And I'm not talking grocery bags here. Do you and your use a lot of napkins at the table? We did and it always stuck in my craw (which I then used a paper napkin to help dislodge and was wracked with guilt). (Yes, I'm Super Idiom Woman, tada, queue Windows tada sound.)
I waffled on what we could replace our paper napkins with, but found issues with most of the ideas mulled around. Wash clothes would get mixed up with our bathing wash clothes and that just didn't seem right. Official cloth napkins seemed too formal and I might get weird about them being stained. Home made cloth napkins would mean fighting with my substandard sewing machine or buying a new one, preferably with a serger so I could avoid having to actually sew a hem--several hundred dollars for a new sewing machine seemed like an expensive alternative to paper napkins. I finally settled on some dish clothes that didn't look like any of our other dish clothes or wash clothes. We keep a stack of them in a basket on the table and it's worked really well.
I remember one of my grandmothers had cloth napkins (I think she kept them in the same cabinet as the little magnets I used to love to play with). It's funny that common practices from decades ago are coming back into play not just from nostalgia, but because of cost or the environment.
So here's my question(s). Do any of you use cloth napkins? If so, what do you use? Or are there any changes you've made in your life today that came from some thing we did a generation or so ago? Horse and wagon for transportation? Clothes line in leiu of a clothes dryer?
Monday, April 21, 2008
Paper or Cloth and Some Things Old are New Again
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7 comments:
Oh oh, pick me. I LOVE my clothesline. I bought it based on information from a very reliable source: Diane McDilda. I love the entire process of drying clothes on the line. I enjoy being outside, haning them, taking them down, folding them into the basket ~ smelling them when I take them out to wear them. It is something I really missed during the pollen season. About the napkins, I like the idea of dishcloths, as I too would frown all during dinner at anyone who dared to use the nice 'real' cloth napkins. My question to you: do you put them into the hamper right after dinner? the washer? a designated place in the kitchen? what to do with a dirty cloth napkin?
No, still using paper napkins here. BUT I have started composting so now they go in the compost pile. My neighborhood just started a community organic garden. Did you know that the City of Gville has a budget, albeit small, for community gardens? They tilled the soil, brought 4 irrigation spigots and built a fence around it! You should come see it!
I'd love to get a clothesline up- but my backyard has been taken over by bamboo...
Hey Diane! Robbie and I were at a bookstore here in North Carolina and ran across your Everything Guide to Green Living. We of course had to snatch up a copy and ran around the store saying "We know the author! We know the author!" Smilcher sent me the link to your page. Congrats on finishing both the books. Hope all is well with you!
Well shucks, I responded to Heidi's post earlier, but I guess I only previewed, not posted. Or did I post it somewhere else? Like leaving your keys in the fridge, I've left a comment somewhere, hmmm. I'll probably find it in the backseat of the car covered in Buddy's dog hair.
OK, after I use the napkins I either a)throw them in front of the washing machine so they can be cycled through with clothes or other towels, or 2)if I'm the one who used it and I was relatively neat, I'll stash it and use it again. This is probably not very hygienic so if I come down with some bizarre bacterial infection and am unable to speak, somebody please tell the docs of my bad habit. Yep, I'm living on the edge, woohoo. I may not be reusing hypodermic needles, but double-dipping the cloth napkins, oh yeah, I'm decadent. A suburban wild woman, yawn.
Now, if I were famous this would be a moot point because I'd sell my used naps on eBay and we'd be living high on the free range hog.
And Heidi can hang some clothes I tell you. She puts me to shame. Which gives me a whole 'nother idea for a post on laundry. Oh, yeah, things are getting crazy around here.
I had no idea G'ville would support a community garden, that's so very cool. Where is it? I'm guessing it's on city property? I'd love to see it and get a photo. How long have you been composting? We started in the fall. I'm surprised at how much the volume's reduced. The pile started out huge I tell ya, now it's tiny. And tossing food in the bucket to take outside has made me realize how much food we were wasting (like Stephen King realizing he was an alcoholic after they started recycling beer cans and he saw how much he drank in a week). But that's for another post...the composting not the drinking, well, we'll see where it goes.
HELLO KELLY! It's so good to hear from you. I hope NC's treating you right, even after your maniac display in the bookstore about knowing some author. :-)
speaking of laundry... i saw a blog about making your own laundry detergent. i think i'm going to give it a try so i'll let you know how it goes.
the garden is in the park at the back of our neighborhood- take 40th st. to the end, park and walk the berm to the left.
This might be a duplicate, I got redirected then brought back to an empty spot.
I used to use a clothesline when I lived in Montana. But I find the weather in Florida too unpredictable to use one. So now I use wire shelving over my washer and empty dryer space. I hang the clothes on hangers then on the shelving. they are dry in about 12 hours. Not as fresh smelling, but they aren't wringing wet from an afternoon thunderstorm, either. And I don't have to replace a rotten or rusted clothesline every few months, either.
I hear you on using a clothesline in Florida. Because I work at home, it's a little easier for me. I can put towels out on the line in the morning and bring them in before the afternoon showers. Towels and jeans are the only things I consistently put out there and I'm always so surprised at how quickly they dry.
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