Don’t you love it

Don’t you love it when you figure something out?  I may pay for my blonde locks, but in this case I feel like I am a true blonde!

When we moved here we bought a Costco set of Vanity Fair paper napkins and over the almost 3 years we have been here, we still have a few packs left.  Paper products on this island are crazy expensive.  A 4 pack of toilet paper runs about $6.  We were wisely counseled to pack as much paper products as we could with our household goods.

At the beginning of the year I decided to try moving the paper towel holder under the sink and seeing how few paper towels we could use.  We were already good at using rags for spills etc, but I wanted to see what we could do.  We cut paper towel use down to about a roll a month.  Not too shabby.  So could we drastically cut out already minimal paper napkin usage?

For as long as I can remember I have preferred using cloth napkins.  They just feel special.  This was way before it was cool to be green.  My hubby even came into the marriage with some cloth napkins.  {Before you try to take away his “man card”, his family uses mostly cloth napkins and his brother worked at Williams-Sonoma}.  We just like them.  When I do use paper napkins they need to be the good ones.  It’s just yucky to wipe your fingers on a disintegrating piece of paper.

There have been times where it is not practical to use cloth napkins, {when the boys were very young and I just could not bear to wash one more thing comes to mind!}  but we always come back to cloth napkins.  It’s just that paper napkins can be awfully  convenient.  It is the siren’s call of easy and disposable.  That call is a tempting call. Like a Hot Now sign.  Almost.

I’ve tried keeping my everyday cloth napkins in a few different spots, but I couldn’t figure out a spot that was as easy as the basket that held paper napkins.  That basket of paper napkins being out is just so convenient.  My cloth napkins were too long to fit into the basket.

The other day we were out of paper napkins and I was headed upstairs to get another pack, when I got sidetracked by a load of laundry that needed to be folded.  That load had dish towels and cloth napkins.  It was then and there that inspiration struck.  could I fold my cloth napkins in such a way that they would fit in the disposable napkin basket?

Why yes, yes they could!

I present to you the one thing that has made me happier than a bird with a french fry!

Now that we have to go upstairs to get a paper napkin, I bet we will still have a few napkins left when we leave this island.  Either that or we will start using more paper towels!