a convenient tree hugger: napkins (but not paper towels)

I made the switch to cloth napkins several years ago, and it was pretty darn easy. I bought several yards of plain gray linen for pennies a yard when Hancock Fabric went out of business (a sad day in my house), I cut it into squares, and I serged the edges. It probably took me an hour to make a whole slew of them. They're nothing fancy, but we use them to wipe our dirty mouths, so they don't need to be.

To be honest with you, we do still have paper napkins, too. Our stash of cloth gets us a few days, but if you think that I always keep up on laundry, well, think again! Sometimes we do resort to paper for a day or two. This is a problem that could easily be solved one of two ways: doing laundry more frequently (not likely) or making more napkins. I'm going to opt for the latter.

And while I'm at it, I might as well make an extra set to give away to one of my lovely readers! Enter below for your chance to win 20 premium ultra deluxe* handmade cloth napkins!

*They're not that fancy. They're fabric with serged edges. But you don't have to throw them away after you use them! I will let you have input in the fabric selection, though. I'd hate to make you a set of red and white checkered napkins and find out that your dining room is blue and green. Or something.

You might be thinking "Yay! Cloth napkins are great! Let's even take it a step farther and add some reusable paper towels to the mix!" I'll be honest, I once thought that myself. I even pinned a couple easy patterns so I could make my own, since I am my mother's daughter! Then I looked at the occasions when I actually use paper towels. They are few and far between. Here are pretty much the only times I use paper towels:

• When cleaning up bodily fluids.
• When wiping out something particularly oily or greasy.
• Other rare occasions when I just want to be done with the thought of the mess forever and not have to deal with it in my laundry.

In these instances, I just want to throw the towel away. I don't want dog-pee soaked rags in with my clothes. Maybe if I went back to cloth diapering, I would consider it, but for now, it goes into the trash. I made the mistake a few times of using a hand towel or other rag to clean up a greasy mess, and no matter how well I thought I rinsed it after, I still ended up with grease stains on the other items in that load of laundry. It's easy enough to get them out with dish soap, but why no avoid that step if I can?

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