Using Cloth Napkins - Works for Me!

About six months ago, I decided we were just creating too much garbage.

Remember, there are a lot of people living in my house. And we eat at home a lot.

Paper towels and napkins were being used at an alarming rate.

First we switched to kitchen towels instead of paper.

I went and got about a dozen extra towels (love Target) and committed to using them instead of paper towels. We kept our paper towel dispenser, but our consumption has gone down to about one roll a week. When do I use the paper towels? When we're out of the cloth ones (oops, forgot to do laundry) and occasionally for certain kinds of messes, like paint, which would stain the towels permanently. Otherwise, we've all become accustomed to the cloth towels.

Then I brought up the idea of cloth napkins.

And interestingly, my family went along with it just fine!

I ordered these wonderful napkins (and snack bags) from Gnome Clothes, a great little etsy store. They're a nice soft flannel, in different colors, and my kids love them.

(And then I hit Cost Plus and found a whole bunch of napkins on super clearance. I didn't care what color, and they are great.)

But the best part of the whole thing is this: I bought, while at Cost Plus, a pretty little wicker garbage can. And I leave it in the kitchen for the dirty napkins and towels. When it's full, we take it downstairs and wash napkins and towels. Perfect, don't you think?

We have cut our napkin use down to zero. I even put the cloth ones into lunch boxes.

(Except when we had a large party outside the other night. We actually had to look for paper napkins.)

What other disposables can we ditch?

I'm still working on it, and you can too, with Amy's challenge: Ditch the Disposables.

This napkin thing is working great for me.
Go see what other things are working for folks here....