#2- Cloth Napkins

Anyone who has eaten a meal with children knows that napkin use can get a little out of control.

My solution for this is to use cloth napkins! In fact, most of my napkins I made from a pair of my husband's linen pants that got a hole in the knee. The rest I had in a drawer I think since we got married. My kids think it's pretty funny to have pants for napkins, and never get tired of joking about wiping their faces on "pants" at the table. The non-pants napkins have even been dubbed "shirts" just for the fun of it, and probably because I am constantly telling the kids NOT to use their shirts as napkins.

Pros: Washable, reusable, durable, and less waste of paper products (especially important since used napkins are not recycleable.) They are also much more effective than paper at wiping grimy fingers and faces.

Cons: They have to be washed. But since laundry is pretty much always running at my house anyway, not a problem.