The Napkin Nuisance

In a house with a bunch of kids, we tend to go through plenty of napkins. It seems like someone is always spilling something at the table, and we need to wipe it up quick. Or just very sticky fingers from those who forget what utensils are for (a 2 year old is great for that). It seems I was buying napkins or paper towels pretty often, and that was getting a little old. For one, it's the cost. Two, the amount of garbage accumulated by throwing them all out. So, I toyed with idea of making a bunch of cloth napkins to use. That was as far as it got. I never get to the fabric store, and I don't have a serger (which would make doing the edges pretty easy and fast), so we just kept going through the stacks of napkins and rolls of paper towels. Then one day my aunt and uncle were having a garage sale, and low and behold here is a huge stack of cloth napkins. My aunt says, "oh, those were Grandma's, and no one needs them, so we're selling them." (for $0.10 each, I might add, while the cheapest store ones run 0.05 each). I bought the whole stack, then and there. Not only do the blue ones remind me of so many dinners at Grandpa and Grandma's they also look surprisingly like drape cloths from working in the ED suture room for so many years. Double memories. I still have the paper ones on hand, but have found these cloth ones to work amazingly well. Not only do they absorb a whole milk cup with one napkin (and they are always in a basket on the table so we don't have to run for one), they wash well and we have never run out (something we did before and then had to wait until we went to the store to buy more). Anything less that I have to buy is a score for me. (I'm also experimenting with homemade dishwasher soap, which I'll leave for another post)