Hi there... isn't it amazing how one small person can make so much mess?!! I am a real tidiness freak so I do find this quite hard to manage. And we are also doing BLW.
However I think like noonie, it's one thing at a time. At the moment they are learning to eat and I think if I get all uptight about it I am worried it will send a message to Katie that eating is stressful or something. I would prefer her to enjoy experimenting with her food. I have a large washable / wipe clean mat under Katie's high chair, and I just shake this out into the garden after each meal (the birds are very happy!) and put it into the washing machine every few days. And a large bib. And a mat which goes onto the table with a little "trough" that catches a lot of what she drops (the "TinyDiner" mat). If Katie seems to actively throw something across the room I calmly tell her that we don't throw food, but if she just drops something accidentally or pushes it off her mat, I dont say anything.
We have started getting a problem with mice in the house in the last few weeks which I suspect is due to the toast crumbs etc that are appeariing on the floor since Katie started BLW (!), so I do also have to hoover every evening, and make sure that the floor and high chair are spotless before I go to bed
Katie really *hates* getting undressed / dressed, so she has her breakfast while she is still in her pyjamas and then we get dressed afterwards, lunch I make sure is fairly non-messy, and dinner is just before her bath so it doesn't matter how much mess she gets into. So I don't ever have to change her clothes because she's got food on them
I think as parents we all have to do what we feel is right in terms of teaching manners etc, but my feeling would be to leave it a while yet and let them have the space to learn to eat and enjoy their food.
Bryony