A toy a day keeps the doctor away

On Thursday and Sunday mornings between 9.30am and 11.30am, the Brisbane South Toy Library at Richlands Community Centre opens its doors to families.
Around 2500 toys are available for children aged six months to 12 years to play with or borrow, each one carefully bagged or boxed by one of the library’s 50 volunteers.
A label on each box or bag lets parents and children know the toy’s recommended minimum age, the items included in the set, and whether the toy requires batteries.
Brisbane South Toy Library, which opened in 2019, is one of only 6 toy libraries in Brisbane, and 25 across Queensland.
All toy libraries have an independent volunteer-run board, but are all connected to a central body called Toy Libraries Australia.
Robyn Davis has been volunteering for the Toy Library for close to four years and submits funding grants for the library to receive the resources it needs to run and grow.
The library is a not-for-profit organisation and relies on funding grants from local and state governments as well as community donors like Heritage Bank Forest Lake One Community.
The annual fee to join the toy library is $160, a price at which members can borrow up to six toys at a time and keep them for two to four weeks, returning and reborrowing as many times as they’d like.
The library is divided into sections like a book library, with fiction or non-fiction. Instead, the toy library is divided into sections that include dollhouses, shop counters, transport, puzzles, percussion instruments, and dress-up costumes.
Children can play with any toy they like in the library or choose up to six at a time to take home on loan.
“We have a little play corner, some children come just to play, other children can choose their own toys to take home,” Ms Davis said.
“Children can touch any toy they like, and they can sit on the floor and have a look at a toy or test them all.”
The library’s click and collect system also allows families needing a quick getaway to pick up toys they have preselected online earlier and take them home.
Ms Davis said library volunteers tried to make the toys and their sets as interactive and engaging as possible.
“All our character sets like a Paw Patrol toy, for example, you would probably only buy one car and one character, but we include a lot more [at the library] so that it’s more imaginative and it’s more sustained play,” Ms Davis said.
“We’ve got more characters and more variety of pieces that children can play with.”
Lost or broken toys do not incur any extra fees, Ms Davis said.
Toys donated to the library by the community are used as spares for when toys or pieces get lost or damaged.
“There’s no stress on families and there’s no extra expense just because they’ve lost a piece,” Ms Davis said.
“They’re just toys, we don’t get stressed about that, as long as they tell us we appreciate them telling us so that we can fix the problem, so our volunteers can go and find a replacement.”
Borrowing from the library’s comprehensive toy selection can help families to be most cost-effective and environmentally conscious, particularly when it comes to toys that are large in size.
‘Cozy Coop’ cars, basketball hoops, and water park sets are all available to borrow, but are toys Ms Davis said families were always happy to return to reduce clutter in their own homes.
“We don’t want families to buy these toys; we want them to borrow them for a couple of weeks, bring them back, and swap them over,” she said
“Then there’s less clutter at home and fewer expenses on the family because really we’d like them to save money for activities, like the zoo or the beach.”
Ms Davis said the library tried to support small business toy sellers who produce high-quality toys.
Some favourites among the children are toys that aim to develop early fine motor skills, like lock boxes and puzzles. The library’s sound section, which has bells and animal shakers, gives children the opportunity to hear and have different musical experiences.
“The type of toy we buy is good quality and simple toys,” Ms Davis said.
There are no fluffy toys available to borrow in the library; the only ‘soft toys’ on the books are dress-up costumes and finger puppets.
A party section has a roller coaster, bubble machines, and a giant Tetris kit (a recent addition to the section), which families can hire for a week for an extra $10 to $20 on top of the annual fee.
All of the toys in the party section are designed for whole families to enjoy, even the adults, and often cost the library several hundred dollars, Ms Davis said.
In early November, the toy library began its annual stock take, where volunteers look through every box and bag to check that each toy set is complete, safe, and is in good condition.
The process takes volunteers about six months.
“Because the toys are in homes being played with, so what you see here is 1000 toys, but there’s another 1000 that aren’t here, they’re in homes being played with,” Ms Davis said.
“Which is what we want, we don’t want them here, we want them out in homes to be played with.”