Founded by Dominique Bissot, who also founded Kidsagenda.lu and works in finance by day, Kids Box officially kicked off on 15 January, launching mainly through social media.

Each box, delivered on the 1st and 15th of each month, contains three toys, and subscribers decide whether to have boxes sent to them for one, three, six or twelve months.

Customers select the child’s age range (0-24 months, 2-4 years, or 4-6 years) as well as the box theme--princess, animals, food- or Carnaval-related, and so on. Bissot plans on having additional themes around Easter, summer, Halloween and Christmas as well. 

The majority of the toys are made out of wood, and Bissot makes efforts to source as locally as possible, with many of the toys coming from France, some from Spain and Sweden. 

“I pay attention to designers with small production, since they cannot approach a shop in Luxembourg or Paris, for example, since they have small stocks,” Bissot says. 

Of course, Bissot had elements of the circular economy in mind when coming up with the subscription boxes. But her now 8-year-old son also played a key role. 

“[My son] has a lot of toys and, of course, like every child wants this and that, the latest ones,” she says. But, she adds, he does not much time to play with the toys he has, particularly given that he’s involved in a number of extracurricular activities. 

This was the catalyst, the realisation that there was a need out there. So, just as she created Kidsagenda.lu when her son was merely a tot, based on her own desire to have a unique platform for all kids’ events listings, she did the same for Kids Box. 

“I want to educate people that it’s better to rent and use than to buy and throw away,” she says. “On top of that, there’s the environmental side, it’s zero-waste, and a lot of people are aware of these problems.”

And what happens to the toys after they are returned? 

Bissot says the toys are cleaned and will be sent to another household the following month, unless the toy is in a condition it can no longer be used. At a later stage, when she has collected toys that can no longer be rented, Bissot wants to either organize a pop-up store to sell them as second-hand, giving all proceeds to a children’s association, or to donate them to an orphanage.

For now, the subscription box is only deliverable in Luxembourg, France and Belgium, but Bissot hopes one day to expand the service Europe-wide. Her next step will be getting the website up and running in English.