The Toy Nest: Falls Church's Premier Toy Library, & Community-Based Business
As a joy for kids, parents and caregivers, few businesses in the City of Falls Church can match The Toy Nest – a membership-based “toy library, pre-loved toy store, indoor play space, and private event venue” – at 125 N. Washington Street.
With all the community-minded service the company of nine part-time employees and one full-time owner carries out – as well as the staff’s truly giving spirit – however, it’s hard to imagine it’s a for-profit enterprise.
Turns out, extraordinary business acumen, combined with hard-earned parental experience, helped lay the foundations of this cornerstone of healthy child-rearing and sustainable practices in The Little City.
For this story, The Falls Church Independent interviewed The Toy Nest’s founder and owner, Lisa Bourven.
We chatted in the toy lending-library’s bright spaces, amidst wooden shelves lined with vibrantly-colored, sterilized, high-quality toys, a bounty of kids’ educational items, and friendly group activity areas, while Bourven finished assembling bags of Halloween candy buy-back donations to be gifted to the Operations Department of the Falls Church City Department of Public Works. She joked about having to cajole her own two kids, 10 and 13, into giving up some of their Halloween loot for the cause.
We wanted to know what inspired Bourven to launch this particular business project, founded in 2020, and what have been the keys to The Toy Nest’s successes thus far.
A Texas Trip with the Kids
“So, I was with my kids one summer,” Bourven recounted. “I took them to my parents’ house for a couple of weeks – in the Texas heat – outside of Houston. And we needed things to play with for two weeks, because it was very hot, my parents don’t have a pool, and they don’t live very close to anything very exciting [Laughs]. So, we ended up going to Goodwill and we bought a few things. But, we brought them back to the house and they just didn’t work. We just needed bikes and some things to ride on and some toys that were loud, like trucks. [My parents] saved my toys from childhood, but none of those kinds of things – I never had trucks.”
“We didn’t want to buy a whole lot of things,” Bourven continued. So, after that trip, I got back with the kids – I was a stay-at-home mom at that time and I had been for over eight years – and it just dawned on me, with complaints, like, ‘There’s nothing to do!” and “We don’t have anything to play with!” – even though the house was full of stuff. But, it was full of stuff they were bored with. So, we’d go to other kids’ houses, and they would always want to play with everybody else’s toys.”
“And I just [wondered] ‘How many gifts have I bought for them that they were interested in for, like, two days?’ And then [the toys] just go in a pile and they sit there for years [Laughs]. So, all these things sort of came to me at once and I thought, ‘We could solve a lot of problems at once, if we borrowed toys instead of buying them.’”
An Idea from the New Deal – and a Captivating Vision
“So, I got online and didn’t know what to call the idea, and thought, ‘It’s kind of crazy – nobody’s going to go for this,’ and I just googled ‘Toy Library.’ And I learned that there is an association of toy libraries in America and internationally as well, and that they have a long history in the U.S. going back to the FDR administration to serve disadvantaged kids,” she said. ”[It was in] the Works Progress Administration (WPA). So, you can go online and find pictures of old toy libraries in the 1930s.”
Now Bourven had a clear vision to guide her venture.
“A vision popped into my head,” she recounts on the company’s website. “Of a place where kids could play and explore to their hearts' content. Where they could discover passions and skills they never knew they had. Where they could take home whatever they wanted and bring it back when they were done. And maybe even buy what they really loved. Of a calming refuge where parents could reconnect with their kids without distractions. Where they could come together with friends and even meet some new ones. And all for an affordable cost. Without adding to their own clutter or to the clutter in our landfills.”
Crafting a Successful Business Model
Though there are scattered non-profit toy libraries around the United States today, they’re usually open only for a few hours a week. So, Bourven began to explore a membership-based business model to match revenues and expenses and stay open longer. “They were publicly funded,” she recalled, “And, I think the ones that exist in the U.S. today [are as well] .... [They] were mainly nonprofit, volunteer-run, with very limited hours – like six hours per week. So, I thought, if we could charge more than a free membership, we could make it self-sustaining and be open 40 hours per-week.”
So, today, The Toy Nest offers a two-tiered monthly membership option, at just the right price-points to sustain and grow the toy library.
“Our memberships start at $30 a-month and it covers the whole family,” Bourven said. “And they go up to $45 a-month. They allow folks to borrow toys and swap out as many times as they want. And we have two tiers of membership. So, everything is on a point-scale here. All of our toys are valued from 1-to-5 points. We only have one 5-point item. Most things are 1-4 points.”
The one 5-point item is a Superspace, and “it’s a giant magnatile set that’s the size of kids and they can make big structures and basketball hoops and all kinds of fun stuff,” Bourven said. Superspace retails for $400, so it’s pricey and sought-after, hence the higher point-value. Fortunately, a second Superspace set has now been added to the collection to meet the high demand, since they’re booked out until February, 2025.
