This is a really simple tip for parents of young children. When kids are first in a high chair and starting to eat solid foods they make a huge mess and it is a big job to clean up after them. We started using paper towels and odd rags, but nothing worked real great. The tip is to go to your local linen store (I don’t remember which ones have gone out of business and which ones are still around!) and get about 20 basic white washcloths. They should come in big multipacks and are very cheap. We always had a big stack of washcloths available and they made cleanup so much easier! They are soft for the kid’s faces and hands and also very effective on tables and the floor. You also keep all those paper towels out of the landfill. Keep a bag of dirty washcloths near your laundry machine and when you get low just wash the whole bag of dirty ones. It saves paper towels and is much easier and cleaner. This one tip has saved us a ton of time over the years with three kids in high chairs. As the washcloths got completely frayed and worn out we periodically picked the worst ones and moved them to the garage for use as dirty rags and bought another multipack to replace them.

Now as our kids have gotten older and we don’t need them for mealtime, they have turned into general purpose rags and are still useful. Whether they are being use to clean up the cat throwup or if the boys missed the toilet, they are still so handy.