How I Manage White Furniture While Having Toddlers

White Chairs in living room, Interior Define, Bohemian Interior Decor — Chairs are the “Caitlin By The Everygirl” chairs from Interior Define. The color is “Swan”, which is a structured cloth and very easy to clean. It’s kid and pet friendly!

The color “Swan”: Clean, fresh, bright, modern.

…And completely impractical if you have kids, right?! Depends on your perspective. I was always in the camp of loving white furniture, but feeling like I could never make it work in our house because, well, toddler life. But when it came time to choose the color and design of our living room furniture from Interior Define (Check out my full review here!) I decided to take a chance on this bold choice. Why? Simply because I loved the look. My main goal with decorating our space is to have intention behind every piece, and to love every item in our house.

It’s now been more than 6 months since our white Caitlin chairs have arrived, and it’s safe to say they’ve been fully lived in. We’ve curled up in them by the fire, lounged in them after playground visits (ah-hem…dirty feet!), and have had guests of every shape and size over to visit. Not to mention, they’ve been daily play mates for our girls, since our living room is the main place they watch tv, play with toys, and spend time outside of their rooms and our kitchen.

And, get this. They’re still clean. Yup. I’ve done the seemingly impossible. And it hasn’t even been that hard! It’s taken discipline and added thought, yes. But hard? Nope. It’s all about prevention of stains, and having a quick plan once stains do take place.

Below, I’ve laid out my exact strategies for keeping our beautiful Interior Define chairs clean, fresh, and bright.

Happy and smiling on a white chair, Caitlin by The Everygirl chair

My 5 Proactive Strategies For Keeping Our White Chairs Clean Despite Having Toddlers

Don’t allow food outside the kitchen

I’m actually really proud of how well we’ve been able to keep this up. Our rule is plain and simple: No food outside the kitchen. Even Doug and I adhere to this!

I can’t tell you how many food spills we encounter on a daily basis. Our floors are forever filled with just…crumbs. But not our white furniture! The girls know that when we have food, they need to be sitting in the kitchen while eating. Which helps to avoid lots of messes not just for our white chairs, but in the house in general.

It’s definitely taken lots of reminders and added effort. And, sure, we’ll break this rule for the occasional movie night that requires popcorn. (I’m not a monster, guys. Kids gotta be kids and popcorn nights are an essential!) But in general, that’s our rule, and because we’ve been pretty consistent, it’s become the norm for our kids.

Wipe Those Hands

After the girls are finished eating, we try our best to wipe those messy hands! After all, it’s not just spills that are the culprit for stains and messes. Those little hands carry a lot!

This is true too, after we’ve gone outside to play or have been knee-deep in coloring or an art project. Washing their hands is not only good for them, it’s good for my white chairs. Win, win! 😉

Shoes OFF!

As another general rule, we all take off our shoes when entering the house. We usually enter through our sunroom, which is tiled, and super easy to wipe down. It’s the perfect place to unload rain boots, sandy sandals, and dirty sneakers. Let’s face it, our shoes carry lots of grime and dirt, even if you haven’t just tromped through the mud. This rule also helps for our floors to build up less dirt and particles in general, so it’s something that’s done not just for the chairs but for our general sanity so that Doug and I don’t have to clean every two seconds of the day!

Use throw blankets strategically

Remember how above I mentioned that the girls use the living room as one of their main play areas? One of the ways I help to avoid the chairs getting dirty is to simply use a throw. They typically play in the open floor area next to one chair in particular, so I’ll strategically leverage a throw over that chair’s arm as a buffer. This has notably helped in situations when I’ll find them climbing on the chair or – eek! – one time I found Joey coloring ON the throw. Sometimes all you need is a little buffer to avoid bigger issues!

Spot clean as soon as an “Oops!” happens

Alright, so, here’s where reality sets in. They’re kids! Messes are going to happen, and no matter how cautious you are with any color furniture – not just white furniture – I guarantee at some point you’ll be cleaning up a spill or spot. Besides, even just generally sitting on chairs and living life will get them dirty.

I try to take the approach of trying to prevent stains however I can, but I also don’t get too bent out of shape if a slip up happens. I’ll spot clean, and call it a day! Luckily these chairs make that super easy as they’re made with a fabric that’s kid and pet friendly — meaning they’re super easy to spot clean and wipe down. So inherently I suppose that’s another huge piece of advice: Make sure your chair fabric is easy to clean!