I've been in more laps than a napkin.
May 31, 2011 3:37 PM Subscribe
If you use cloth napkins, do you wash them after every meal or try to keep them for multiple meals (when they're not super gross or dirty)? Where do you store them and how do you make sure everyone gets theirs back?
We are trying to not be wasteful, but I can't figure out what to do with the cloth napkins (when very lightly used!) between meals. We use the kitchen table for homework and other things. But sometimes they're not that dirty and it just seems like a little unnecessary laundry, so I've tried stacking them in the middle of the table or draping them over the chairs, which lasts about five minutes at best (first-world problem). And let's just say that I have a little trouble keeping up with laundry.
(Now that I'm typing this out, it sounds gross to reuse them, actually.) Anyway:
(1) Reuse cloth napkins, ever?
(2) If yes, where are they between meals?
We're not going to switch to paper.
We are trying to not be wasteful, but I can't figure out what to do with the cloth napkins (when very lightly used!) between meals. We use the kitchen table for homework and other things. But sometimes they're not that dirty and it just seems like a little unnecessary laundry, so I've tried stacking them in the middle of the table or draping them over the chairs, which lasts about five minutes at best (first-world problem). And let's just say that I have a little trouble keeping up with laundry.
(Now that I'm typing this out, it sounds gross to reuse them, actually.) Anyway:
(1) Reuse cloth napkins, ever?
(2) If yes, where are they between meals?
We're not going to switch to paper.
Unless it isn't used at all (still folded up on the table), they get washed. I guess if you wanted to try to use them over the course of a day, then getting them monogrammed with each persons name or initial would be one way to keep it straight. Or each person has their own color.
posted by kimdog at 3:41 PM on May 31, 2011
posted by kimdog at 3:41 PM on May 31, 2011
Best answer: We reuse cloth napkins a few times - since there are only two of us, it isn't too hard to keep track of which is which. I had a good friend whose family used cloth napkins, and each person had a different napkin ring. After the meal, napkins went in the appropriate ring, and back into the kitchen in a basket.
posted by SNWidget at 3:47 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by SNWidget at 3:47 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
In my house cloth napkins are re-used until they need to be laundered. They are ringed or folded and put in a basket or on the sideboard. We have never paid any attention to which was last used by whom. I understand the hygine impulse there but whatever - the adults are swapping spit, the kids are licking each other, the babies are licking everything, everyone is kissing everyone... I don't think yesterday's pasta sauce is a disease vector.
Obviously not everyone is as chilled as my family is so when we have guests, everyone gets fresh napkins.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:53 PM on May 31, 2011 [14 favorites]
Obviously not everyone is as chilled as my family is so when we have guests, everyone gets fresh napkins.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:53 PM on May 31, 2011 [14 favorites]
My fiancée and I reuse napkins if it's just us. We don't need to clear the table, so we just leave them out with the place settings. To be honest, I don't think either of us would care if we got the other's napkin, but we're in lurve and YMMV.
That said, can you just get napkins in different colors for the different people? Then you don't have to worry about napkin rings, etc. Alternatively, can you just write your names on the tag (if there is a tag)?
Good for you for reusing cloth napkins. Anything else seems overly wasteful to me.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:54 PM on May 31, 2011
That said, can you just get napkins in different colors for the different people? Then you don't have to worry about napkin rings, etc. Alternatively, can you just write your names on the tag (if there is a tag)?
Good for you for reusing cloth napkins. Anything else seems overly wasteful to me.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 3:54 PM on May 31, 2011
We use cloth napkins, and wash them after each use. We just throw them into a laundry basket on top of the washer, and whenever someone does laundry the napkins are added to the load.
posted by doh ray mii at 3:55 PM on May 31, 2011
posted by doh ray mii at 3:55 PM on May 31, 2011
Best answer: I reuse them several times unless messy. I keep my placemats and napkins out on the table (used napkins are in a napkin ring) at each person's place, but when I was growing up, all the napkins went into a basket and everyone had his or her own distinctive napkin ring to keep track.
