A doll’s house is perhaps every little girl’s favourite toy. Or so I would assume. As a little girl, I would love playing in the life size dollhouse at school. A bunch of us would squeeze ourselves inside the dollhouse to play.
As I fast-forward the years to watching Saira play with her dolls, it brings a smile to my face. Recently, I came across a company called Toy Shelf that does toy rentals for little ones. I was excited to learn about the company and decided to reach out to the owner.
For those who want to know more, Toy Shelf is a toy rental company based in Singapore, founded by South African mum Nickie Steele. Toy Shelf allows you to rent toys for a month and all the available toys are listed online, accompanied by images. I like how the company keeps the toy descriptions short and recommends age-appropriate toys. Nickie has designed a simple and clean website, allowing mums to browse through the website pretty quickly. Her toys are also sorted by product type allowing you to filter your choices, if you somewhat know what you want.
“I realized how expensive buying new toys was and how frustrating it was when the kids lost interest in the toy after such a short time. I also found space an issue and would often find large toys taking over our living room in our tiny apartment. I thus started Toy-Shelf as a means to help parents provide a quick and hassle-free way of choosing toys themselves online and getting them delivered,” says Nickie.
I decided to order a dollhouse for Saira, pretty sure I couldn’t go wrong with my choice. I chose one on the website which I liked, but Nickie surprised me by recommending something which was going to be a new addition to her toy inventory.
I absolutely fell in love with the Janod dollhouse that Nickie was kind enough to send to me. Janod is a French company started by Louis Janod. The company is popularly known for its wooden range of toys like spinning toys, yo-yos and skittles. Over the years, the company has expanded its toy range to an overwhelming collection of puzzles, games, toys and figurines, musical toys et al.
So coming back to the Mademoiselle dollhouse, the wooden finish and the beautiful art on it is so adorable. The day the dollhouse arrived at home, Saira was excited! She assembled the little furniture inside the house herself. Kids have a wonderful sense of imagination and I liked how she arranged it so chicly and cutely!!
She played with it a few times over the month that we had it. On one instance, I watched her apply ‘pretend lipstick’ to one of her dolls, and smiling away.
They do rentals for birthday parties too and have an extensive collection of large toys for that: water tables, ride on cars, activity tables and so much more.
Toy Shelf also has a section dedicated to travel items. The items available are limited but functional. She provides high chairs, bumbo seats, travel cots and strollers. It is ideal for mums who have friends and family visiting and would like to rent these items for a few days of convenience. Thankfully, you can rent these for a week too!
I was really happy with Toy Shelf’s quality and service. The product was clean and in mint condition (will completely work for OCD mommies!). Timely delivery was another plus, and Nickie often delivers the toys herself.
If you’re a mum who believes less is more, Toy Shelf is the way to go!
Check out their website at: http://www.toy-shelf.com
Toy Shelf is sponsoring a $60 voucher, which can be used to select toys from their monthly toy rentals (not valid for travel items and party hire toys). Voucher can be used once and is valid until end 2018. Please like this post to participate.