“So, our members can borrow toys and swap as much as they want at the two tiers, either 5 or 10 points of toys at a time. And they can come and play. They get one reserve play visit with their family each week,” she continued. “Families can, with their memberships, borrow and swap toys as much as they want.... And, they get unlimited drop-in visits when we have the space – We do take reservations to play, but you don’t have to have one. If we have space, you can walk right in and play.”
Another cost-saver is that while The Toy Nest always has helpful staff on hand, a parent or caregiver must accompany their kid(s) as they play. Because they want to keep the toys and materials as clean and in good condition as possible, and many kids have allergies, snacks and beverages are not served. “We sanitize the toys a lot,” Bourven said.
The Toy Nest’s messaging is not only educationally wholesome, but the target demographic is diverse and the emphasis is on affordability for the family, and frugality.
“We’re reimagining the way we use and buy toys,” the company website declares. “Welcome to The Toy Nest. Let’s Feed Discovery. We see a future where kids borrow toys just like books at a library. Where families try before they buy and only keep their very favorites. Where kids of all income levels have access to the best play opportunities. And where we feed discovery, not waste.”
A major key to the success of the business model is also rotating the stock of toys – far beyond what’s on the shelves – that can be reserved and checked-out online. “And the big bonus of membership is our members can reserve the toys,” Bourven said. “Everything here is in an online catalog. So, this is about 60 percent of the whole collection.”
“It’s like the Library of Congress!,” I teased. “Right!,” she laughed. “Exactly. It’s out there in people’s houses, always rotating in and out. And I always tell people, ‘What you see today is what you see today, and next visit is going to be really different.’”
Asked about the number of employees who work for The Toy Nest, Bourven answered, “We have nine employees and one contractor who works out of her home… They’re part time. Plus me. But, yes, it’s a bustling business. Our contractor does data entry on her own time and own schedule and she’s working on adding things to our catalog.”
High Marks on Google
On Google, The Toy Nest garners the highest marks from customers, with an average 4.9 out of 5.0 rating.
One customer gushed: “First time visiting & we will be back ! We took our 16 mo daughter here, we purchased 2 sessions because it was the 3 of us. But definitely still affordable for an hour of play time. They have an amazing variety of toys and a little play area that was perfect for her age group. From this venture, we were able to learn that my daughter loves playing with toy trucks! That will definitely help us with future toy purchases. We finished the play date with amazing food at the nearby restaurant and ice cream. Such an amazing concept, I look forward to returning!”
Pandemic Resilience Also Key
As I expressed dismay that a toy-lending business could possibly be so successful in its bottom line, Bourven recalled that she has had to weather bad storms – especially during the Covid pandemic.
“When we opened, it was back in 2020, actually, it was terrible, I’ll be honest,” she recalled. “I signed the lease in November of 2019 and I hired a contractor, I had to get permits from the City. I was across the street, actually, in the building where the Whole Foods is going in now [at Broad & Washington]. And I knew it was going to be a short-term lease. It was basically a pop-up situation to test the concept. And it took me five months from the lease signing to open up the business. And we know what happened. It was terrible. March 30 was actually the date that I opened and later that day the lockdown was announced in Virginia."
So, how did Bourven manage to navigate the rough seas? Not only did she deliver toys in her own car to families’ homes “for two and a-half months,” but her enterprise’s nimble web services adapted to the need for social distancing.
“You must have had a good web page?,” I asked. “I did,” Bourven said. “I had a website that directed people to – It was funny, it was never my intention to have toys be reserved, or have appointments be reserved… But… with the flip of the switch... I began to allow people to reserve toys and pick them up and go take them to their houses. And we continued the reservations, but now they just pick up.”
As we spoke, a knock at the toy library door interrupted briefly. A customer who had called in advance because she was sick had arrived for a toy pickup. “It’s like a drive-through window,” I observed. “Right! And you don’t have to get your kids out of the car. You can come and pick up the toys without the drama involved, of the kids wanting to stay for an hour when they want to play with all the things [Laughs]. You’re a dad, you get it!”
The Perfect Skill Set
By now, I could tell Bourven was no dabbler. She clearly had the business skills and acumen to turn her original idea of a toy-lending library into a “bustling business.” So, where did she learn what was needed to succeed in this seemingly long-shot enterprise?
Believe it or not, it all started with learning French, traveling to France, and plunging into the aged-cheese business.
“So, I have an undergrad degree in French and got a scholarship to go to business school for graduate school and ended up doing that,” Bourven said. “And from there I interned with a small business in France and I went to grad school in France. It was a cheese business that aged [the cheeses]. It’s an affineur, if you know the word – a concept that doesn’t really exist in the United States.”
“They had caves underneath the shop in downtown Toulouse where they would age the cheese,” she recalled. “And they sold hundreds of varieties. It was fascinating. And, so, I was working on the export [side]. They were trying to [sell] into the export market into the U.S. and I had to navigate the legalities of that, with shipments, and they were trying to launch it all online.”
