Selfsufficientish.com

Do people still use cloth hankies these days? I must declare my vested interest: I sell organic cotton hankies on my site.

Would very much like to know what people feel about the future of cloth hankies in this country. Should I persevere in promoting this greener alternative, or shall I just -- frankly -- forget it?

They make great Christmas presents by the way.

http://www.organic-ally.co.uk/26026.html

Might have been good to sign in, introduce yerself, have a bit of a chat with the locals first, rather than just blatently trying to sell us our christmas shopping. A link in your sig. is the accepted way.

However, as today is, apparenty, National Courtesy Day (who thinks these bleedin' things up - nobody asked me about it), then the answer to your question is yes,

Well I am truly humbled by that response, and embarrassed too. So, apologies to all whom I have offended unintentionally.

Obviously i have not understood enough of the Forum posting etiquette. I simply thought that instead of thinking up a name about myself, which I would forget any way, why not just get straight to the point? My name and identity and what I stand for are clearly on the site. Nowhere to hide. What you see is what you get.

By the way, is it 'yes' to people still use cloth hankies? Or 'yes' to I should forget about promoting its use??:confused4:

Siewpeng

My lodger swears by hankies - claims she finds them much softer than tissues. I was brought up with hankies - but as sinus problems seem to run (no pun intended) in my family, my childhood comprises many memories of a soggy hanky up me sleeve and a red nose

I have to confess though (you can vote me off this board if you like) that I do love the klenex with added balm! My nose hasn't looked back since I made this discovery. Bad, bad, bad I'm sure, but oh so *nice*. They burn nicely too!

Alcina

In my case - yes, they are still being used. Not just by me, I have occasionally seen others use them, too!

Tissues give me a very sore nose (quite apart from the rubbish factor - but they compost down nicely...) I've just had a cold and noticed that my stock seems to have diminished; some of them are almost pre-war! (That's WWII I'm talking about.) Some are awful pink roses (presents, of course), but what the heck, anything goes when the nose is running.

Christmas presents, I don't know. None of my friends seem to use them. But I might make a present of some to myself.

Ina

No, I would never go back to using them. When I get a cold I get through about 2 boxes of tissues. Just think of all the laundry. Oh the many disappointments at Xmas when I was a child, receiving hankies. It was the second worse thing after having to have a 'party dress'. All I wanted was normal kids toys!

I gotta admit.....................I never got a party dress

We always had hankies at home and I can still remember my father boiling them up in a pot on the stove to clean them. Maybe it's this concept of snot soup that puts me off!

Nev

Yuckaroony! My stepfather uses them and Mum says they normally go through the washing machine OK, but there was one time when something went wrong and all the clothes came out covered in snot, and she had to pick it all off..........

In contrast to Millymollymandy, I used to look at pretty handkerchiefs, especially those embroidered ones, at market stalls and hoped that Mum would buy me some new ones. Instead she would find bits of fabric from friends who sewed, tore (not cut, you get better edges this way) them into squares, and then machined down the edges and those were my hankies.

Funny what MMM said about party dresses. I just wrote a piece in my blog about wearing the same pink one at Chinese New Year for at least five years.

As for snot-covered clothes: I had this problem too. I found the solution to that. Soak snotty hankies in cold water -- I usually wait for a batch to conserve water -- rinse them out before putting in the washing machine. Works for me every time. Boiling hankies is a thing of the past now that we have hot water washes. Believe me. I mean we were washing nappies in the washing machines. No problems there either.

siewpeng

A big YES to real hankies. I only use cotton ones and so does my teenage son (have you a hankie in your pocket, son?). Tissues are such a waste of paper and what about the bleeching process? That cant be good. Cotton hankies may be a blast from the past but I'm all for them, and yes, do buy me some for Christmas, with an L embroidered in one corner.
I've just remembered another fault of tissues. Did you ever get one in the wash and end up with bits all over the navy blue school uniforms?

Shredded paper tissue messing up my wash was where my journey back to cloth hankies began. I searched everywhere and just could not find any boys' size hankies. Was going to get a Chinese manufacturer to make cheap cotton boys' size hankies for me. Then I learned about the harm that conventional cotton was doing to the environment, and the number of trees cut for paper tissue. And even if wood came from managed/sustainable resources, biodiveristy is reduced just so we could get our supply of paper tissues.

No turning back now. It's organic cotton hankies from now on for me.

siewpeng

Good on you Siew, good to see you are doing your bit for the environment!

Nev

Millymollymandy wrote:No, I would never go back to using them. When I get a cold I get through about 2 boxes of tissues. Just think of all the laundry.

I'm still recovering from a cold and thinking through MMM's 2-box tissue issue. It appears that we generally use fewer hankies than paper tissue. It's for a gross reason.

Well, my hankies are usually folded in half. You can either use the back of it, or actually unfold them, turn them around 90 degrees, refold and use the same again. More often than not, I reuse the same hankie if the snot has dried out between nose-blowing. (But only when it's not green.) Because hankies do not disintegrate when wet, one actually does not need to use as many. I know this is gross, but it is a fact. As my husband says, it's your own snot any way.

No, I don't fancy washing two boxes of what? 100? hankies each time I have a cold, but for various reasons, we just don't seem to need as many as we do paper tissue. Something to consider?

siewpeng

Don't worry, Siewpeng, I'm not polluting the environment. Because as I live a healthy outdoor lifestyle these days I haven't had a cold for about 3 or 4 years!! Used to get about 4 a year when I lived in London.

Very true! Alot of outdoors = few colds. I only allow my family one cold each per winter - after that they are just being wimps!
Also true, I never use as many cloth hankies as my daughter uses tissues, she says hankies are mingin (whatever that means!). I am still using hankies from years ago, also hankies that the kids will no longer be seen with, such as, Noddy, Dennis the Menace, Rupert etc. I reckon its just sentiment, either that or I cant bear to throw away anything with years of life still in it.