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How We Clean and Check Every Chair Between Parties

The question usually arrives quietly, near the end of a quote conversation: are the chairs clean? Yes — and here is exactly what that means, from the moment a set comes back on the van to the moment it is set at the next family's table.

A kids' party chair has a harder working life than almost any other piece of furniture. In one weekend it can hold a two-year-old with a cupcake, a six-year-old who has discovered that chairs tip, and a bowl of something blue. Then it comes home. What happens between that pickup and the next family's party is the part nobody sees, and it is the part parents ask us about most once they have decided to rent. So here it is, step by step, with nothing left out.

For the full picture of a rental from the first call to pickup, read how a kids' table and chair rental works. This post is about the day in between.

Step one: everything comes off the van and gets looked at

Nothing goes straight back into storage. Every chair, table, high chair and dessert cart is unloaded and looked at in daylight, one piece at a time. We are checking two different things at this stage: what the party left behind (frosting, juice, glitter, grass, sand, a sticker under the seat) and what the party did to the piece (a scuff, a loose joint, a chip in the finish). The first is a cleaning job. The second is a repair-or-retire decision, and it gets made before the piece is cleaned, so nothing with a problem slips through because it looked tidy.

Step two: every surface is wiped, not just the seat

Children touch the whole chair. They hold the back rail to climb on, they hook their feet under the front stretcher, they hang on the arms of a high chair. So the whole chair is wiped, not just the seat: the back, the spindles, the legs, the underside of the seat where the stickers go, and the rails between the legs where the shoes rest. Tables are wiped on top, along the edges and underneath the lip, which is where small hands reach and where frosting ends up. High chairs get the tray, the footrest and the straps. Dessert carts get every shelf.

We use a mild, food-safe cleaner on anything a child will eat from or put their mouth near, and we rinse and dry rather than leave a residue, because the next child's crackers are going straight onto that tabletop. Fragranced products are not used on the furniture; a chair that smells of cleaner at a party smells wrong.

Different finishes get different care. The painted and resin pieces in our Essential and Classic collections wipe down quickly and dry fast. The rattan kids' chairs — the natural woven bentwoods and bow-backs — are wiped along the weave with a barely damp cloth, dried completely and never left wet, because rattan that is stored damp is rattan that doesn't last. The hand-painted tables, including the Daisy Table, are wiped gently and checked for any mark in the paint that needs a touch-up before they go out again.

Step three: the wobble test

Clean is only half of it. Every chair is set on a flat floor and rocked, corner to corner, by hand. A chair that rocks sits out. We tighten what can be tightened, and a chair with a joint that will not stay tight is retired, not sent to a party on the theory that it will probably hold. The same test goes for tables: pressed at each corner and along the middle, and leveled on the floor. A kids' table that teeters when a child leans on it is the thing that tips a cake, so it never leaves the studio that way.

High chairs get one more check, because the stakes are higher: the tray locks, the straps buckle and hold, and the footrest is fixed. A high chair with a strap that is fraying or a buckle that has gone soft is pulled from the rotation until it is fixed. If it can't be fixed, it is replaced.

Step four: edges, finishes and the small things

Once a piece is clean and solid, it gets a last look for the small things a parent would notice at the table: a chipped edge, a splinter on a rattan stretcher, a rough spot on a seat, a stuck-on sticker someone missed. Chips are touched up, rough spots are smoothed, and anything that can't be made right is set aside. Our kids' party safety checklist is written from this same point of view — the things that matter at a children's table are small and physical, and they are easiest to fix before the party.

Step five: dried, stacked and covered

Everything is completely dry before it is stacked or stored. Chairs are stacked in like-with-like sets, tables are stored on their sides on padded rails so the tops never rest on a floor, and the whole set is covered for the next drive. On delivery day the pieces come out of the van clean, are set at your home or venue, and are given one more wipe once they are in place, because a van ride and a walk through a backyard are their own kind of dust.

Why we do it this way

Partly because the pieces are expensive and a chair that is looked after lasts for years. Mostly because the whole point of renting a real kids' table is that it is easier and nicer than the alternative, and a sticky chair or a wobbly table undoes that in a second. The parents who book with us are handing us the one part of the party that their children will actually sit in for an hour. It should arrive looking like it has never been to a party before, even when it has been to a hundred.

This is also why we are happy to be asked. If there is anything else you want to know before you book — sizes, counts, what is included — the questions to ask before booking post has the list, and the FAQ covers delivery areas, insurance certificates and rain plans. Ready to see the pieces themselves? Start with kids' table and chair rentals, or the toddler size if your guests are one to three. If the date is set, hold your date and sort out the count later.

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