Our new place has carpet in the dinning room!! We are using the booster highchairs that sit on regular chairs so the kids can sit with us. It's great...but how do you save the carpet when using one of those? Especially when there are two kids? I know there are the plastic sheet things...but is there anything that works for the entire table and doesn't create a major eye sore? Oh and the carpet is white...out of all colors available!

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I just put vinyl tablecloths under my kids to get the mess. Not really that big a deal....

A dog!

Amen!

That's what we use too!

We just put down a vinyl tablecloth at my mom's house. It doesn't look pretty but it is better than ruining carpet.

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"When people can walk away from you, let them walk. Your destiny is never tied to anyone that left." Jakes

What about a patterned area rug ? It can be almost as big as the room , and is much easier to clean/ and cheaper to replace than new carpet. If you get a patteren it will also conceal stains. We did this in one of our dining areas that had carpet, until we put wood down, then we used the area rug on the wood! I always get braided rugs , that can be flipped too.

A dog is a good solution, but doesn't always clean up the sticky or liquid messes. I would go with a large area rug under your table. Make sure that it stretches out at least 12 inches from where your chairs sit under the table. Larger is better. You can look into getting a cheaper rug from someplace like Walmart that is a solid color and can be tossed if it gets too dirty. If you go with a more expensive rug you might want to look into a spot cleaner to help with spills on it. You also need to find a spot treatment that works for you. Keep that on hand at all times for spills all over the house. I like the Woolite OxyDeep.

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At one of the day care I worked at we used sheets to keep the floors clean under high chairs. However, that did not keep the liquid from soaking through.
I would suggest a clear shower curtain under their chairs that way it is easy to clean, inexpensive to replace and does not attract attention to the area as much as something colored. You can either sweep it clean or just shake it off in the back yard (feed the birds).

Our dog does a good job of cleaning up anything that falls including liquid. However it doesn't keep the spots from forming. But she does lick the carpet if something spills- Looks silly!

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mom of one crazy boy (8), step mom to a wacky teenager(14), and wife of 8 years to a bigger kid, and.....

One adorable, and spoiled rotten little girl! What do you expect she is the only one! (9mos)

You may only be one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person!

My parents had carpet in the dining room- but it was the "formal dining"= only for special occasions and the kids would sit in the kitchen still- most meals were served in the eat in kitchen so not a big deal. In our apartment with 3 kids under 3 we put cheap area rugs from wal-mart under the table and in the main living area- that way when they got to gross we just tossed them and bought another. We weren't concerned with the cost of replacing carpet- in our complex it was a gven that the landlord would replace carpet if it was bad at no cost to tenents, but we didn't want to live with nasty carpets. It also came in handy when I was having major morning sickness and one of the kids puked in the living room. instead of having to scrub the carpets I rolled up with $15 rug and tossed it out the door. (i tossed a lot of stuff out the front door for my hubby to deal with later- i don't think the neighbors like me very much)

When my little brother and sister were young, my parents moved to a house that had carpet in the eating area of the kitchen and in the dining room. THey just bought a huge thing of plastic and put it under the high chairs and then under the chairs where the kids sat. And no one ever said anything when they came to the house about it being tacky or not looking right...in fact most people said they wished they would have done the same.

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