Napkin rings are like those little drink charms. They should just go away.

My thoughts *exactly*, arroyo.

I agree that they're unnecessary and somewhat naff (especially if monogrammed...).
But reusing cloth napkins - is this true? How do napkin rings suggest this? (aren't they just a decorative thing?) And does anybody out there really do this? I'm disturbed and intrigued.

Yep, people actually do this! I grew up reusing cloth napkins for a couple days. We had a bunch of mismatched old silver napkin rings, which helped us keep track of whose napkin was whose, and monogramming would do the same thing.

I bet we see a rise in this as the same earth-conscious instinct that makes people use cloth napkins drives them to hold off washing them for a few extra days when it's not necessary.

Well, now secondave mentions it... I don't wash my bath towel after every use, and (at risk of being crass), it dabs places much more intimate than the corners of my mouth. So I can see, in theory, why it's probably really no more or less necessary to wash cloth napkins after every meal. Just like you'd put out freshly laundered towels for a guest, I assume you'd bring out clean napkins for dinner guests. But in a private, domestic setting, I can see now that this probably makes sense. If you're going to use napkin rings, I like the sound of mismatched old silver ones waaay more than modern monogrammed glass ones.

To be honest, I'm even less classy most of the time and don't use anything at all (ie cloth or paper) - our cloth napkins only come out when there are people over. I've never thought about this before. I guess my face just stays greasy until it next gets washed...!

Melba's got it. If you're having a dinner party, of course you don't bring out the old things, but if you're a busy family and dinner happens to be relatively non-messy, why not use them again?

After spaghetti nights, yeah, they'd go in the washing machine. After broccoli and chicken breasts, maybe hold off for another day or two. This is clearly an issue of taste--where your gross-out boundary is, how messy your napkin gets in a meal--and that's all super personal.

The key is the mismatched set, so you know whose is whose and don't end up using your brother's napkin.