I use cloth napkins, but I have a heck of a time getting company to use them. I don't get it. They all seem to think the cleaner they leave the napkin the better.

I even bring cloth napkins in my lunch bag at work! People think I'm eco friendly for doing so; should I admit that they just make me feel special?

I had just transitioned to cloth when my parents came for a visit and immediately went out and bought a huge bag of paper napkins. Sigh...

I am meeting up with them for a family weekend away, I may try to sneak the paper napkins into their car.

We tend to use paper napkins, even though we own cloth ones. I'm not entirely sure why we don't use the cloth ones. Maybe we're like RondaK's guests and just feel bad dirtying them..

I was a committed cloth napkin and cloth placemat user until my now 3yr old daughter began eating at the dinner table with us. Between the additional loads of laundry that the cloth required and the ones that were ruined due to stains, I had no choice but to switch to paper. So, as they say, I had to choose my battles. However, I am committed to buying recycled paper products and my placemats are now of the chilewich wipe and re-use variety.

At home I pretty much only have the foresight to grab a napkin when I know it's something that I will definitely spill on myself. As a result, I rarely grab a napkin and often spill on myself.

We use cloth napkins for every meal, and cloth towels for everything as well (although I do keep one roll of paper towels around for really bad cat messes). I have inherited cloth napkins from my family--some really nice linen, others bright cotton, etc. We probably have a total of 200 napkins--while this sounds like a lot, most are stored for when we have big parties (about four times a year--I also have about 50 plates, cups and glasses for parties, that are stored the rest of the year). There are 20-30 in regular rotation. We are lucky to have a basement so lots of room for storage.

Once I went cloth, there was just no going back. My favorite part of the day, especially after a long day at work, is sitting down to dinner with my husband and I couldn't imagine doing so with a paper napkin in hand, whether we're in front of the TV or seated at the table. I hate the scratchy, rough feel of a paper napkin, not to mention the inherent wastefulness of it. Even if I'm sitting down to breakfast by myself, I will reach for a cloth napkin--granted one of the older napkins likely to be covered in stains, but still. It just feels better.

We use cloth napkins most of the time. I also use handkerchiefs as napkins. I have a couple of bandana type handkerchiefs that had never been used for their intended purpose, but they were cute, so I decided to use them as napkins and I'm glad I did. They cover more of the lap than the other cloth napkins that I have, and I think they wash up a little better. Plus they have a picnic-y feel, and they were super cheap, so if I lose one I don't have to feel bad.

It's been just a little over a year that we have gone "paperless". I have a roll of shop towels for the truly dirty pet messes. I started using patch work napkins because they hide the stains and are fun and use white towels for kitchen and bathroom so I can wash them with bleach/or alternative stain removers.

Cloth most of the time. BUT there are exceptions. When having anything with red sauce (pasta, pizza etc.) I use paper. Also, since we use our cloth napkins for about 4 days in a row, we also use paper when having FISH for dinner so the the cloth napkins will not have a fishy smell.

I have neither kind in the house! :) I will grab a paper towel if I expect something to be extraordinarily messy, but usually I don't bother.

I guess I'm the oddball, if I'm eating alone I don't use either, but I have the habit of washing my face after dinner so I dry with a towel. Shame on us, when we did use something, it was paper towels for years, even though I was trying to go paper-towel-less. Then finally for the holidays, I bought a beautiful red tablecloth that came with the prettiest cloth napkins decorated with pretty scarlet-red cardinals woven in. We started using them and haven't used paper towels since. My only regret is that we didn't buy more of the cloth napkins, they are so pretty and handy!

Sounds like pet messes are the bane of eco-friendliness. I usually grab my poor cat and rush him to the tile kitchen floor if he's getting sick (we have a "diry mop" just for that).

We use cloth. We purposely got dark colored napkins (brown) for every day use so stains wouldn't be an issue. After a meal, we drape our napkins over the back of the chair if they're still good for another use.

My mum's quilt group sent us a lovely set of placemats, a table runner, and napkins as a wedding gift and they're fantastic. The napkins are dark colored, so stains don't really show, and we tend to follow a more *ahem* French schedule for their laundering.

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/02/french-napkins/

On the rare occasions we need them we use about a quarter or an eighth of a paper towel. The rest of the time, we just try not to spill food all over ourselves.

The only paper household product we have in my house is toilet paper. Cloth for everything else. My kids prefer to use the white towels ( 12" X 12") that replaced paper towels versus the cloth napkins...they are smaller and more more absorbent. So we have a basket of napkins that pretty much serves as a centerpiece.

