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In reply to the discussion: You sound like my mother or my grandfather or some grouchy older person I know [View all]TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)When average people could afford a room of good furniture but not afford to replace it when it got stained or threadbare. It was nice to be able to sit on your good furniture rather than having a parlor of good furniture that was only used for guests so they didn't see the ratty old cheap stuff that got baby puke on it, Dad's beer spilled on it, your older kids getting potato chip grease stains on it or the cats using the arm rests as a scratching post.
Slipcovers used to be made of cloth until the invention of plastic and the 1950's explosion of making damn near everything out of plastic. Plastic slipcovers became all the rage because liquids couldn't seep through them like the old cloth slipcovers or the old sheets a lot of people used to use since cloth slipcovers were custom made and expensive, and they were easy to keep clean with just wiping with a damp sponge rather than having to be laundered.