We’re a pretty casual family. We hang out in our pajamas, leave the house without getting dressed up (I’ve been known to let my kids go into the donut shop on a Saturday morning in their pjs and tennis shoes), and we don’t get our panties in a wad if things aren’t just so.

Which brings me to the subject of placemats, and I suppose, cloth napkins.

We received a set of placemats for our wedding and a set of four as a housewarming gift for our first home and then, because they were on sale and I thought they were cute, I bought Christmas and 4th of July ones.

But I never remembered we had them until it was too late and we were using the snowman ones at Easter and the 4th of July ones in October.

But lately, when we eat dinner at the table, we’ve been using the placemats. But, not always. And by not always, I mean both we don’t always use the placemats and we don’t always eat at the table. Sometimes we all cram onto a sofa, balancing plates on pillows and armrests while Stephen and I relive the days when we didn’t have a dining table. Or a coffee table or end tables.

And so, I wonder, do we really need 4 sets of placemats and two additional ones that I simply find pretty?

I decided we didn’t. I kept the floral set because they match the 4 cloth napkins. I put all the rest in the donate closet (we have designated an entire closet as the landing station for all things to be donated or for textile recycling). I’ve started trying to make a habit of using the cloth napkins instead of paper towels or paper napkins, because environment.

So there you go. Do you use placemats? If so, how many do you have?