This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of the toy rental service Pley.com toy rental. All opinions are 100% my own.
I am one of those moms who tries desperately to make sure my home does not resemble a preschool. The fact that I have 2-year-old boy/girl twins makes this quite the challenge. So when Pley.com offered me the chance to review its toy rental service, I jumped at the chance. Pley bills itself as a toy lending library. Just choose the toy you are interested in and the clean, sanitized toy is delivered to your mailbox. When you return it, they send you the next toy on your “pley list.” Just like Netflix DVDs back in the old days!
I liked the idea of being able to choose a new toy once my toddlers grew tired of the old one. And I really loved the idea of having less clutter in my home. The toy rental service costs $12.99/month for one toy credit, or you can purchase three toy credits for $29.99/month.
More about Pley.com Toy Rental
The site has a large variety of toys. Most of the toys promote creativity and imaginative play. There weren’t a lot of toys that make noise. That is a huge plus in my book! I have an aversion to toys that shout out colors, shapes, and letters (in English and Spanish). It makes my living room sound like a Las Vegas casino. I also appreciate that for every new sign up for Pley.com toy rental, the company donates a toy to a child in need.
With all of this in mind, I created an account and chose our first toy. At first, I found it a bit hard to filter through all of the options. I am hardly a tech expert, but I am certainly (overly) familiar with online shopping. The site automatically adds some toys to your “pley” list based on the data you give them. None of these really hit on what I was looking for.
My kids are in the middle of a big building stage, so the Duplo block option intrigued me. I wondered if they were ready to try to follow directions (with my help, of course) and build with a specific goal in mind.
We chose the Duplo My First Supermarket as our first Pley.com toy rental and waited for it to arrive in the mail.
The Duplo set arrived on schedule about a week later. My children were eager to play with all of the pieces but had no interest in following the plan to build the actual supermarket. They did, however, enjoy pretend grocery shopping once I built it. They used it for an afternoon, but by the next day it had been forgotten. Glad it was a rental! I tried to engage them a few more times, then packed up the pieces and sent it back in the prepaid envelope provided.
So… is Pley.com Worth It?
Honestly, I will not continue to use this service at this stage in my children’s lives. It was a bit pricey. I paid about half of the regular price for my “rental” fee and the options for the preschool set were few. I also worried that we would lose one of the many pieces in the set. Pley would be a much better fit if you have an older child who loves to build things (think big Lego sets) but is ready to move on to the next project once he or she is done. It also might be useful to grandparents or other caregivers who have children visiting whose tastes and interests change between visits.
Overall, I like the concept and I think Pley.com toy rental might be worth looking into in the future. For now, we will continue to rely on a local swap site for good deals on new-to-us toys.
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Category: Featured
Tags: Karyn
