Our best ideas...
bought a microfiber couch - cleans so easily!!
got rid of our coffe table and purchased 2 small leather cubes - no injuries!
Slipcovered sofa and chairs. The covers go right into the washer and dryer.
Replaced upholstered dining room chairs with simple wood chairs that can be wiped clean.
16 place settings of good dinnerware "seconds" from a discount store. They look nice even though many pieces have a tiny flaw like a speck or uneven glaze. They were cheap, $40 for the whole lot. I wanted my kids to wash dishes but not worry if they broke some as they learned.
Two words: Leather furniture.
Xmas & Holiday decorations, before our kids, we never decorated our home for anything, now we do easter, 4th of july, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Xmas, its so much fun!!!
bought leather couches and microfiber dining room chairs. And a buzz light year kid table - all great moves
got rid of my old saturn and bought a safer, more fuel efficient Mazda sedan.
got rid of - partying, drinking on the weekends.
also love that we have a reason to decorate and celebrate every holiday.
Got rid of coffee table with sharp edges and replaced it with a leather ottoman with four storage compartments. The BEST thing we bought with kids!!! You can declutter the living room in seconds!! It has stood up pretty well to them standing, jumping, tumbling off it, too.
Got a micro fiber couch and love that too! Stains come off pretty easily and the part you sit on comes off and can be washed.
Bought a leather bench and regular seating bar height table. LOVE it....love the look of it and how easily it cleans up!! The only thing with smaller children is the fact that my son LOVEs to stand up when he's on the bench which is understandable....we are working on that!
Bought a child's sized potty - I would not have done that and instead just bought a stool and taught them to potty in the regular potty first.
Bought a convertible crib and converted it to a toddler bed for son about 2 months ago. Love that we have gotten 4+ years out of that!!
Bought a take apart bunk bed (WalMart) for daughter. We only put the bottom part together but if / when we bunk the kids, we already it. If we decide to not bunk them togehter (they share a room now but will not in the future) it can be extra sleeping space for friends for my son!
Our amish made coffee table and end tables (solid wood). The kids always stand on them and jump off them.
Baby gates. I love them. We have two at the tops of stairways, one for the hallway (to keep Kiddo confined to one area or another when a mobile toddler-- still works great for night time now, when he's limited to his room and the bathroom or calling up to us), and one big gate around the woodstove. Those gates have eliminated a ridiculous amount of "no's" from us and given me a lot of peace of mind.
I made my hubby get rid of his coffee table and end tables. They had glass tops without anything covering the sides. They were such a pain to keep clean. We used to have a sectional that was microfiber and I have to say I was glad to be rid of it. We now have leather sofas they are much easier to clean.
