Hello friends!
If you’ve been around a while or are a regular reader of my Friday Favorites, you know that we love LOVEVERY toy subscription company around here! LOVEVERY is a company with expert-curated toy boxes designed around staged-based play to support your child’s developing brain. I started receiving their kits when KJ was 18 months old and was immediately impressed with the quality of every toy, the research that enhances a child learning at each stage, and the longevity of the pieces. I stopped randomly purchasing new toys from Amazon and, instead, excitedly looked forward to KJ’s next box.
Flashbacks to the first couple of boxes we received!
We started at 18 months and have continued with the kits when they were expanded to include 36 to 48 months. So we are now filling in the gaps from 0-18 months for baby KK.
His first baby box! That teether is still one of his all-time favorite teethers!
And the last 3-year-old box we got!
The nice thing about the toys is their durability is AMAZING, and the quality is nothing short of spectacular. KJ still enjoys playing with toys from his past boxes, and since they are so well made, you don’t want to get rid of them. Unfortunately, that means after a year or so as subscribers, between that and all the cars and other toys he gets (usually from others for Christmas, birthdays, etc.) I was starting to drown in toys. We started shoving our beautifully made LOVEVERY toys in a shelf with drawers that KJ couldn’t get into without help. So, my living room was drowning in cars, trucks, and brightly colored plastic while the beautifully made educational toys were wasting away in a drawer he couldn’t get to.
Enter a toy rotation system that would change everything! LOVEVERY sent out an email about their new Montessori play shelf WITH toy storage, and I knew I HAD to have it. I don’t know about you, but I marvel at the people on Instagram who have whole closets dedicated to storing their children’s toys. We don’t have that kind of space around here. We live in an older home that wasn’t exactly built with space in mind. It’s not exactly small, but it isn’t big either. It’s perfect for us, but I don’t have a closet to spare just for toys or a playroom. So, it only took me a week to decide we needed this shelf in our lives and I’m couldn’t be happier with the purchase!
Once it arrived, I set it up to hold all our LOVEVERY toys and a few well-crafted Melissa and Doug toys. All the brightly colored plastic Amazon toys, as well as all the cars and trucks (except for the precious trash truck), made their way to an open bin system in the bedroom. And life has been amazing ever since.
Each week, I rotate the toys out on the shelf, and he’s so happy to see something new he forgot about he doesn’t even miss the thing that’s put away. For example, his barn animals were put away for three weeks, and when they came back out, he ran over to his shelf and said, “MY ANIMALS!” and started playing. Previous to that, the barn and animals were left untouched on his little table in the kitchen for a month. The rotation has helped him enjoy his toys again, which has been just amazing!
Some things stay out week to week, like the scale he uses to hold his collection of nuts and seeds he hunts for in the front yard. But, as soon as I notice he’s lost interest in it, I rotate it out. Overall, we are getting MORE use out of his toys than ever before. It’s awesome! And the shelf has SO much more storage than I could ever imagine.
The only downside was I had to wait 10-12 weeks for the shelf, and I had to assemble it myself. Which honestly, wasn’t a big deal at all. There was an app I downloaded that walked me through how to build it step by step. I refused to wait for Mr. Hungry to help me, so I built it at night ( the day it came because I was excited) while Mr. Hungry “supervised.” (He said he’d help me the next day, but I didn’t want to wait!) I only needed his help twice!
It took me just two hours and a little help from Mr. Hungry, so it really wasn’t bad! Sure, I’d rather it come assembled, but as I said, it wasn’t bad. It took me twice as long and two people to build the Ikea play kitchen we bought. Why are Ikea’s directions so terrible? Why!?! WHAT IS THE REASON THEY HAVE TO BE SO BAD!? This was nothing like that or anything you buy off Amazon. I can promise you that!
And like I said, KJ LOVES his shelf! I can’t wait for the next LOVEVERY box because I’ll get to see his reaction when he wakes up to a brand new toy on the shelf. (I usually spread out giving him the toys in the box over the three months until the next box, so he gets a new toy every 2-3 weeks from the latest LOVEVERY box. For the baby, I just introduce them at random or as needed. Teethers first, etc.)
I need to get him a little rug to go in front of it, so kneeling is more comfortable. I’m waiting for the ruggable black Friday sale, though!
LOVEVERY will definitely be on my gift guide this year for kids, and keep in mind you don’t just have to do a subscription box. They also have stand-alone toys they sell like their signature block set, play gym, home collection set, gifting, registry, courses, and more! You can also purchase some of their high-quality toys at Target. I’ll likely be buying the block set by itself for my niece this year! As you can tell, we’ve LOVED LOVEVERY for a while now, so when they reached out to me with a giveaway opportunity for all of you, I jumped at the chance!
Heads up LOVEVERY is kindly giving away one play kit, block set, or play mat to a lucky HH reader. All other items featured in this post were purchased from LOVEVERY by us. Since I obviously genuinely love the company, I did sign up to partner with them by becoming an affiliate. Enter for your chance to win a play kit, block set, or play mat below! I’ll announce the winner on Black Friday!
Email readers, click through to enter the giveaway 🙂
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