Linen napkins, paper napkins, or paper towels for home dining?

[ElizabethB]

Linen when dining out, for dinner parties and holiday family gatherings. Regular paper napkins at home. For a cocktail party "fancy" paper napkins. Larger and sturdier than everyday paper napkins.

I have lots of linen napkins. If I had someone to do the laundry for me I would use them daily. Not going to happen.

 

[jennyb]

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These are my "summer" napkins. They are made from cotton, which is what all my cloth napkins are made from. I've just washed my autumn prints; they are air drying in the basement and will replace the lighter colored ones once they're dry. Later, after Thanksgiving, I'll be switching out the rest of these for my Christmas patterns. By mid- to late-January, back to these...and the cycle begins again.

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The towels on the left side of the basket are used exclusively for drying all of my produce. I rinse all of my lettuces too, so I find it more efficient to use cotton towels than scads and scads of paper towels.

We also have two plastic shoe boxes: one that holds the towels for hand wiping, and the second for towels used for drying dishes (not everything goes into my dishwasher). I have separate patterned ones to make sure that the dish towels and the hand towels don't get mixed up.

I do use paper towels, but mostly for things like draining bacon or wiping a very greasy pan so as to not rinse the grease down the drain. I do have some paper napkins we pack with our snacks when we travel. Otherwise, it's cloth in my kitchen.

That is quite a collection @Lynne Guinne. I have some stashed away somewhere but rarely used. Maybe at Christmas. Otherwise we don't really use napkins.

 

[Lynne Guinne]

@jennyb, we used to have a linen factory in our town, and they had a factory outlet attached. I was able to buy napkins, placemats, hand towels, etc, for a mere $1 or $2, U.S. I gathered quite a collection before they moved north one state.

- I feel quite napkin naked! I have not a single one.

The problem might be that I have enough for the both of us!

 

[MypinchofItaly]

Mr. P. and I use paper napkins for everyday. But when we have guest for lunch/dinner, linen napkins, always. I put a paper napkin on each linen ones for the appetizer or when we eat appetizer in the terrace. Paper napkin is ok. But for dinner or lunch absolutely with linen ones.