Now that we know how forks SHOULD go, how do you set your table daily?

I generally put a knife and a dinner fork (knife on right -- fork on left) unless we're having soup and then I add a soup spoon and if we're having salad, I add a salad fork.

I don't generally put a spoon on the table unless we're going to use it. (MY mother always did -- every place setting had fork, knife and spoon (and salad fork if we were having salad)) We washed many an unused spoon when I was a child.

Oh, and we also add a real cloth napkin -- in one of my silver napkin rings -- and we use them for more than one meal.

If we have dessert, I put the dessert fork or spoon on the plate with the dessert so it never gets set.

When I have company, I set the table the same way (no spoons unless we're having soup) but I do set a dessert fork and spoon at the top of the place setting -- generally. Sometimes, I'll put the dessert fork on the plate with the dessert when I bring it out.

How do you set your table? For your family and for company?

Martha

I'm pretty much the same except for the napkin rings. Just plain country folk here (except for the cloth napkins). I set only what we will use. To me that's like setting a salad bowl even if we're not having salad...or a water glass and a tea glass when we don't drink but one of them. Anyway, that's my logic.

Just us two and even with overnight guests who eat more than one meal with us, the napkins are folded and left on the placemats. Maybe not the way it's supposed to be done, but that is the way I do it. I do try to pay attention to nose wipers and replace those napkins...I have 8-12 of each set so have plenty.

We always put out the spoon-just habit I guess. If unused I try to put them away. Also when it's just the two of us I get slovengly and use the same fork for a salad and dinner.

We're pretty relaxed, like the others, just what we are using.

I thought I was the only person left who uses cloth napkins on a daily basis.

The only time I use salad forks is when we have company (and a salad, of course) or when we're out of all the dinner forks because they're in the dishwasher waiting to be washed.

For years we used cloth napkins, but I got tired of dealing with them for just the two of us; we use paper napkins now. When I have guests, I prefer to use my homemade cloth napkins (which I am proud to say have mitered corners--I learned how to do that online). I don't know how I ever lived so long without a PC. Google and I are going steady!!!!

Only what we need.

And, use paper towels as the napkins just don't seem to work well. Maybe we're just slobs. When something is particularly messy (like tacos), I will use jacquard (sp?) handtowels.

I have a collection of handtowels in different fabrics and styles, rather than napkins. This might freak people out, but considering I sanitize them in their own laundry load, I figure everyone will live.

Indexlady -- when we have BBQ, or something equally messy, out come the dish towels -- I don't want to mess up my real napkins and sometimes BBQ sauce can be a bear to get out!

Martha

BBQ's are messy, but then I use the big thick Vanity Fair napkins that come in 50 to a box-worth the extra expense.

I bought a stack of bandanas in many different colors. Those are our BBQ napkins.

quote:

a stack of bandanas

I like that idea!

Sherry - great idea!

Martha

When our kids were in parochial elementary school I didn't know it until all three attended, but they didn't own enough silverware to offer each student both a spoon and a fork for lunch. Kids K -4th grades had to use spoons for everything. Kids 5-8th got forks only for everything. I don't know what they did when they had soup, which was seldom if I recall. I got active on the PTA committee and another Mom brought up the flatware issue (she had 5 kids attending) and worked in a nearby public school cafeteria where they offered both utensils to everyone. Anyway, I threw out the idea we use some of our fund raised money to purchase enough flatware. Principal shot me down. I retorted that they were breaking down many a family's table manners and hard efforts with this practice, afterall, at our house we probably hadn't eaten supper without using three forks per person (entree, salad, dessert).
I sure got "the look" from Mrs. H!
But we won the war and bought more flatware.

At home the dining table is hardwood so we always have table pad and table cloth, cloth napkins (used for more than one meal), all necessary flatware for all the kids no matter their ages. All the food was offered in serving bowls, platters, boats or baskets, etc.
Never had any melamine, or used plastic or paper tableware. Amazingly enough, most all of my glassware sets are still complete, although etched from dishwasher.

I keep 5 place settings of each dinnerware set in that cupboard and decide which of 4 patterns I want to use at mealtime. The extra place settings are stored in less handy cabinets.

It's just the two of us. So, for every day dinner, we set the table with cloth napkins (nothing fancy); fork on the left; knife and soup spoon, if needed, on the right. Oh, and a wine glass to the right, always. Even though the glass spends most of its time in our hands.

No teaspoons, as we don't drink coffee or tea in the evening.

We usually like our sweets in the afternoon around 3:30 p.m., with tea for me; coffee for DH.

In Texas our school system went through a "spork" stage. Spoons with deep teeth on the ends. USELESS! Within just a few years, they changed back to the real thing.

Always a cloth table cloth and cloth napkins and also a place mat. All meals. Only utensils as needed. Napkin in a china napkin ring. His is a fish, mine is a bird, but we have many rings, only a couple of which are sterling.

I just found out that a small plastic measuring thing (like a yard stick but inches) makes a terrific crumber.

We always have a beverage but not wine often. I just realized I don't really like wine but have many wine glasses as I find odd orphans and bring them home esp if they are etched.

We just spend some time at one of my sister's houses and she has corelle. I even hated to eat my cereal from such a bowl. However she made up for it in her selection of coffee mugs!

Lurah, too bad the school didn't ask the local convent for some silverware. When we went to the auction at the mother house of a local order I got a ton of silverware. I'm sure more than the population at its highest (100 or so nuns) could have used. And that did not include the sets of sterling which were many.