When company comes over, they get fresh napkins and I was those napkins after the party. If someone were staying for multiple days, I would probably feel I knew the person well enough just to ask him or her if she'd prefer to reuse for the next night's dinner or have a fresh one.
posted by pupstocks at 3:56 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
When company comes over, they get fresh napkins and I was those napkins after the party. If someone were staying for multiple days, I would probably feel I knew the person well enough just to ask him or her if she'd prefer to reuse for the next night's dinner or have a fresh one.
posted by pupstocks at 3:56 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I grew up in a household with cloth napkins. They were stored in napkin rings, that were color coded for each family member. My mother recently gave each of us our color coded napkin ring, I have no idea how she remembered which was whose.
posted by StickyCarpet at 3:56 PM on May 31, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by StickyCarpet at 3:56 PM on May 31, 2011 [2 favorites]
Sorry, typo, company gets fresh napkins and I wasH those napkins after the party...
posted by pupstocks at 3:56 PM on May 31, 2011
posted by pupstocks at 3:56 PM on May 31, 2011
Best answer: Miss Manners says:
Dear Miss Manners: I am often invited to dinner with a host who is most congenial and proper. At the end of the dinner, he takes his napkin, rolls it up and places it back in the napkin ring. Other guests follow his example.
Somewhere in my training, I was taught to fold the napkin, lay it to the left side and place the napkin ring on top of the napkin so there would be no mistake that it had been used. Would you please tell me what is the proper method?
Gentle Reader: Your host may be congenial, but Miss Manners is afraid that he is proper in this matter only if he has invited the same set of guests to the next day's meals.
Napkin rings are not mere decorations, but a means of identifying who used which napkin to avoid anyone's being stuck at the next meal with someone else's stains. Thus they are associated with family meals — in families that are fastidious, because they disdain paper napkins, but nevertheless do not employ a full-time laundress — and intimate houseguests. Those invited for a meal should leave ringless napkins folded by the plate, demonstrating their faith that their host will not pass off their used napkins on the next set of guests.
posted by bq at 3:58 PM on May 31, 2011 [7 favorites]
Dear Miss Manners: I am often invited to dinner with a host who is most congenial and proper. At the end of the dinner, he takes his napkin, rolls it up and places it back in the napkin ring. Other guests follow his example.
Somewhere in my training, I was taught to fold the napkin, lay it to the left side and place the napkin ring on top of the napkin so there would be no mistake that it had been used. Would you please tell me what is the proper method?
Gentle Reader: Your host may be congenial, but Miss Manners is afraid that he is proper in this matter only if he has invited the same set of guests to the next day's meals.
Napkin rings are not mere decorations, but a means of identifying who used which napkin to avoid anyone's being stuck at the next meal with someone else's stains. Thus they are associated with family meals — in families that are fastidious, because they disdain paper napkins, but nevertheless do not employ a full-time laundress — and intimate houseguests. Those invited for a meal should leave ringless napkins folded by the plate, demonstrating their faith that their host will not pass off their used napkins on the next set of guests.
posted by bq at 3:58 PM on May 31, 2011 [7 favorites]
I tend to reuse cloth napkins but not as meal napkins. Mostly the get reused fir wiping off the table of water or to do other non-staining activities that I might otherwise use a paper towel for. So after dinner, the cloth napkins hang out for a little while on the kitchen counter (maybe til the next dinner?) ready for any low-impact wiping.
posted by otherwordlyglow at 3:59 PM on May 31, 2011
posted by otherwordlyglow at 3:59 PM on May 31, 2011
We always wash the cloth napkins after each use. They go right into the laundry.
posted by tomboko at 4:06 PM on May 31, 2011
posted by tomboko at 4:06 PM on May 31, 2011
My household uses different colors or fabrics for different people, and they generally stay with near their placesettings. If the dining room table needs cleared off, usually the settings are stacked up (napkin atop placemat) in a single pile.
When they get gross, or if there are one-off guests, or just because I want a fresh one, they go in the kitchen-laundry (a little dedicated trashcan/hamper in the kitchen that collects the towels and napkins into a laundry batch).
posted by janell at 4:09 PM on May 31, 2011
When they get gross, or if there are one-off guests, or just because I want a fresh one, they go in the kitchen-laundry (a little dedicated trashcan/hamper in the kitchen that collects the towels and napkins into a laundry batch).
posted by janell at 4:09 PM on May 31, 2011
I attended this awesomely organized retreat where your napkin matched your towel matched your sheets... after that we used cloth napkins and wash them when they are visibly dirty or twice a week. We leave them at that person's spot at the table and each individual pick out their color (so they should remember). Visitors also pick their own napkin (repeat visitors know where to go and get their own) and reuse until they leave or it is dirty.
posted by mutt.cyberspace at 4:14 PM on May 31, 2011
posted by mutt.cyberspace at 4:14 PM on May 31, 2011
What Miss Manners there said, and that's what one little section in the top drawer of our buffet is for in the dining room. In the kitchen we have a wee drawer in a buffet for that too, but don't eat in there as often.