“So, I think I caught the small business bug there. Because I had worked at big companies before, as an intern in college, and in summer jobs, and I just loved being in a small business, because you have so much impact with your work and see everything, and know the community,” she continued.
“So, after that, I worked for a locally-owned food retail company in Washington, D.C. and I did sales analytics and ended up doing operations management for them and overseeing whole stores. It was Marvelous Market,” Bourven said. “And they were acquired, back, I think, in 2008, and I did purchasing for them as well and had been in their management. So, it felt like a small business to me.”
Invaluable Parental Experience
“After [Marvelous Market was] acquired, I stayed on for a year after the acquisition and started my own family. So I was a stay-at-home mom for almost nine years. With my two kids.”
“Now that’s super-relevant experience!,” I encouraged. “Oh, my gosh! That was the hardest job of all!," she laughed. "It was exhausting and you don’t get bonuses, you don’t get performance reviews, you don’t get any of that as a stay-at-home mom.”
“Well, maybe informal performance reviews from your kids, right?,’ I joked. “Right! And you find out how you did 18 years later from your kids!,” she laughed.
As a member of Mothers of Preschoolers and a parent at Dulin Cooperative Preschool in Falls Church, Bourven also learned key lessons about how educational toys and experimental play could be incorporated into school curricula. “I was a stay-at-home mom and I stayed busy. And our kids were in a coop preschool up the road, Dulin Cooperative,” Bourven recalled. “And I love that model, because the parents were in the classroom and we were the helpers with the teachers. The only paid staff there were the teachers. So, the parents there were the teachers’ aides, essentially, and we got to see how our kids played, we got to see who their friends were, the types of toys they’re interested in, and all the techniques teachers use to engage kids and teach.”
The Importance of Play-Based Learning
“And that’s where I really became convinced of the benefits of play-based learning. And I was involved with the pre-school moms’ group called Mothers of Preschoolers. And I got to hear lots of moms and hear the complaints and see first-hand the issues they were having with keeping track of toys in their houses. So, I think all of those experiences kind of led me to all this,” she said.
The Joys of the Work
Asked about how running The Toy Nest makes her feel, Bourven showed a well of emotion. “Oh, my gosh. There’s just no replacement for doing work that meets a need in the community and that helps our planet… We’re re-using toys that might otherwise be in a landfill and families would be buying brand new plastic things. And we all know how much plastic is used for the toy industry. There’s actually a graphic on our social media that shows how plastic-intensive the toy industry is and it’s sickening. You can check it out and see…. I mean, we carry them and they’re ‘pre-loved,’ and we keep them in circulation, but...”
“But, [working here] is great. We always say, if we’re having a tough day, it’s nice to come here because it turns our mood around. And being able to talk to our guests and our members and knowing that what we’re doing makes a difference in their lives is why we do this,” Bourven said. “So, it feels like family here. We feel like it for our team and our members too.”
Looking Ahead to More Services for the Community
Looking ahead, Bourven is excited about the Gift Guide they’ll be offering for the holidays. Instead of just more pricey plastic toys, however, this guide will have therapeutic value to parents, caregivers and kids. “We’re working with a therapy practice” on the Gift Guide, Bourven said. “So, they’ll be coming to share with us those things we’ll be featuring.”
Bourven is also excited that The Toy Nest has expanded its therapeutic and educational programming so much recently. They’re now able to offer many new free classes for members and the public. “We’re finally in a place where we can add a lot of classes, because the pandemic is behind us,” she said.
She pointed behind the counter to Melissa – a retired special education, arts and therapeutic teacher in Fairfax County – and said, “Melissa teaches A Playful Storytime Class, and it helps kids learn through stories and books, but also connects them to activities and sensory play… It’s very fun. We just launched it.”
The Toy Nest also works with Good Beginnings Therapy on another class called Tummy Time for Babies. “So, it teaches parents the importance of tummy time with their babies and how to do it,” Bourven said. “And then we host a feeding support group for moms to support breast and bottle feeding with a local lactation consultant, Susan Howard. So, that’s on Thursdays. We do a lot on Thursdays. And we also work with another therapy practice called ‘FUNdamentals and Building Blocks’ and they do a Friday morning playtime. And they work with an occupational therapist… It’s for all kids and it’s designed to teach parents and caregivers how to play with their kids to foster fine motor and language development. So, we do a lot.”
They certainly do a lot for the community. “And those events I mentioned are all free to the public,” Bourven said. Non-members, however, have a small fee for the Playful Storytime Class.
“Come in and explore!,” Melissa encouraged readers of The Falls Church Independent as we closed out the interview (because the Halloween candy needed to be delivered!)
For other business profiles highlighting how unique the City of Falls Church is as a start-up marketplace, see below:
Christopher Jones
Christopher Jones
Christopher Jones
Christopher Jones
Christopher Jones
Christopher Jones
By Christopher Jones
Member discussion