#ad – Whirli Toy Subscription received for review 

Have you heard of the Whirli Toy Subscription box yet? As Mum to two daughters, and a parenting and lifestyle blogger, this house has seen more than it’s fair share of toys. Some toys become long term hits, getting dragged out and played with every other weekend, creating hour after hour of imaginative play long after they are first unwrapped from the (usually copious amounts of) packaging. Others inevitably get forgotten about fairly quickly. The novelty wears off, or something new and exciting comes along that means some toys get forgotten about, put to one side, or simply surplus to requirements. I’ve seen Toy Story, and trust me, I get allllll kinds of guilt about the toys that are left to gather dust whilst they look down on the latest new addition with jealous glares. We had been looking at more eco friendly toys and sustainable toys to try and prevent the amount of waste and money we spent unnecessarily.

It appears we’re not alone. According to research from the team who invented the Whirli toy subscription box – children receive on average £350 worth of toys each year, with many toys getting neglected after just 4 weeks. Sadly many of these toys end up being thrown away – resulting in lots of plastic being sent straight to the tip.

As a family we have recently developed a bit of a one in one out policy, meaning that every time a new toy comes into the house, we donate another, sending it off to our local charity shops so that another child can play with it instead. Although this helps a little, I have recently been looking into ways to reduce our plastic consumption and become more sustainable as a family. After all, the amount of waste we create as a nation is pretty shocking, and this is my children’s and their future generations lives that I need to be taking care of.

When I heard about Whirli toys – a new toy subscription box service / toy library that allows children to enjoy, return and refresh their toys regularly, I thought it sounded absolutely amazing, allowing the girls to experience the joy of something new to play with, without the inevitable wasteful disposal of something else.

Whirli Toy Subscription Box – what you need to know

The Whirli toy subscription service looks to revolutionise the way in which parents shop for toys. Whirli believe that it’s better value to swap and not shop, and follow the mentality of Get, Play, Give and Repeat, helping parents de-clutter, regain lost storage space, and reduce the number of toys that inevitably end up in landfill. Whirli is a fun sustainable toys community, where you can pick, enjoy and swap the eco friendly toys your children play with as part of your subscription.

If you fancy giving it a go you can use the Whirli Toys Discount Code to get 20% off new subscriptions – NEW20 (valid until December 2023)

How does the Whirli toy box subscription work?

1, Choose your toys

Pick the toys you want from a huge variety of toys on their site – the toys are easily filtered by recommended age, category and brand, making it easy to find something specific you might be looking for.

In this house we’re huge fans of wooden toys, so I really enjoyed having a little explore of the wooden toy options to add to the girls toy box. We chose the Grimm’s Rainbow, Le Toy Van Honeybake Ice Lollies and the Melissa and Doug Rainbow Balance toy.

Each toy has a token value (approximately equal to £1 RRP) and depending on your subscription package, you get a fixed amount of tokens to exchange for toys each month. All subscriptions come with flexibility to choose your toys and to swap them at any time. What’s more, if you decide to keep a toy for 9 months without swapping it, you can keep it forever!

2. Delivery

Once you have made your selections (which to be honest is the hard part as there is lots of choice!), the Whirli toy subscription delivers your selected toys to your door (to any mainland UK address) in a fab reuseable and sustainable canvas bag. The toys aren’t brand new – so no battling to remove them from the over generous hoards of plastic packaging, but are all in excellent condition and full working order, having been triple checked and cleaned before sending.

3. Swap

When your children start to lose interest, simply return them and swap them for something else! Here comes the huge benefit of a toy subscription model! When they are returned to the team at Whirli, the toys are checked and steralised ready for another child to enjoy should they be selected again for play.

Whirli toy subscription plans start from £12.16 per month which gives you access to around £80 worth of toys at any one time. There are 4 subscription tiers available depending on your family size and the value of toys you wish to receive. The premium subscription – The Toy Chest – retails at £35 per month, but comes with a whopping £240 worth (approximately) of toys to select from.

4. Repeat

The girls have absolutely loved playing with some new brightly coloured wooden toys from the Whirli toys selection, and it is great piece of mind to know that if they lose interest or stop playing, I can send it back to Whirli and exchange it for something else.

What are is it suitable for?

Whirli is suitable for all ages – from newborn toys and toys for toddlers and preschoolers, all the way through to toys suitable for school aged children ages 5-8 years.

What toy brands do Whirli offer?

As you might expect, many of the brands featured in the Whirli toy subscription are from sustainable and ethical brands, with a real focus on Montessori, wooden toys and screen free fun. Here are just a few of the brands you can find at Whirli:

• Little Dutch
• Tenderleaf
• Toniebox and Tonies
• Melissa and Doug
• Character sets including Bluey, Paw Patrol and PJ Masks
• Books and Dolls including Disney and Lottie Dolls

I think the Whirli toy subscription concept is absolutely fantastic, and in a world where we all have to do our bit to try and reduce our carbon footprint, this feels like a huge step in the right direction. If you have children who go through phases of favourites when it comes to their playtime, Whirli is a great option to allow them to experience a wider range of toys without the hefty price tag, with a Whirli subscription working out up to 9 x cheaper than buying things new at RRP.

You can learn more about Whirli toy subscrptions including the types of toy subscription packages available and frequently asked questions over on the Whirli website. To get 20% off your subscriptions, use the code NEW20

*We were given complimentary tokens for Whirli in exchange for our honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own*