posted by peagood at 4:14 PM on May 31, 2011
posted by peagood at 4:14 PM on May 31, 2011
Multiple meals, folded up and left on the seat of each person's chair after each meal (I'm the only one who uses the table other than mealtime, and I'm able to handle the staggering responsibility of the napkin). I replace them a couple times a week or so, everyone gets a fresh one if we have company.
posted by padraigin at 4:27 PM on May 31, 2011
posted by padraigin at 4:27 PM on May 31, 2011
Hereabouts, a dirty napkin gets washed after use. We define dirty as one that's been used by one person at one meal. Re-using them? Y'all do that? The things one learns here!
posted by fivesavagepalms at 4:28 PM on May 31, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by fivesavagepalms at 4:28 PM on May 31, 2011 [2 favorites]
We use cloth napkins, and they all go in the wash after every meal.
When I was growing up, though, my family (five kids) did what DarlingBri describes. In fact we'd fold up the napkins unidentified and put them away in the drawer until they were visibly stained.
I don't remember ever being bothered by this as a kid. As an adult I'm NO germophobe, but not crazy about this practice. It's not that I think I'll get sick (what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, as they say, and there's VERY little that will kill you)--it's just that I find it unpleasant to think of wiping my mouth with a napkin that might have someone else's dried saliva on it. And napkins, even in our family of six, make up a very small part of laundry volume.
But if you want to reuse napkins, I'd say unique napkin rings are the way to go. And more power to you.
posted by torticat at 4:41 PM on May 31, 2011
When I was growing up, though, my family (five kids) did what DarlingBri describes. In fact we'd fold up the napkins unidentified and put them away in the drawer until they were visibly stained.
I don't remember ever being bothered by this as a kid. As an adult I'm NO germophobe, but not crazy about this practice. It's not that I think I'll get sick (what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, as they say, and there's VERY little that will kill you)--it's just that I find it unpleasant to think of wiping my mouth with a napkin that might have someone else's dried saliva on it. And napkins, even in our family of six, make up a very small part of laundry volume.
But if you want to reuse napkins, I'd say unique napkin rings are the way to go. And more power to you.
posted by torticat at 4:41 PM on May 31, 2011
My mom has an elaborate system of different folds she uses to distinguish whose napkin is whose. Like a book, over the top, triangle, knot ...
At home I just have different colors, and we use them for awhile until someone remembers to throw them in the wash.
posted by little cow make small moo at 4:42 PM on May 31, 2011
At home I just have different colors, and we use them for awhile until someone remembers to throw them in the wash.
posted by little cow make small moo at 4:42 PM on May 31, 2011
If you want to be sanitary, you have to wash them after every time they're used. There's nothing inherently less "wasteful" about cloth napkins than paper napkins. If you use cloth napkins, you've decided to use up more water and detergent.
posted by John Cohen at 4:43 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by John Cohen at 4:43 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
We use paper- but not as in: each person gets a paper one each meal - they only get used if we have greasy finger food.
However, we stayed with a friend who used cloth and had groovy napkin rings. I think the napkins endured a 24 period- breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then were washed. If you're just doing napkins at dinner, then maybe 2 or 3 would be a good rule of thumb (barring disgustingly greasy and saucy napkins!)
More water and detergent? I don't think so, not if they're just being added to your regular wash load- though if you only have 4 napkins and need to wash them after each meal, you need to buy more napkins. :)
posted by titanium_geek at 4:49 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
However, we stayed with a friend who used cloth and had groovy napkin rings. I think the napkins endured a 24 period- breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then were washed. If you're just doing napkins at dinner, then maybe 2 or 3 would be a good rule of thumb (barring disgustingly greasy and saucy napkins!)
More water and detergent? I don't think so, not if they're just being added to your regular wash load- though if you only have 4 napkins and need to wash them after each meal, you need to buy more napkins. :)
posted by titanium_geek at 4:49 PM on May 31, 2011 [1 favorite]
I was going to post to say that no-one I know uses cloth napkins at all, even for dinner parties, but reading the posts above, I'm clearly in the minority, and a domestic slut / bad hostess to boot!
We had cloth napkins when I was a kid and they got washed once a week - individual napkin rings kept the system in order - but guests always got a clean one. (And my mother was a neat freak with OCD tendencies)
posted by finding.perdita at 5:02 PM on May 31, 2011
We had cloth napkins when I was a kid and they got washed once a week - individual napkin rings kept the system in order - but guests always got a clean one. (And my mother was a neat freak with OCD tendencies)
posted by finding.perdita at 5:02 PM on May 31, 2011
My in-laws use cloth napkins. They keep them on the small kitchen in the table, and when we visit, they are reused for a few days, provided they are not absurdly messy. No attention is paid to which one belongs to whom.
