Paper Napkins - Cloth Napkins Challenge

[scrava]

I recently started using cloth napkins and bought more dish towels. I recycle everything that we can recycle in my city + I keep batteries and ink jet cartridges. I looked into our trash and couldn't believe how many paper products there were! Tons of paper towls, tons of nakins and more paper towels for cleaning. I bought some of the windex cloths that you can re-use for cleaning. I put them in the washer dryer and they come out fine (so far).

[DivaJen]

I love using cloth napkins. Going without paper towels is usually fine. The only time I miss them is when I have to clean up something yucky, like a hairball coughed up by one of my cats. Those are the times when I grab a rag that can be tossed to use. I find that if I don't have paper towels in the house I have to use other towels, whereas if I do have a roll of paper towels I'll use more of them than maybe I need to.

[Bookie]

Sometime around 1998 I bought a bale of paper towels at some incredible (and long-forgotten) sale price. I'm still working my way through that stash. Surprises me because I thought I used paper a lot, but with cloth napkins, sponges for cleaning, and a squeegee for windows, I guess I don't.

[puppypal]

I too haven't bought paper towels napkins or tissue for sometime now. Since I have boys, and live in the country empressions are low on the scale of one to ten. Normally just kids at the dinner table and well....You all know boys they couldn't give a hoot whether they use thier shirt tale or a napkin! ROFL
Normally, DH manages to stain up parts of my towels....For some odd reason they end up being used here there and back again then maybe they end up in the washroom! LOL
So I cut off the un-stained parts into squares and even though I can't sew worth a durn, I take several threads of cross stitch tread and make the ends not so stringy! It works! Anywho. I do have one very nice hidden set of cloth napkins that nobody but myself knows where they are. For company!
Glenda

[jaksilee]

I don't do the napkins, but I do use dish towels for everything you could possably think of in the kitchen. If I'm cooking I have one out for yucky hands, one for clean hands and one for spills on the floor, since I can't seem to stop dropping things. I either wash them by hand or throw them in with the towels when I go to the laundrymat.

[LuxLiving]

Do dishtowels. Have paper towels for my glass dining table - I'll never buy another one of those as you must windex it after anyone sits at it to eat!

I bought about 50 restaraunt weight napkins at a closeout store YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS ago for 10 cents each. We use them every meal! They've saved me a bundle and wash up nicely - no need for pressing when company comes!

-LuxLivingFrugalis

[AuntArt]

We've been using cloth napkins for a while. I haven't been able to cut out paper towel entirely but I'm working on it.
My Mother in law bought me this awesome "rag"a year ago to do my windows and I highly recommend it to all of you. You don't have to use cleaner at all ...just wet and go. Would be great for glass tables as mentioned before. Anyway it's called super cloth. You can go to supercloth.com to see a video and buy. It's totally worth it.

[Aleta]

I'm using both but will try using more cloth. Sometimes you're wasting water and cleaning supplies resources as well.

I saw a Food Network program where Rachel Ray takes out a bowl and uses it for anything to be discarded. I am like one of the posters above, I tend to drop things on the floor usually trying to discard stuff to be thrown away. The bowl method has helped me tremendously not to mention the countless times I walked to the garbage can to throw stuff away.

[FrugalPixie]

We have used cloth napkins for quite a few years. Hubby & I even used a hand towel in a pinch since we only had 4 napkins (purchased at a yard sale years ago). Last summer, my neighbor was sorting through some items her mom left behind. She was tossing a lot of the stuff from her mom's restaurant. I was blessed to receive about 20 burgundy cloth napkins! We now have plenty of them even if we have company.

Incidentally, we don't wash these after each use. For normal use, we wash about one time per week. That is unless there is a spill or another mess.

We also use rags instead of paper towels 99% of the time. We can make one roll of paper towels last for MONTHS!

[leggzz66]

you can also buy a clipboard, and put them on it like paper and tack up behind a cabinet door.

[TheTexan]

I understand using dish rags and wash cloths for cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms instead of paper towels, but cloth napkins? I just don't see any cost benefit to doing this. We have some cloth napkins that are used only during holidays and when there are guests over. Other than that, the paper napkins make their way into our hands.

[mom-from-missouri]

cloth. I just throw them into the washer after a meal and they sit in there until the next load of laundry is washed.
I know the paper ones are cheap, but my kids could easly go thru a package of 300 in less than a week.
I probably have 40-50 cloth napkins total, plus some holiday ones that I received as gifts. The napkins for everyday use sit in a copper wire basket in the center of our table

[leggzz66]

Originally Posted by TheTexan

I understand using dish rags and wash cloths for cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms instead of paper towels, but cloth napkins? I just don't see any cost benefit to doing this. We have some cloth napkins that are used only during holidays and when there are guests over. Other than that, the paper napkins make their way into our hands.

