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Tuesday, August 02, 2016

The Grand Search

You wouldn't think that finding some plastic place mats would be that difficult. I remember when I was a kid that my parents had a bunch of different sets. I remember seeing them in gift shops when I traveled. It should be simple to find a set now.

It wasn't.

To be honest, I really didn't want to buy any place mats. I'd bought some in Minnesota that were super cute and--theoretically at least--should have been easy to clean. They weren't. They were this woven style, peppered with holes as part of the pattern. Super cute and extremely impractical. I flinched at every drip because getting them clean was a royal PITA. I stopped using place mats all together.

Then my dad came to live with me. He's put newspaper down on my dining room table to act as a placemat. I swear! Every week when the new newspaper arrives, I make him swap it out so at least it's fresh, sort of. I don't understand why he can't eat at a bare table, but he won't and I'm tired of the paper.

Thus began my quest for a plastic place mat that wasn't designed for children. I didn't want anything woven which severely limited me.

I finally did find a few that I liked. At a price of $20 and up for ONE place mat. I was desperate, but I wasn't that desperate. This was at multiple stores, so it wasn't a case of just one store jacking up the price. At another online store, I found some that weren't horrible, but they were all under $22 and I needed $29 for free shipping. I thought about trying to find something else to make up the difference, but then I thought, no, I don't feel like it.

At long last I found some nice plastic place mats at a fair price. Do I love them? No. They're attractive enough, but they're very pastel-y and I'm a bright and bold color gal. But they'll get the newspaper off my dining room table, so I'll live with subtle.