Napkins

Seriously, buy cloth napkins! They look elegant, save money, and are reusable! Our family has had the same white cloth napkins for 6 years. They are a little ragged looking and we have some newer ones to use when company is around. Just think of all the napkins we've saved from going into the landfill over the years and the money we've saved by not buying single use napkins all the time!! They can be really cheap if you are a sewer like me and use all those scraps in your fabric bin to make up a bunch (plus you are keeping those scraps from going into the trash, if you can bear to get rid of them)! Use a nice heavy duty fabric for this and they'll last forever.

You are going to be washing towels and whites anyways so they won't use much more water and electricity. You can even use them multiple times before tossing them in the laundry, especially if they aren't heavily used at dinner time.

So that's at home, what about when you go out and get fast food. They always stuff loads of paper napkins into the bag. What then? Well, I certainly don't want to throw them away unused, so I keep them in the car in the console and hand them back to the kids if they spill a snack on themselves. That way you always have something to clean up a mess in a snap and you were going to have to do something with all of those napkins anyways. Also, if you are out eating at the restaurant, remember to only grab what you actually need. For our family of four we grab 2-3 napkins and share. If we need more we can always go back (and have done that before). NO! Leaving the extra on the table is NOT a good idea. The next people are NOT going to use them, do you?

Try encouraging your local eateries to switch to recycled, unbleached paper napkins if possible. Just mention how nice it would be to know that your favorite place thinks green and maybe it'll sink in!