Cloth Napkins and Getting Them Clean

[weinoo]

I like to use cloth napkins when we have dinner guests.

So, how do you get them clean, especially when dinner might have been something like ribs or chicken - stuff actually eaten with the hands that gets the napkins all greasy. I realize that taking them to the dry cleaners works very well - but cleaning costs almost as much per napkin as the actual cost of the napkin.

Is there a secret for getting them really spotless in the wash?

[Anna N]

OK while I am totally into cloth napkins for a formal dinner I don't think they are appropriate for finger food like chicken and ribs. For those I keep some white facecloths which I dampen with hot water and offer them with the finger food. Failing that I think paper napkins are perfectly adequate with messy finger foods. Just my opinion though.

[chezcherie]

zout works well.zout

[Kim Shook]

I hope I don't sound like a commercial, but I swear by a combination of a Spray 'n Wash stain stick and OxyClean powder. I rub the spots with the stain stick and use the Oxy Clean in the washer with at least warm water. If they are really bad spots, I fill the washer and let it agitate a minute and then stop it and let is soak for 25 minutes. This has even worked on cranberry sauce on a white tablecloth.

[thock]

I use cloth napkins for everything, and when we eat messy foods, we dampen them with warm or hot water. I have never had trouble getting stains out of white linen or cotton napkins in the regular wash, but I don't use hot water.

I get my napkins at thrift stores and yard sales, so I use the fancy ones all the time.

Tracy

[Lisa Shock]

I hope I don't sound like a commercial, but I swear by a combination of a Spray 'n Wash stain stick and OxyClean powder. I rub the spots with the stain stick and use the Oxy Clean in the washer with at least warm water. If they are really bad spots, I fill the washer and let it agitate a minute and then stop it and let is soak for 25 minutes. This has even worked on cranberry sauce on a white tablecloth.

I second this. The Oxy Clean agitate-then-soak method is a lifesaver.

[baroness]

OK while I am totally into cloth napkins for a formal dinner I don't think they are appropriate for finger food like chicken and ribs. For those I keep some white facecloths which I dampen with hot water and offer them with the finger food. Failing that I think paper napkins are perfectly adequate with messy finger foods. Just my opinion though.

I'm with Anna on the issue of quite messy foods; as a guest I would feel guilty using cloth napkins for finger food.

[baroness]

I use cloth napkins for everything, and when we eat messy foods, we dampen them with warm or hot water. I have never had trouble getting stains out of white linen or cotton napkins in the regular wash, but I don't use hot water.

I get my napkins at thrift stores and yard sales, so I use the fancy ones all the time.

Tracy

The fiber content of napkins is key; natural fibers like cotton and linen are absorbent and will come clean with sufficient effort. "Modern" synthetic napkins are horrid at blotting and tend to hold onto oily stains, IMO.

[Anna N]

OK while I am totally into cloth napkins for a formal dinner I don't think they are appropriate for finger food like chicken and ribs. For those I keep some white facecloths which I dampen with hot water and offer them with the finger food. Failing that I think paper napkins are perfectly adequate with messy finger foods. Just my opinion though.

I'm with Anna on the issue of quite messy foods; as a guest I would feel guilty using cloth napkins for finger food.

Yep - that was my other issue - I would likely wipe my hands on my pants before I'd use a lovely linen napkin for ribs! Now how gauche is that!

[weinoo]

OK while I am totally into cloth napkins for a formal dinner I don't think they are appropriate for finger food like chicken and ribs. For those I keep some white facecloths which I dampen with hot water and offer them with the finger food. Failing that I think paper napkins are perfectly adequate with messy finger foods. Just my opinion though.

I'm with Anna on the issue of quite messy foods; as a guest I would feel guilty using cloth napkins for finger food.

Yep - that was my other issue - I would likely wipe my hands on my pants before I'd use a lovely linen napkin for ribs! Now how gauche is that!

That's all well and good, and thanks for this advice, but it has not a lot to do with my original question.

[Katie Meadow]

Cloth almost exclusively. I don't eat a lot of ribs or bbq, but if I did, I would probably be eating outside in the summer and I might just grab some big paper Ikea napkins for that.

I don't find 100% cotton napkins difficult to keep clean, but that said, I don't use expensive white ones, either. I tend to buy relatively cheap patterned napkins, in a mid-range of color. Much more forgiving. For company I use my newest set, the one that works with my big tablecloth. The rest of the time I use a hodge-podge of different sets from past lives. They don't get washed after every use unless they get dirty. I've got a couple of sets that have lasted close to 20 years--you know, those stripey Guatemalan ones from some vacation or other or the ones that matched the red-check tablecloth that got used back when there was a chianti bottle with candle wax dripping all over it. Now that was way more than 20 years ago.

I too am a big fan of Zout, although it is rarely needed for napkins--more often for cooking stains when I'm too lazy to put on my apron.

Oh, if they start to look dull or I suspect the stains won't wash out, I use hot water and just the teensiest bit of bleach.

Edited February 27, 2010 by Katie Meadow (log)

[thock]

Exactly! I only use cotton or linen. And as long as I wash in no-hotter-than-warm water, all the stains come out, even the pre-stained stains from the second-hand napkins. Oxi-Clean works wonders, but so does a soak in borax.

I use, typically, a homemade mix of grated bar soap, borax and washing soda, which I've mixed with hot water, then let sit until it gels up. I use that for all my laundry, and it works well. I have a high-efficiency washer, and it works in that, and it also worked in my non-high-efficiency washer in a previous life. If I have stubborn stains on vegetable fibers (cotton, linen, ramie, etc.), then a dose of Oxi-Clean gets added if the first wash doesn't remove the stain.

Tracy

[thock]

Yep - that was my other issue - I would likely wipe my hands on my pants before I'd use a lovely linen napkin for ribs! Now how gauche is that!

I fix that problem as a host by being the first one to use my lovely linen napkins for something messy, so the guests don't feel guilty.

(edited to fix issue with not having quoted what I wanted to quote )

Edited February 28, 2010 by heidih
Fixed quote tags (log)

[Chris Hennes]

My "secret" is to use white napkins and the bleach the #$%^ out of them. Works great! Are you trying to clean colored ones?

[weinoo]

My "secret" is to use white napkins and the bleach the #$%^ out of them. Works great! Are you trying to clean colored ones?

Yes, and I didn't realize till I read the tags that they are not 100% cotton, so there's that problem as well.

Ended up doing an overnight soak with Oxyclean in my kitchen sink - can't soak in the washing machines since they're shared. Gave them a good swishing and rubbing and let them sit there till morning, when I washed them with more Oxyclean in the machines. I have to say they came out looking almost as good as coming from the dry cleaner, so that'll be my go-to method. That, and buying only 100% cotton stuff from now on.