how ertjie started
Hi, I’m Sharné. I’m a mom who is passionate about early learning through play and protecting the environment. Ertjie has allowed me to combine my passions.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated with how children learn through play. Over a decade ago when I was an Interior Design student, for my final project, I did my thesis on the importance of how children learn through play, and I designed an indoor play space to encourage learning. It was around this time that I started making small changes to my lifestyle to be eco-friendly. I am deeply passionate about caring for the environment and love that my actions not only benefit the environment, it also benefits animals and humans.
For years I have wanted to start a green business that had a bigger positive impact on the environment than my personal actions did. It wasn’t until 2021, when I became a mother, that I had the idea to start this business.
When I was pregnant I stumbled upon Montessori, which is a form of education that encourages independent learning and learning through nature. What originally drew me to Montessori was that children from birth use beautifully made simple wooden toys, with a single purpose that is designed to allow them to learn important developmental skills on their own, with only guidance when needed. I fell in love with the idea and started buying wooden toys for my little one. To reduce waste, I bought mostly second-hand toys, many of which were Montessori inspired.
As soon as my little one was born I saw firsthand just how quickly he outgrew the toys I had spent so much time sourcing and had spent so much money on. Every month I was sourcing and buying more wooden toys and already had a cupboard full of toys. That made me wonder how many other families had a similar situation. And I wondered what would happen to all the toys once they are no longer used. I discovered that globally every year, billions of US dollars are spent on toys, most of which are made of plastic, and most of which end up as waste.
In this age of overconsumption, I had the idea to normalise reusing items, by creating a library where many families could rent good quality wooden toys, books, and other items! My hope is that this library will one day help reduce significant environmental waste and that it will help many children.
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