins out to dry. This both saves them wear from the dryer and makes them much easier to fold.
When they do get greasy, we soak them in a weak solution of Oil Eater, a non-toxic degreaser. They will need to be bleached occasionally, so do go for white cloth. It's tempting to go for a darker color which won't show the grime, but they'll show bleach spots and look terrible.
And when the napkins are too ratty to use even for BBQ, they become rags.
UV kills most germs;wetting and steaming in microwave;drop inboiling water for 60 seconds and hang on the line....have fun...Amin
We tend to use napkins until they need to not be used anymore. If you have to ask yourself "Is this napkin clean enough to use?" the answer is "Yes."
i cut some of mine into smaller pieces so they are used only once and washed.
i cut some of mine into smaller pieces suitable for being used at one meal and then washed
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