Its more then about economics, its also more environmental. going green. I use alot less paper towels then i used too, but i love cloth napkins. I have ss and they dont chafe my skin up. where the cheapest paper napkins do. Its a to each thier own deal though. Just wanted to share with you, that not all things on here is just about money, but other items as well. Time and wear even. A cloth napkin is washable and will last conciderably longer then a one use paper one also. You can find deals at yard sales, or even make your own from a yard of fabric you like from the 1.00 a yard sale at the store as well and a yard, i cant say exactly how many you can make from that, but im sure it would be conciderable, and even if you cant sew, you can use the iron heated tape thats as good as sewing. I got a bag of napkins and some plastic rings i didnt care for, but the whole bag was 1.00. Just a few options for you.

[mom-from-missouri]

Just wondering how many of us (probably not many) still use an old fashioned hankie???
I carry one in my purse (so do my daughters). Rarely do they actually get used though. But, it seems like if I have kleenex in my purse for more than a few days, they get torn up. So, the hankie is there for emerg use. Then if a cold hits me, I put in kleenex.
I think we are becoming a disposable society, and our grandchildren and future generations will pay for it down the road.

[leggzz66]

I hear ya mommy, my boys carry one. i get them 3 new ones each Christmas.

[markio26]

i recently had a valentines party at our home and i always use white linen tableclothes on all of my tables... and the appropriate placemats for the theme of the party.... colorful candles, and bowls.. i received a few lovely compliments...
some of my guests made comments about, i should have used paper plates, i used china, and i should have used paper napkins... i just smiled..
i haven't purchased paper towels, napkins, in almost 2 yrs... my aunt gave me some from the hallmark store... a friend gave them to her... i am still using them and that was 2 xmas's ago, they were for all the different holidays.. bags of the stuff... i do enjoy going to garage sales sometimes... i find alot of new items marked down at kohls... like dish towels... i purchased 18 white valentine tshirts, various sizes for $1.25 each... male and female ones...3 xmas long sleeved tshirts for women at $2 each.. 1 short sleeve white tshirt for a girl for a $1. i purchased 2 pairs of nice dark green pants for women for $3 each... one is for my sis...and i purchase a nice dark green pair of capris for $3....everything is well made and name brand.... today....

[pjmama]

I had never thought of this either. I'm definitely going to check out the dollar store when I can I love frugal ideas that are so green!

[Gailete]

This post has been going awhile and its been several years since I commented on it. I haven't bought any paper napkins now for well over 2 years. With just the two of us, it isn't a huge savings, but it is there. As it doesn't take any extra water or soap to wash, there is no extra cost to using them. Cloth napkins can last through several meals before they need washed. We also switched to hankies for the most part. Hubby prefers them. Although we do reserve paper tissues for gross big blows if you get my drift. The savings on tissues has been huge! Like the napkins, no extra cost for washing them, and my hankies are lined dried along with all my clothes. I use about one roll of paper towels a year and that is usually to absorb bacon grease. I use rags for everything else. Rags are old worn out towels, with holes, etc.

Little things do add up. Plus the stuff that didn't gets used, doesn't have to be thrown away filling up our landfills. Plus we didn't have to spend money to buy them.

[Sonja]

Cloth napkins are really great, but it takes so much time and efforts keeping them fresh and clean! Why don't we use paper ones? They can be very decorative and, if made of 3-ply paper, they are rather durable and give impression of high quality fabric - even by touch! At the same time, they are cheaper than cloth napkins and do not need washing (another way of saving money).

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Sonja, if you are in North America, would you tell us the brand name and price on these high quality paper napkins? I'm sceptical that they are cheaper than cloth napkins. I have some calico napkins that are thirty years old now. Whatever price I might have paid, I think it would come out way ahead of buying paper. In fact, though, I got these napkins second hand and free. Other napkins have been sewn from men's shirts and scraps of fabric. Some nicer white linen ones for special occasion tables I have purchased. Some huge ones were 25 cents each at Big Lots. They double as kitchen towels. A pack of colorful dishcloths are also used as napkins, especially when we are serving something messy. Inexpensive, and cute as they match my favorite table cloth.

I flat out think cloth makes a nicer napkin than paper, though there are some pretty good paper ones. But the price? Nah, I don't think I want to spring for them.