How long do cloth napkins last

I like white so I can bleach sanitize it before I make my napkins and can use bleach as needed when the napkins get stained. Tear away the finished edges. Measure and make a small snip in the edge every 15 inches or your preferred size. TEAR into strips, starting at the snips. The fabrick will tear straight with the grain On the long edge of each strip, make a new set of snips, same measurement.

Tear these as well. You will get a little fraying but not much. In this way, you can make a nice supply of soft cotton napkins. I have been a cloth napkin user in the past and found that it saved money straight up-front. Another useful item especially with kids is hankerchiefs. Saves those little noses! If you have a large stack, you can use each corner once, fold it in neatly, then throw in the wash and grab a new one — never reusing any germy part.

We used to, but kids left them laying around. I should use them again though. If you put something in folded, it stays folded and whatever was in it, is still in it.

This may seem gross, but I have large cloth napkins and I bought a set of 4. I use one during the week and wash it on the weekend. I even have about 3 cheaper cloth napkins that I use at work and I do the same there. Use the same one all week and bring it home to wash it on Friday.

My savings has been huge. I really appreciate you doing all the homework to answer this question for me so thoroughly. Sadly, when your page pops up, one of the ads is for Oriental Trading Company, selling all kinds of disposable junk from China. Such beautiful patterns! And light colored linens, and ticking stripes. But then I close my eyes, and I envision what those napkins will look like with spaghetti sauce or cooked blueberries smeared across the stripes.

In the end, practicality wins out and I reach for the dark, solid-colored napkins. Skip the fancy lightweight napkins and opt for durable materials that will hold up to daily use and frequent washings. However, when my kids were small and we were first getting started with cloth napkins , we got away with a much smaller size. We divided each large napkin into quarters.

These small napkins served us well for years, and we still use them for travel purposes. At our house, we use the same napkin all day. Using a clean napkin for every meal would create too much laundry and would speed the deterioration of our napkins.

We eat most meals at home, together. Native Texan works from home and we homeschool the boys, so we spend a lot of time together around the family table. Each person starts the day with a clean napkin, and at the end of the day we toss all the napkins in the laundry.

We used to gather up the napkins after each meal. At times we stacked them by age order, and sometimes we used personalized clothespins to mark each napkin. Currently, we just leave our napkins folded neatly on the table between meals.

Does it make the table look cluttered? Yes, especially because we also use the same drinking glasses all day. Those stay on the table between meals, too. But again, practicality wins out in the end. If my goal were to maintain a perfectly styled home at all moments, it would over-complicate our real, everyday lives. Tip: one thing that does help to reduce visual clutter is for everyone to use a matching napkin.

If you love multiple colors and patterns, go for it! Keeping them clean will make them look newer longer. Wash dirty washcloths at least once a week. Save money and time by washing with other dirty towels and rags too. Another reason to go white? Two outcomes: white washcloths and a clean sink.

Get weekly accountability, monthly meal plans and swap recipe ideas with fellow foodies in Clean Eating Club! I have been using washcloths for about 10 months now.

I keep them in a separate place to wipe up spills on the floor, etc. I also invested in a package of cloth diapers to use to blow my nose. Much gentler than tissue. When company comes over, where do they put their used napkins?

Do they leave them on the table after the meal, or do you have them place the napkins in a specific spot? I have started doing something that is really handy and saves on paper towels even though I usually never buy paper towels, but I do buy paper napkins.

I have some of those thin cotton dish towels, similar to the really thin baby diapers. I hang one on the door under my kitchen sink, and I use it all week after the dishes are washed, to wipe the counters and around the sink and faucets.

It is not for drying hands, because it is used for wiping the grime off of the sink, and it is very convenient, and dries quickly. I started to get rid of them, then I realized that I could use them as un-paper towels, and it is very economical.

I get all mine from secondhand stores, which is the only affordable way to buy cloth napkins. If you can sew, you can buy a fat quarter at Wal-Mart, and, for about a buck, you can get 2 good-sized dinner napkins out of it. Just sew some seams down around the edges. You could even do seasonal napkins this way.

