This is a review of the Hetty Cleaning Trolley I bought for my daughter a few months back. She had become obsessed with my sweeping brush in the kitchen so I thought I would buy her own mini version!

Description
The Hetty Cleaning Trolley is a mini version of what you see ladies using in shopping centres to clean large areas. In the toy kit you get the body of the trolley which comes on wheels but you can rest it in a standing position. You also get a long handled sweeping brush, dustpan and brush, little bottle of (pretend) cleaning solution and a fake mop. Each item has a rest or hook to hang off so it all stores away nice and tidy.

Construction
As the set comes flat packed, there is a little construction of the parts to get it working but it only took me around 10 minutes to complete. I left the sticker application for now for reasons listed in the next paragraph.

Age and suitability
As with a lot of toys, it states that the cleaning trolley is suitable for ages 3+ which we are not! But I examined the toy carefully and make sure she is supervised when playing with so we are safe. The things that can go wrong are the lid on the cleaning solution comes off so you can squeeze the bottle (which is empty) so I removed this lid and the length of the sticks on the brush and mop can come off if tugged hard so I suppose there is danger of a poke in the eye but it's more likely to be me on the receiving end of that. A paper bag is also provided to hang off the trolley and I have not added that on as it would get shredded immediately by our destructive child. I also did not apply the stickers which come separately as I thought I would save them until she is older as she likes picking off any stickers at the moment so they wouldn't last five minutes.

Price and availability
I bought our Hetty from Argos for £14.99 which I thought was a reasonable price. It is all plastic and quite hardwearing. I was lucky to win a decent amount of Argos Vouchers at Christmas and used most of them to buy gifts and toys including this set.

In use
My daughter plays with this every day and I do find the little dustpan and brush great for sweeping crumbs from her playpen (toast for breakfast provides plenty of work!). She enjoys pretending to sweep and mop our carpet and always heads straight for the trolley when we play with her toys. Storage wise, it's not too bad when everything is tidied away and hanging from the trolley as it is quite compact and everything has a place.

My thoughts
This toy is ridiculously pink and obviously aimed at little girls. Every item on this trolley gets played with and we often have to retrieve all the pieces from around the house where they have been carried. I think for the price paid this was a good value for money toy and one we have had lots of mileage out of so far. I am not sure if it could be used to teach proper tidying up as the items are all toys and apart from the brushes don't really work - but perhaps I am expecting a bit too much there!

Final word
If you have a toddler who enjoys copying mummy then this is the ideal toy for them. Obviously the pink is a bit loud so this is not going to fit in with lovers of traditional and wooden toys but the proof of the toy is in the playing and my daughter loves this one. Supervision is advised whilst playing as there are a few things that could happen which I have attempted to list above.