Every meal, I found myself “reminding” my children (especially the boys) to wipe their mouths on their napkins and NOT on their sleeves. I began thinking they weren’t forgetting where to wipe their mouths, but they must like hearing my sweet voice remind them :). Or, perhaps, it’s the feel of soft cotton on their mouths, or knowing they are irritating me (and adding another step in the laundry process).
One afternoon, we had company for Sunday lunch (or Sunday “dinnah”as we refer to it here in the south) and used cloth napkins to “dress up” the table a bit (besides, cloth napkins are classier than the plain white paper ones). I noticed the kids ALL WIPED THEIR MOUTHS ON THE NAPKINS! I figured it was just the novelty of the napkin, but I tried using cloth napkins at other meals - to my surprise, they kept using them :idea:.
I’ve cleaned out the china cabinet drawers and reorganized the napkins to make them easier to find and put away (and de-cluttering is on my list for my SMART Habit Saturday 
). Now the kids pick their napkin for the day just before breakfast and keep it at their place all day. Since they like to rotate who they sit by at each meal, this also makes it easier to figure out who is sitting where.
We don’t have to buy napkins anymore, so that’s one less thing on my grocery list. Given that paper napkins were refused if they were wrinkled or had even one used spot on them, we’ll probably save a few hundred trees by switching to cloth! You’re probably asking yourself why you didn’t think of this before - what a good idea :).
Hop on over to Rocks in My Dryer for more great ideas in Works for Me Wednesday!
August 15th, 2007 at 3:47 am
Wow! Do the children really use cloth napkins? My g’ma ALWAYS used cloth napkins. Whenever we would visit she would let you pick out a napkin ring. That was your ring for the entire visit. Everyone put their napakin (unless it was very soiled) back into the ring at the end of the meal. I loved the tradition but couldn’t ever seem to bring it home with me. Do you iron your napkins? That, to me, seems to defeat the purpose. I can’t add in a new habit that is going to cause me MORE work. Ha!
Thanks for sharing!
Duckabush Blog
August 15th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Kathy, I DON’T iron the napkins
I have nicer napkins for special occasions (that we’ve never used 
that do have to be ironed. The napkins we use are inexpensive little cheap cotton or polyester napkins that we just wash and fold. Of course, like clothes, the sooner you get them out of the dryer, the less wrinkled they are! Even if they are wrinkled, we just fold them and go (by the time the kids use them once, they are wrinkled :). Often it’s the kids that do the folding - they pull them out of the laundry basket, fold them, and put them away. Very little effort on my part 
August 15th, 2007 at 10:37 am
It’s a great idea! The kids would do less wasting of napkins if they knew they had to wash them. Don’t they get stained? Did you buy the napkins or make them? I think the kids would have fun making some. How big are they? E-mail me!
August 15th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Great idea!
I’m going to get the napkins tomorrow.
I’ve completely forgotten about them… it’s time they face the world again.
Thanks!