One of the few things I have always hated was that we were always running out of paper towels. That and the fact that we were using way too many of them!!! Seemed like it was just easier to use them in our busy lives then it was to do something out of our normal routine. I had decided this is the year we would cut back on our use of paper towels but I didn't have any idea how it was going to happen or when. I was also looking forward to the money we would be saving not buying as many too.
Over a month ago I was shopping and found a stack of 8 cloth napkins in the clearance bin. They were brightly colored and not anything that would match our home but I bought them hoping we could start using them instead of the piece of paper towel we have been using (5 per dinner plus what we used at lunch). The first few nights we used them off and on but then we started using them all the time. Still it seemed like we were still having to resort back to paper towels as I could not clean them fast enough. Lately it seems we have not used hardly any paper towels as when we didn't have clean napkins the kids were using some of our 30+ washcloths as a napkins which the kids thought was just great.
A roll of paper towels started lasting longer and longer. It was so nice not seeing an empty roll there all the time. Surprising myself as even I had cut back on using paper towels to clean up spills or drying my hands by using dish towels. I have tons of dishtowels but never seem to use them. I was surprised how such a small change in our every day routine made such a big difference. We actually had a roll of paper towels last us more then a week!!! And we were going through 1 every few days!!
I did feel bad for the kids using wash cloths as napkins so today I decided to make some napkins out of some of my material. While I was searching for a good material I came across my chicken material. This is material I have had for a few years. Thad bought it for me because it matched my chicken themed kitchen. I loved it but never used it because I didn't want to have to give it away which seems to happen with most of the things I make. I hadn't been able to find a use for it till now. I folded it till I had the size napkin I wanted and then sewed the edges. The whole process took me less then 30 minutes and we ended up with 16 napkins. I haven't done the math but I'm sure we will be saving loads of money not using all those paper towels. Plus I finally got to use my chicken material for something for us. It was a win, win all around.
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