Messy Me have several solutions available to help keep clothes and objects clean – and we were delighted to get a chance to review their Messy Me Oilcloth.

The Messy Me oilcloth is an essential when you have a small person – since H was born we’ve had our table covered – yet time and time again the cloth has lasted a few months and has cracked, spoiled or just had a hole bitten in them (that was H, she chuckled away to herself afterwards too). These days she’s older, much more sensible and we were still in need of a decent tablecloth. I was always too scared to spend more after going through cover after cover every few months – and it was driving me mad as I felt like the money I’d spent would have been better used on a better quality tablecloth – but I didn’t know if maybe this is what the fabric does?

So our Messy Me oilcloth arrived – cut to 140cm wide, we got enough to cover our table with plenty extra on all sides. We’ve been using it for over a month now and I’m really impressed – the cloth wipes really easily and no stains have spoilt it (there is a note with it to avoid tomato stains by wiping quickly) and the cloth can even be put into the washing machine at a low setting – again, impressive – none of our others could do that.

I chose the olive grey Messy Me oilcloth as it’s a nice neutral colour, it feels nice and thick with the coating being easy for wiping – I need something which cleans easily and this does exactly that. Also, it is certified to meet Oeko-Tex Standard 100 – offering reassurance to customers that the cloth does not contain chemicals or components harmful to health.

So far we’ve made cakes, meringues, done plenty of stickering (it’s really good when your stickers get stuck on there by mistake – they peel off easily!), painting, more messy things, and of course eating. This weekend just gone there were seven of us around the table – the cloth was clean and shows no signs of wearing out which means this gets a HUGE thumbs up from me – anything that makes my life easier is a very good thing!

After this long and having got by on cheaper cloths, I wish I’d just gone ahead and bought this – it’s tough and it looks fab. Head over to Messy Me to see their full range – they have almost anything you could possibly want in their fabulous wipe clean fabrics!

We were sent the Messy Me oilcloth for the purpose of review. 

• update – October 2014. The oilcloth is still going strong. I think it’s safe to say, pay more and get better quality. There are a few marks on it as you’d expect with a five year old, but overall this is brilliant value for money
• update April 2016. The oilcloth is still going strong! There are a few stains which are our fault (from indian takeaways, for example), but again, still brilliant value and definitely worth splashing out on.