From marker stains to sippy cup spills, our house stays on the sticky side. Here are some of our favorite buys for a kid-friendly house that stands up to stains but still soothes the grown-ups.

*This is not a sponsored post. All of the opinions are my own, based on the actual use of these products in our home.

#1 Ikea’s Ektorp Corner Sofa

People get a little nervous when they bring their kids over for a play date and see our white sofa but I’m quick to explain that it is the most kid-friendly sofa out there. We have two covers for the sofa, one is white and the other is beige (shown in the photo above,) and I actually prefer to keep the white cover on. Why? I have washed out ketchup, pizza sauce, chocolate and more. Just this morning, I washed the cover and removed doodles a friend’s two-year-old left a week ago with a marker she found in the toy box. The beige cover isn’t as easy to clean.

I keep a Tide Stain Pen, which works well for quick spot-cleaning and I love the OxiClean Max Force Gel Stick for pre-treating stains. When I wash the covers, I use detergent and add a scoop of OxiClean, which gets the covers really white. I try to wash the covers twice a month, which sounds like a lot of maintenance but honestly, it is two loads of laundry and the pay-off is a great-smelling, stainless sofa that I’m not constantly worrying over. If we do get a unbeatable stain, replacement covers at Ikea are just $100, which is a heck of a lot cheaper than replace an entire sofa.

#2 Shark Rechargable Floor & Carpet Sweeper

Now that Eli is eating finger foods, this sweeper doesn’t even make it back to the closet before I’m running it again. My only complaint is that it doesn’t do well around the edge of the wall but I sweep that with a broom and suck it up with the Shark. It is especially useful in our art room, where we’re constantly making messes. It is lightweight and simple, so Ada (age 4) is able to help me clean up messes and gets a big kick out of using this sweeper. I love this thing so much, it may become my go-to gift at baby showers.

#3 Outdoor Dining Chairs

How many times have you wished you could take your chairs outside after a spaghetti dinner and hose them off? With these chairs, you could! I recently swapped out our upholstered dining chairs from our pre-kiddo years and replaced them with Threshold Wicker Chairs that are super-easy to clean and maintain.

#4 Laminate Flooring

We ripped up the carpet in the art/play room and installed an inexpensive laminate flooring we bought at Lowe’s (Style Selections Tavern Oak) to make clean up easier. We’ve since spilled paint, dirt, shaving cream and more on these floors and they always clean up beautifully. This was, of course, a little bit of an investment but it was money well spent. The flooring has a pretty touch of gray and we love them so much, we’re saving to install them in our master bedroom.

#5 Second-Hand Furniture

Most of the furniture in our home was purchased at estate sales, thrift stores or yard sales. It doesn’t make much sense to buy nice furniture during this phase of life when it is likely to be a target for doodles and scratches. I find that with a little creativity (and paint) you can get the look of items you want without spending a lot of money on something you’ll be crushed if it gets, well, crushed. My best advice is to look for items with good bones and plenty of hidden storage. Most people don’t put their TV in an armoire now so you can sometimes snag them for under $100. This cabinet served us well as a changing station before Eli was nearly impossible to change without some slick wrestling moves.

What items do you have and swear by in your kid-proof home?