The wonder of cloth napkins and dish towels....

As another foray into going green, I've been trying to reduce the amount of paper products we use in the house. I'm not game to going toilet paper free like some folks, but I have reduced my TP usage. However, paper towels and napkins was one area I felt like I could make a huge dent.

So, I hung up towels in the kitchens and bathrooms to use when drying hands and for wiping small spills, etc. That helped quite a bit and Joe didn't seem to mind a bit. I actually find that the towels are better at drying anyway and don't dry out or hurt my hands. Then, when I do laundry each week, I throw them in with the wash. No harm no foul and all is good.

Cloth napkins was my next step to using less paper products. I picked up some at Job Lot - three packs of four for a grand total cost of $6 - yep, cost me $2 per pack of 4. I took a long time figuring out what style to get - I didn't want something that was really nice looking so people wouldn't want to use them and I didn't want something plain and white so stains would show. I ended up with a cotton/poly blend mocha color that works nicely. I definitely could have easily made some out of spare rags or old clothes, but I kind of wanted some nicer looking ones. I put them in the napkin holder next to the paper towels. Joe took a little while longer to adapt to this one and he continued to grab paper towels (instead of napkins since I ran out and didn't buy more) to use as paper towels. It helps when I hand him one with his meals, and he'll use it fine, but still seems to grab for the paper first. I'll win him over yet eventually.

However, the strangest thing happens when other people come over to the house. Friends, family, whoever. If you give them a cloth napkin with their meal it's like they are afraid to use them and spoil them or something. We put them out with Christmas dinner and so few people actually used their napkins. Then we had friends over the other night and had pizza and they kept asking if it was okay to use the napkins and then when dinner was done what they should do with them - I think someone even asked if they should throw them away. I kept saying, it's fine, just leave them there and I'll put them in the wash. They were all concerned about the grease stains and I kept saying it was fine.

So strange that we have this stigma with cloth napkins and products that are easy substitutions for paper products. You go to a fancy restaurant and they have cloth napkins there? So why not use normal cloth napkins at home? Enjoy the 'luxury' of it - and while you're at it, save the earth a few trees at a time!