I have started using old rags to clean my bathroom sink, but I still use paper towels and cleaner for things like the toilet and floor. I cringe to think about throwing a grease-soaked rag in my washer machine :O.

A cloth napkin so elevates any meal. Even when using paper napkins years ago, we have always used placemats and a nice table setting each night of our 41 years of marriage. It makes a statement that life is good and every day is special! So glad I found your blog…will continue to check in often. I started a very basic blog www. Yvonne, I have been using cloth napkins for years.

I am a new reader recently retired teacher. I love your posts and have been spending some time reading your old posts and finding many practical tips. Someone has already asked this question, but I also would like to know the best places to purchase napkins at a reasonable price.

Welcome to the StoneGable family Janis! Keep commenting, pinning and being a vibrant part of our StoneGable community! I have found most of my cloth napkins at estate sales and thrift stores. Most show very little use! Like Janeinbama, I buy at estate sales on half-price day, at thrift stores and the clearance bins of department stores.

I rarely pay full price. I absolutely love using cloth napkins. It was something I grew up with, at home we each had our own engraved napkin ring and our napkins were used several times, but whoever had the job of laying the table always gave each person their own napkin identified by the rings. I now use them, admittedly, like you, fresh each time, but still we use them nearly every evening as a family, it teaches just a few of the good things from the past to the children and they just feel so right.

Like you I never iron the day to day ones, they either go in the dryer on in the summer they flap on the line in the fresh air. They add just a little elegance to each meal! I have recently been considering using cloth napkins since we had dinner with my nephew and his wife a few weeks ago and she pulled out the cloth napkins. Nothing wrong with looking civilized and maybe a little fancy. When we moved to our new home last year, I had to go through everything.

I rotate them every now and then to keep things fun and fresh. Its a nice way to make dinner special AND get to use my beautiful collection! We always used cloth napkins.

We reared three children and almost always had to be a good excuse sat down to dinner together. My husband passed away recently and every night we had placemats, cloth napkins, candles and music at dinner time. I have always had cloth napkins yet never used them on a regular basis until my children grew up and moved away.

I now use them every day for the two of us! They are stored in an antique silver tarnished bowl right by my dinner table.

Definitely no ironing! Obviously, I suffered from a case of out of sight, out of mind. Appreciate the reminder to make them more accessible. It started from a dislike of using paper towels and paper napkins and a recycling attitude. Like you, I press down and fold when I pull them out. Once in a while I iron them. Growing up my step-mother had a huge collection of them, then I got out of doing it when I got out on my own.

But when things got tight I went on a hunt for ways we could cut back. No more paper towels or paper napkins was part of the cut. I made reusable cloths to replace the paper towels, bought a bunch of Ikea dish towels cheap and nice! I love it and will never go back. We do buy paper towels every now and then for, but I love using cloth for everything much better. Nothing disposable is in my kitchen these days. I also do it out of an Eco Friendly viewpoint!

Enjoy this homey season for gathering around table with family and friends. Hugs, Mariette. I have quite a collection of cloth napkins also. We use them at supper each evening. Saving on paper products and it just seems nicer to have a cloth napkin. How fun! I usually just use them as decor. Thanks for sharing though!

Yvonne, I also use my cloth napkins every day. I even take a cloth napkin in my lunchbox when I go to school! The other teachers used to marvel at it and now they just smile and know that I will have stainless flatware and a cloth napkin in my lunchbox — and sometimes even a Blue Willow plate or bowl.

As an instructional technology coach, the other coaches and I sometimes have meetings at our office a schoolroom we share in an old school building that is only used for offices and professional development in our district. I brought a handful of pieces of stainless flatware and left them there and the other coaches have brought pottery or ironstone bowls for when we have soup.

Why wait till a special occasion to use something that is nice, practical, and beautiful? I am definitely going to get some yardage of material and make some napkins this afternoon.

Have a great day!