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How many? (rags/towells/napkins) &linedrying
Ive decided to take the step of minimizing my papertowel waste. Right now we have only our regular dish towells, and the only other 'rags' all turned into car-cleaning instruments.
Right now its just my husband and I at home which means: we have less demand than families with kids, but also we do less laundry than families with kids!
How many do you find to be a good number of:
cloth napkins?
rags for cleaning?
towels for drying/whatever?
How often do you need to wash them?
I'm thinking I'll need to get a rack to dry them too...I bought a drying rack several years ago and used it for a long time, but it never made the move with us! Now weve been in FL for nearly two years...its about time for us to reinvest...because we look a little like a circus on laundry day...clothes hanging on our railing, on hangers around he hall way, over doors...
Which kind of brings me to my second point...we always hang the majority of our clothes. I got my husband in that habit as soon as we moved in to our apartment together and I pushed of buying a dryer for several months! But we still put our socks/underwear in the dryer as well as our bathtowels...and occasionally pijamas <when its cold and we want to spoil ourselves lol>
Once we have a drying rack it may be easier for him to hang his socks/boxers, but how do you get them "soft" as if they were fluff-dried? We don't have a "fabric softner" spout in our washer, so adding anything to the washer mid-cycle would be very hit or miss...lets face it, mostly miss unless Im listening for it.
Once Im out of grad school and our schedules regulate Im sure Ill pick up washing his clothes more often(cause I know he hates it, and I have no problem with it)...or if I could at least pick up washing the stuff he normally toses in the dryer ... everybody wins!
But the soft clothes, would be a total plus!
Thanks!
Re: How many? (rags/towells/napkins) &amp;linedrying
Cloth napkins - The same number of place settings you have.
Rags for cleaning - I have about 10. I am going to make more though.
Towels for drying - like in the kitchen? I think I have 8.
I wash them once a week probably. I use the rags more than once before washing them (depending on what I use them for). The towels in the kitchen I switch out probably every 3 or 4 days (again depending on use).
Use vinegar in your washing maching. It will keep your clothes "soft" when you line dry them. If they aren't soft enough for you toss them in the dryer for 10 minutes after they are dry.
cloth napkins? For just the two of us, I'd say we use 4-6 napkins per week and we both eat lunch and dinner at home. This is probably gross but there are meals where we don't use napkins and other times that we can reuse the napkin because it's not dirty. Over the last few years, I've accumulated 2 sets of 12 napkins for when we have guests and 5 sets of 4 or 6 napkins for informal use. I also have 2 dozen cocktail napkins that I made for a wedding shower I hosted. A lot, but in my defense, half of them have been gifts from my mom because she knows that we don't use paper. And more napkins = less need for frequent washing.
Rags for cleaning? 10 kitchen cleaning rags to use in place of paper towels, which is not enough. I started out with 24 but as they get stained, I retire them to general cleaning rags.
General cleaning rags....a lot, maybe 40 - 50. Whenever a towel or t-shirt gets too gross to use for its intended purpose, we cut it up and use it for rags.
towels for drying/whatever? Kitchen drying towels...I think 12 or 14.
How often do you need to wash them? Kitchen stuff gets its own load, usually every other week or weekly if we've had guests over. I'm not sure about general cleaning rags - maybe once a month at the most but probably more like every 2 months. I either wash them alone if there are enough for a full load or throw them in with the area rugs.
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
Hmm...I never had to actually think about this.
We have probably 20 or so napkins, but some of those are designated "guest" napkins. We have about 12 that we keep for daily use and of those we only use at most 6 per week. Sometimes even fewer if we aren't eating messy things.
I have a lot of kitchen towels for drying, but I am a freak and have "tiers." Of the perfect-looking-not-embarassed-to-show-anyone towels, I have about 6. Then I have about 12 that are reasonable, but might be frayed or have a tiny stain. The ones with large stains or holes total about another 12.
As far a general rags/cleaning, there are too many too count. After things get demoted from the 3rd tier kitchen they are considered rags. As are old sheets, t-shirts and other clothes that I cut up. At the moment we have more than we can use.
I wash the napkins and first two kitchen tiers (drying towels that are pretty and slightly ugly) together. That's maybe every 2 or 3 weeks.
The rags and 3rd tier kitchen/clean up towels get washed only once a month or when they add up to a load.
As for drying I have no advice. Our stuff gets super stiff. I tell DH is a special exfoliating spa treatment.
It's just the two of us too. We have 8 cloth napkins. I wish we had more though, maybe 12-14. We use them at every meal, so they get dirty quickly. We have probably 8-10 dish towels for drying, another 8-10 for cleaning counters, and another 4 that are specifically for dusting. We keep all the towels in one drawer in the kitchen, and the cloth napkins and accesories (napkin rings, placemats, etc...) in another drawer.
I'll admit we don't line dry so I can't help you there
How many do you find to be a good number of:
cloth napkins? I think I have about 42. I just made 30.
rags for cleaning? i just got a pack of 18 washcloths for the kitchen for $2 at Walmart so now I probably have 36 but we use a clean one each time for wiping baby's face off. I have a seperate stash of cleaning rags that are in worse shape for cleaning around the house (like bathrooms)
towels for drying/whatever? about a dozen for the kitchen and another 6 or so for random spills, etc
I have enough to usually go at least 2 weeks in between washing.
Big E (6) & Little E (2.5)
The dish rag/ towel thing- I don't have enough.
I'm trying to stay on top of cleaning the kitchen/ bathrooms daily so 10-15 for that, because I wash the rag for the bathroom after I wipe the room down.
I rotate through towels in the kitchen and have 5-7 and wash those every week.
Napkins- I like the pp. suggesting 1/place setting recommendation and we have some nicer ones for guests.
I need a drying rack too! But I used to do the dry on the rack and then toss them in the drier for a few minutes.
TTC since 3-2008: v/c repair 2009; BFP: 7-2010, m/c 8-2010, c/p 4-2011, BFP: 6-2011 EDD: 2-12-2012?
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Today I am pregnant & I love my baby!