Ever cleared the table from a family meal and debated what to do with that used but unsoiled cloth napkin? If you’ve stayed the night at our house you know you probably have a wooden clothes pin with your name in black sharpie stashed away in our cupboard drawer.  These pins are clipped to the cloth napkins at each place setting so everyone can reuse their own napkin during their stay.  It also makes family and regular visitors feel pretty nostalgic to find their own pin among the collection of others that have clipped their way to a permanent place at our table.

Cutting down on washings makes cloth napkins the clear environmental winner over paper for home use—and choosing linen or organic cotton makes cloth napkins even more sustainable.  Check out this link for a great analysis:  http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/are-paper-napkins-more-environmentally-friendly.html