When the guests extend beyond "immediate" family, everyone gets a fresh napkin that is then laundered before it is used again.
posted by zizzle at 5:21 PM on May 31, 2011
When the guests extend beyond "immediate" family, everyone gets a fresh napkin that is then laundered before it is used again.
posted by zizzle at 5:21 PM on May 31, 2011
We have a stockpile of about 20 napkins. We use them until they're really gross, then put them in a bucket in the kitchen. (In between meals we leave them folded at our places at the table.) When the bucket's full, we wash 'em.
Guests get fresh clean ones.
posted by Lucinda at 5:26 PM on May 31, 2011
Guests get fresh clean ones.
posted by Lucinda at 5:26 PM on May 31, 2011
Considering people are wiping their mouths on them, they can be harboring some nasty stuff that you can't see. Unless you keep track of who is using each napkin, I would wash them each time. For guests, I would totally wash them each and every time. I want my guests to feel comfortable, not squicked out by my napkins.
posted by Foam Pants at 5:28 PM on May 31, 2011
posted by Foam Pants at 5:28 PM on May 31, 2011
We reuse for a meal or two when it's just us three, and if someone gets the wrong one, well, no one will die since we all swap germs, anyway. We set them on the sideboard between meals. I can usually tell which is whose, but I have my eye on some funky numbered napkin rings. Guests get fresh new napkins.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:44 PM on May 31, 2011
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 5:44 PM on May 31, 2011
Response by poster: Thank you all. I am always fascinated by other people's everyday routines. I was about 35 before I realized I did not have to do some common household things the way my parents did (fold pajamas, place under pillow) or suffer dire—possibly even immediately fatal—consequences.
We will be buying some napkin rings and a basket to put them in. And for the record (I know, there is no record, and no one cares), we always give fresh napkins to every guest, every meal. Don't worry, future guests!
Thanks!
posted by theredpen at 5:47 PM on May 31, 2011
We will be buying some napkin rings and a basket to put them in. And for the record (I know, there is no record, and no one cares), we always give fresh napkins to every guest, every meal. Don't worry, future guests!
Thanks!
posted by theredpen at 5:47 PM on May 31, 2011
Napkin rings! So smart.
At my in-laws, and with my husband and I, we just remember whose belongs to who. If the food wasn't messy, they get washed every 3-5 meals. (Honestly I rarely find the need to even use one, myself. I just think they look nice to have and are handy if you do happen to make a mess.) With a 7-month old though we're going through lot more napkins in a meal. Fresh ones for guests.
posted by tchemgrrl at 5:49 PM on May 31, 2011
At my in-laws, and with my husband and I, we just remember whose belongs to who. If the food wasn't messy, they get washed every 3-5 meals. (Honestly I rarely find the need to even use one, myself. I just think they look nice to have and are handy if you do happen to make a mess.) With a 7-month old though we're going through lot more napkins in a meal. Fresh ones for guests.
posted by tchemgrrl at 5:49 PM on May 31, 2011
Growing up, my family used cloth napkins. We would re-use them for several days, until they were noticeably dirty. We each had a unique napkin ring, so napkins could be put rolled up and put on chairs or the sideboard without danger of mixing them up. Houseguests staying for days would pick their napkin ring for the visit out of the set of extras, but if we were just having company over for dinner it's new napkins all around (and residents could put theirs in napkin rings after if they want).
Now, it's just me and my SO in an apartment, so my napkin just sits on my chair. If we have guests, they can make do with paper until we get more cloth ones.
posted by JiBB at 5:51 PM on May 31, 2011
Now, it's just me and my SO in an apartment, so my napkin just sits on my chair. If we have guests, they can make do with paper until we get more cloth ones.
posted by JiBB at 5:51 PM on May 31, 2011
I see you've got your answer already (napkin rings), but here's my experience. When I was growing up, my family would use cloth napkins at dinner for about a week at a time. Instead of using napkin rings, they would be left folded on the table at each person's place, or if the table needed to be cleared for other activities, my mother (or a helper under her direction) would stack the folded napkins in a specific order to be laid out again later. I think they went in order of age, from the oldest person in the household on top down to the youngest on the bottom, unless it was vice versa. This method only works well if you have one person who's in charge of everything meal-related, and if that person can manage to apply the same stacking order with consistency.
