Alternative to Paper Napkins

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions, I have a lot of ideas now!

With best wishes,
Alice

When we are traveling and we stop at fast food places to eat we usually get too many napkins so I save them. Also around town if I go through the drive up window at a fast food place they usually give me too many napkins. I save them all and my children save their extras also so we use them at home. It may take a while to get a bunch but you will get them.

Excellent suggestions ladies! I have used teatowels and dish cloths, but now I am using actual cotton napkins that I bought at a discount store. They look very nice, and are outlasting the dish cloths I have used in the past. We have napkin rings with our names on them, so that we use the same napkin for several meals if it isn't soiled. This cuts down on laundry.

I 'recycled' some of my husband's dress work shirts by taking off the sleeves, collars, pockets, buttons, etc., cutting up the bigger flat pieces into smaller rectangles, and binding the edges. They now serve a number of purposes - as everyday-napkins for us to use, sink dishcloths, and counter cloths when we butter toast, pour coffee in the morning, make sandwiches (virtually anything that makes a bit of a mess on the counter); and I also dampen one and lay it out flat under my cutting board so it doesn't slide around while I use it.

They just go in with the towel load, dry quickly, and no big deal when I throw one away. Just make sure to let them dry out before putting them in the laundry basket.

I am about to make more from a bedsheet.

I've started using wash cloths for napkins. They aren't fancy but work great and are easy to wash. I got 18 for $4 at WalMart and they come in a lot of different colors.

We have taken to using the small kitchen towels, or the 'guest' towels in the bathroom that no one uses! Then just throw them in the wash, and use again.

You can buy inexpensive cloth napkins in a thrift shop/Good Will. We use them instead of paper and launder when needed.

Small towels, face flannels, dish towels, colored handkerchiefs/bandannas, can all be used. If you sew at all, you can cut up and hem the edges of a sheet. If you have leftover cloth diapers, you could use those; though if they're stained, you may want to dye them!