Try to live like we used to, back in the old days…

[Jules]

Using cloth napkins is so silly. You would be washing them all the time.

We use these all the time. He has one pattern and I have another. They basically sit on your lap during meals and rarely get anything on them. They get washed every few days. These are ancient. My mother made them many years ago. If we‘re eating something messy, I pull out the paper serviettes from Costco.

 

[Murrmurr]

Lots of people also use vinegar to clean their Keurig machine periodically. I haven't tried it yet. I'm a little afraid that my coffee will come out tasting like vinegar!

It won't if you run some water through it after...like a rinse cycle. Plain salty water will clean it, too, and probably just as well....and then you rinse it.

I use vinegar as a cleaning product. I dilute it with water; like 9 parts water : 1 part vinegar. It destroys germs and viruses.

 

[Murrmurr]

Using cloth napkins is so silly. You would be washing them all the time.

They add very little weight and displacement to a load of wash. Like, a hair above zero.

 

[StarSong]

We use these all the time. He has one pattern and I have another. They basically sit on your lap during meals and rarely get anything on them. They get washed every few days. These are ancient. My mother made them many years ago. If we‘re eating something messy, I pull out the paper serviettes from Costco.

I also use cloth napkins. One each day, not one per meal. DH prefers paper napkins, but likewise uses only one per day.
Obvs if we spill or eat something messy, we throw that napkin in the hamper and grab a fresh one. One per day is more a guideline than a rule...

I wash them about once a week with towels and linens. Cloth napkins that are part polyester seem to last forever and don't need ironing. Can't remember the last time I purchased any, but it's been at least 20 years.

 

[Murrmurr]

I also use cloth napkins. One each day, not one per meal. DH prefers paper napkins, but likewise uses only one per day.
Obvs if we spill or eat something messy, we throw that napkin in the hamper and grab a fresh one. One per day is more a guideline than a rule...

I wash them about once a week with towels and linens. Cloth napkins that are part polyester seem to last forever and don't need ironing. Can't remember the last time I purchased any, but it's been at least 20 years.

I made all ours, and while Paxton was here, I made his with fabric remnants with trucks and cars, puppies, bunnies, and superheros on them. In fact, I think I caused an aversion to paper napkins.

 

[Teacher Terry]

It Probably takes me at least a month to go through one roll of paper towels. I only use them for really messy disgusting things. Otherwise I use cloth kitchen towels and rags.

My two tiny dogs are pad trained and I wash those. The only time I use disposable ones is when I go on vacation and have a dog sitter because I don’t expect her to wash the pads. I use bar soap to cut down on plastic and waste.

Someone gave me a Keirig coffee pot one time and I donated it to a thrift shop because there’s no way I’m going to make that much waste every day.

I have a clothes dryer, but I only use it for sheets, towels, underwear, socks, and pajamas. Everything else I hang on a drying rack in my extra bedroom and nothing is ever stiff or wrinkled. I also never use dryer sheets.

If I no longer want an item that is still good I give it away to someone or donate it to a thrift store. I never put anything decent in the dumpster. Sure it takes some effort to do all these things but I care about the environment that we are leaving for the next generation.

 

[SueBee]

I remember the sandwich I’d take to school back in the 1960s was in a wax paper bag. Does anyone else remember those?