I've also gone paper-free and never looked back. Cloth napkins do not add to my laundry load at all... I only typically use napkins for dinner, so it totals about 4/week and they take up about as much space in the washer as a pair of socks. The hardest thing for me to replace was paper towel used to wipe the bacon grease out of the pan after cooking. We now have a dedicated "grease" rag for this purpose - it ain't pretty but it gets the job done!

My husband used paper napkins when we met. He's a very messy eater so he used a lot of paper napkins. Now we have several sets of cloth napkins that were free from friends or cheap from thrift shops. I found two black ones that we use for regular dinners so the stains don't show as easily and they get washed once a week. When we have house guests for more than one day, they each get a napkin and a unique napkin ring.

I admit that we still use paper towels occasionally for really yucky messes and cooking bacon in the microwave. They get tossed in the composter though (unless they have cleaning chemicals on them) so as least they're not just being thrown away.

We have two kids use cloth napkins with no issue. Actually the kids don't really use the napkins (we do) because they are little. We have a pile of 1,000 little baby washclothes that are the perfect size for hand and face wiping, cleaning up little spills and messes, and wiping down a small counter in the kitchen. No more work than regular laundry at four years they are going storng.

If we used paper towels or napkins we would go throught an OBSCENE number of them weekly. This is cheaper and much greener. We throw them in a little hanging "delicates bag" with holes to avoid mold because they are often wet.

Oh, and my standard suggestion is to use recycled paper towels that never work well. Helped cut down on the habit.

Our guests have no probably using cloth napkins. I mean really, how dirty to people usually get? Its not like every time we have dinner party we serve ribs.

I was a messy wasteful napkin user (sometimes 3 per meal!) before switching to cloth a few years ago. I love cloth because they have so much more mess capacity than a cheap piece of thin paper. I now use one cloth napkin every 2-3 days.

We switched to cloth napkins about a few years ago and never looked back. They basically don't take up any extra room in the laundry and I can get a week out of each napkin.

When I was growing up when we ate super messy meals (crab or lobster boil especially) we used washcloths that were dampened and wrung-out instead of napkins...sorta like a homemade wet wipe. That's what we do now with meals that threaten to be messier than a regular cloth napkin can handle.

We use cloth only here, all meals, kids included, usually a new napkin for each meal. Really, 12 napkins daily doesn't add much to the laundry. I thrift shop for them and I don't mind if they get stained (I just sun them and accept them for what they are). We probably have 3 - 4 dozen that we use for everyday and another 3 dozen that we can break out when company comes.

I've used cloth napkins my entire adult life, 22 years and counting.

We have used cloth napkins at every meal for the last 3 years. It started out as an effort to use less paper, but it turned out that we enjoy it! It's hard to get company used to the idea of using them, though....

I started my daughter with damp dishcloths when she was a baby (also very useful for teething), and once she needed less wiping down following a meal, she graduated to cloth napkins. We also follow a more French schedule for laundering, although we do keep some napkins aside for "nice" when we have company.

Went cloth this past year. Love it!

we use cloth at home for all meals - inside and out, guests or no guests, breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

i also got my office mates cloth napkins and a cheap set of utensils for xmas. they didn't really understand it, though :(

Cloth always but I admit I hardly ever use a napkin until it's too late unless it's dinner. I usually actually set the table for dinner.
For a fancy dinner we use our nice linen "natural" white. For company (unless they are really close friends) I will usually use black, brown, or I have some with patterns so guests don't feel shy about using them.

If it's just us, for a weeknight meal, I have rainbow plaid napkins that I *love*. I love them so much, I have matching placemats and - they do *not* match my dining room at all.

Cloth for holidays, paper the rest of the year.

I'm surprised and pleased that cloth is so far ahead in this poll!

Cloth most of the time, but paper towels when it's really greasy/messy stuff (usually the choose-a-size kind; less wasteful). All our cloth napkins are white and get washed/bleached after each use; and some are just for company until they, too, become "everyday".

Cloth for most everything!

Even with kids in the house, we still us cloth napkins. It's extra laundry, but I rather have more laundry myself, then to have them learn bad lessons.

Cloth! For all meals. It's just my boyfriend and I so often we just grab the nearest dish towel.

We keep a box of tissues nearby—our living and dining area is one very small space, so it works for us. Usually we have no need for a napkin, and on the rare occasion that we do, we just grab a tissue. We usually need it to blow our noses anyway (eating something hot and/or steamy) rather than our mouths.