No more paper kitchen towels (almost)


I am showing you a picture of my forlorn looking empty kitchen towel roll languishing on its stand.

Why? It is testimony to what happens when one switches to cloth table napkins.

When this roll was full I didn't think anything of tearing off a sheet or two to clean the table, wipe my mouth, etc. Since reverting to cloth table napkins, we don't actually miss the paper.

The down-side is we often get our napkins (in natural unbleached organic cotton) mixed up*. No, to say that we use a clean napkin at every meal would be telling a lie. But if they are used only once at the end of a meal to clean some greasy lips, there is no real need to wash them after each use.

*Solution: I'm buying different coloured organic cotton napkins from the Hankettes range so that each member of the family has a different colour napkin. Well, until I am able to find eco-friendly napkin rings that could be personalized.

As for cleaning the table, well, I've learned to be less lazy. Because our dining room cannot be further from the kitchen (it takes a full three seconds to get there!), we used to resort to the kitchen towel to clean up spills, wipe down the table, place mats, etc. Now I make it a point to use a cleaning cloth instead.

Let's be honest now: Don't we ever use paper serviettes and kitchen towels?

Yes, we do, when we eat with our fingers in which case we might need two or three cloth napkins, or when we entertain a large number of people and we simply do not have enough cloth to go round.

Since we normally do use proper cutlery and we are a small family, cloth napkins are usually adequate.

If you are keen to do your part in cutting the use of paper, consider using cloth napkins again. Try it with any old bits of fabric you might have or recovered from old shirts and stuff and see how it goes.

When you choose to go down the organic cotton route, you know where to find me.

Back to Organic-Ally.



Comments

Anonymous said…
Excellent! I try to stay well away from disposable anything but the kitchen roll is always there 'just in case'. With clumsy teenagers life can be as messy as it was with toddlers (almost). Napkins, I make my own and we each have our own napkin ring to avoid dispute! Lyds
Thursday, 24 November 2005 at 14:20:00 GMT
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