I started putting the excessive extra napkins in with my kids’ school lunches. My son, for example, was quite surprised today to open his lunch bag and find a T-Rex staring him in the face. The other kids envied him (”Wow! His mom put a cool dinosaur in with his lunch!”). Can you see me blush? 
Every week when we have movie nite, the kids have a “picnic” on the floor (not to worry, I always spread out a plastic “table cloth” first 
). The food is always easy (frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, etc.), so I figure the clean-up should be too! I get out the leftover paper plates and napkins and enjoy remembering the parties of the not-so-distant past!
This works for me! Head over to Shannon’s to see all the other great Works For Me Wednesday tips!
September 18th, 2007 at 11:50 pm
We save extra plates and napkins too, but we’ve never used them for anything special. I love the movie night thing. Thanks!
September 19th, 2007 at 12:20 am
Great idea. I always just throw the extras in a box and never use them, but I don’t want to throw them away for some strange reason. My son will love having cool napkins in his lunchbox.
September 19th, 2007 at 4:36 am
The movie night idea is a great suggestion for using those extras…my problem is lack of space to store the extra plates and napkins…which usually end up in a bag somewhere in my laundry room. I’ll have to work on that.
September 19th, 2007 at 7:56 am
What great and fun ideas!
September 19th, 2007 at 8:25 am
great ideal it always seem after something you have a few things like paper plates left over.
September 19th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Love this idea ~ I usually use them with our meals until they are used up. Or return the unopened ones ~ LOL!
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September 19th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
we do the same thing here at our house! it really is a great idea and a fun addition to movie night! thanks for sharing :O)
September 20th, 2007 at 2:15 am
Cute tip. I love the idea of the picnic dinners. My kids would think that was a lot of fun.
Thanks for sharing.
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September 20th, 2007 at 11:57 am
It is silly to save all those extra plates and such isn’t it? A movie night picnic sounds like so much fun. Good tip!
September 20th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Great tip! I ALWAYS lose the receipt before I can make returns to the party store. Thanks for sharing!
September 20th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
One thing that I’ve done to reduce all the extra unmatched napkins is to just get the special paper plates and then get solid color napkins. Since party stuff usually is in bright primary colors, those yellow and red and blue napkins will probably go with the next party theme!
I like the idea of making “everyday” special with the leftover stuff, though.
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Louise - I usually do some special plates & napkins & add in some plain primary colors that coordinate. Does that tell you how much I overestimate??? This is a great tip, though, to keep from paying premium prices for all the special paper products
Thanks for stopping by!