I don't remember where the napkins went when the table was cleared. Probably a corner of the kitchen counter during the years when we ate most meals in the kitchen, and on top of the sideboard when our dining moved to the dining room.
posted by Orinda at 6:15 PM on May 31, 2011
I don't remember where the napkins went when the table was cleared. Probably a corner of the kitchen counter during the years when we ate most meals in the kitchen, and on top of the sideboard when our dining moved to the dining room.
posted by Orinda at 6:15 PM on May 31, 2011
Holy shit, this is what napkin rings are for??? What a revelation! My mom thought they were just a decorative touch for Thanksgiving dinner.
We use cloth napkins. If dinner is something greasy or stain-y then we wash them after one use. Most other meals we re-use just once before tossing them into the laundry basket. If we're re-using them then they normally just sit on the table until the next day, but I'm totally going to implement this idea of the napkin rings and basket. How exciting!
posted by gatorae at 8:16 PM on May 31, 2011 [2 favorites]
We use cloth napkins. If dinner is something greasy or stain-y then we wash them after one use. Most other meals we re-use just once before tossing them into the laundry basket. If we're re-using them then they normally just sit on the table until the next day, but I'm totally going to implement this idea of the napkin rings and basket. How exciting!
posted by gatorae at 8:16 PM on May 31, 2011 [2 favorites]
For a less formal take on the napkin ring concept, I know a family with lots of adult kids and young grandkids that share a huge cabin, and they use clothespins. Each person decorated a wooden clothespin with magic markers, with their name or a tiny picture or whatever. The clothespins live in a basket on the sideboard, and get clipped onto napkins after the first meal on a cabin weekend. Napkins+clothespins go into the basket, and everyone can find their own again at the next meal.
I, too, am surprised to learn that napkin rings are meant to identify who used which napkin. I feel like every set of napkin rings I've ever seen has been 6 or 8 identical pieces... Except for an odd set that grandma brought out at Christmas last year, with Santa eating cookies, coming down the chimney, placing presents under a tree, etc., and those were clearly meant for a single day out of the year.
posted by vytae at 8:25 PM on May 31, 2011
I, too, am surprised to learn that napkin rings are meant to identify who used which napkin. I feel like every set of napkin rings I've ever seen has been 6 or 8 identical pieces... Except for an odd set that grandma brought out at Christmas last year, with Santa eating cookies, coming down the chimney, placing presents under a tree, etc., and those were clearly meant for a single day out of the year.
posted by vytae at 8:25 PM on May 31, 2011
My mother recently gave each of us our color coded napkin ring, I have no idea how she remembered which was whose.
There were eight napkin rings in our family. I chose a robin's egg blue. We each chose little tubes of paint at the craft store, and I was given the task of painting each wooden ring. They had carved African-Tiki reliefs around the outside surface.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:38 PM on May 31, 2011
There were eight napkin rings in our family. I chose a robin's egg blue. We each chose little tubes of paint at the craft store, and I was given the task of painting each wooden ring. They had carved African-Tiki reliefs around the outside surface.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:38 PM on May 31, 2011
Best answer:
Holy shit, this is what napkin rings are for??? What a revelation! My mom thought they were just a decorative touch for Thanksgiving dinner.
"Ooh-ooh-ooooh!" This antiques dealer would like to chime back in provide the History of Napkin Rings now! Not to derail, but napkin rings used to mean serious business. At one place I worked, I'd sell Victorian Figural napkin rings that were (retail) priced in the thousands.
But, OP, if you're going to get some, do have fun! They're a great thing to collect, and I had clients that would look for beautifully engraved ones with either their own names, or unusual ones. For example, the name on mine, which is not my name, is "Florence", just because I like it.
posted by peagood at 9:29 PM on May 31, 2011 [6 favorites]
Holy shit, this is what napkin rings are for??? What a revelation! My mom thought they were just a decorative touch for Thanksgiving dinner.
"Ooh-ooh-ooooh!" This antiques dealer would like to chime back in provide the History of Napkin Rings now! Not to derail, but napkin rings used to mean serious business. At one place I worked, I'd sell Victorian Figural napkin rings that were (retail) priced in the thousands.
But, OP, if you're going to get some, do have fun! They're a great thing to collect, and I had clients that would look for beautifully engraved ones with either their own names, or unusual ones. For example, the name on mine, which is not my name, is "Florence", just because I like it.
posted by peagood at 9:29 PM on May 31, 2011 [6 favorites]
I use cloth napkins, and washing varies depending on what we eat, and when I am doing the laundry. As a matter of fact, I don't use regular table napkins, but various colors of bandannas. They are cheap, fun, and I just toss them in with the other laundry. I keep them rolled up in a basket hanging on the wall.
posted by annsunny at 11:21 AM on November 10, 2011
posted by annsunny at 11:21 AM on November 10, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by rtha at 3:39 PM on May 31, 2011 [2 favorites]