When Aunt Linda and Uncle Larry moved to Baltimore, the buffet moved to our house. When Aunt Linda moved into her Chicago condo, the dining room table and chairs came to our house, along with several beautiful table clothes.
In our house table cloths are abused daily. Every other day we wash the dining room table cloth. Most times when I took the table cloth to the washing machine I would say that if the the table cloths could talk they would ask why they were being punished by coming to our house. There was no way the table cloths saw that much traffic in Aunt Linda's house.
More than once something spilled that I was sure would stain. I realize that Aunt Linda wasn't worried about what happened to her table cloths. She gave them to us with the table so we'd use them. We were always able to remove the spill, keeping the beautiful table cloths intact.
I saw the girls drawing with Sharpie markers when I couldn't take it anymore. I started looking for more indestructible table cloths. I was doing some after Christmas shopping at Macy's when I found two clearance table cloths for $6 each. The colors weren't perfect, but they were close enough to work for us. I was giddy at the cost and the fabric. These table cloths could take a lot of washing and still be servicable.
We have daily use table cloths that can take a lot of abuse. Aunt Linda's beautiful table cloths will make appearances whenever possible. It turns out the price of my sanity is $6 per table cloth. Funny, but I always thought my sanity would cost a bit more.
