I Finally Found a Modern Toddler Chair With Zero Crumb-Attracting Crannies

Ask any parent what they spend the most time doing at home and the resounding answer is cleaning the kitchen. It doesn’t matter if you order takeout every night or had the cleaners come yesterday—you will always be sweeping the floor and wiping the countertops. That’s because even though the youngest gourmets in the house have the tiniest hands, their dirty digits manage to find their way into everything. Typically, that’s a good thing. Baby- and toddler-food experts like Feeding Littles and Solid Starts suggest letting kids explore food early on to help them become less picky eaters in the future. Unfortunately that means resisting the urge to go into wipe-down mode when your kid is finger painting with the marinara sauce (internal screaming, however, is allowed).

While my children were little, I knew I wanted to cultivate mini foodies who I could one day take abroad and watch excitedly eat sashimi in Japan or pâté in France. So I invested in an Internet-approved high chair in the hope that it would keep them engaged with the dishes in front of them. The good news is it’s durable, doesn’t stick out like an eyesore, and checks the box of being able to grow with my kids; it also has a footrest, which studies show help increase a child’s tolerance for staying seated for longer periods of time. The problem? There are about a gazillion nooks and crannies that I was constantly excavating after every meal, usually on my hands and knees with a toothpick to scrape out food gunk both new and dried.

When my second baby arrived, I refused to buy a new high chair—I didn’t want to clean an additional seat post-mealtime. So I gave the old one to my youngest and moved the toddler to our dining bench. It was a good idea in theory, but with the change came new challenges. A bench just means more opportunities for a little one to get distracted—to play or even walk away instead of focusing on the meal at hand. I needed to find a new perch to help my oldest sit in one place, and I searched everywhere for one that didn’t require me to spend 30 minutes scrubbing every day. Enter: the Goldie chair by Audwell.

The Goldie Chair, Audwell ($345)

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I was already familiar with the Oslo Tower, the brand’s inaugural product. If I didn’t already have a learning tower, I would have bought this one, because it’s definitely one of the most attractive options on the market. When the company launched the Goldie, I knew it was my chance to get Audwell into my home and purchased one of the first batch made.

Crafted from American maple, it blends in perfectly with my Hay J77 dining chairs, a testament to its Scandi-inspired silhouette. And thanks to its slim legs and wide, curved backrest, my toddler can get in and out of the chair on her own, which is important for promoting independence. While I was initially worried that the slender profile meant it wasn’t sturdy enough for a sometimes clumsy kid, Goldie has never once tipped over, and my daughter has never fallen off it either.

But for me, the absolute best, hallelujah detail of the Goldie is that there are zero crevices for food to get stuck in. While my toddler does keep most of her dinner on the table these days, there are the occasional yogurt spills, fallen noodle strands, runaway rice grains, and cookie crumbles. In those instances, the wipe-able finish makes cleanup a two-minute breeze.

Unbelievable as it may seem, I don’t have any complaints to share about the Goldie. If you want me to be extremely nitpicky, I guess I could say that the felt beneath the legs could be more grippy (the chair slides across my hardwood floor), but that’s it! I can’t recommend this chair enough. It’s the answer to all my mealtime problems. At $345, it’s definitely an investment, but it looks and feels like heirloom quality and is made for kids ages 3 to 8. Six years of use for each of my kids justifies the price tag. Now the question is, what should I do with all the time I’ve freed up by not cleaning? (Just kidding; I’m still always scouring the rest of the kitchen.)