Inside Toybrary Austin, a toy-lending library in North Austin, there is a cacophony of children’s laughter as owner Liza Wilson encourages a young boy climbing onto a rocking horse.


“You can do it!” Wilson repeats as a girl wearing three tutus moves around the room that houses more than 1,200 neatly arranged toys.


After 20 years working in education Wilson founded Toybrary Austin in 2013. Children between 6 months and 5 years old can check out toys as they would books at a library.


Members pay a monthly fee, and non-members pay a daily flat rate. 


“It’s completely different than going to a toy store where the child spends their time crying and begging to take something home, and the parent says no,” Wilson said. “Here it’s an automatic yes.”


Drawing on her experience working in public schools, Montessori schools and the French education system, Wilson prioritizes wooden toys over those that require batteries or light up.


“I like simple, old-fashioned things that encourage a child to do the work,” such as a wooden elephant, she said.


“They have to make the elephant sounds themselves, and that’s where they learn to be creative, instead of sitting and watching passively.”


Sustainability is a core value of toy-lending libraries, including at Toybrary Austin.


Wilson uses washcloths instead of paper towels and sanitizes toys with water and lavender essential oil.


“The whole concept of the toy library is zero-waste,” Wilson said. “Everything is reused.”


Although she encourages children to find creative ways to play with toys, Wilson also watches for when a child has aged out of a particular object.


“If the kids aren’t playing with it anymore, it’s time for [the toy] to go,” she said. “They learned whatever it was teaching, and it doesn’t stimulate them anymore.”


At Toybrary Austin such toys continue to be well loved by other children.


This type of flexibility is important to Wilson, who also provides child care and hosts events such as birthday parties and gardening classes.


“I feel very free,” Wilson said of running her own business. “If I want to have a unicorn party I don’t have to ask anybody else.”