We can’t believe that it already has been six years since we first started our adventure as Forget Me Not.
So just how did it start?
Forget Me Not started with a friendship between two Dutch mommies who met in Dubai, and both realized they wanted to use their previous work experience in a new entrepreneurial way. So, after many playdates and coffee mornings the idea of creating a web shop emerged. We started to dream about the ease of buying something useful with one-click, no more trudging the malls or searching for that hidden Karama shop with little ones in tow. Oohhh the bliss of doing it all from home. But now we had the challenge of deciding what could we sell that we were passionate about? And then it hit us…….. NAME LABELS. Both our little ones were starting nursery and we needed to label all their belonging, but we just could not find decent ones in Dubai.
Because if truth be told which child has not misplaced, for the umpteenth time, something you have so lovingly bought? And how come it cannot be found amongst all those other items dumped in the corner of lost and found. It doesn’t matter how many times you look, or how well a school or nursery’s lost and found area is organised, if you haven’t labelled it you don’t have much of a chance tracking it down.
Talking to many other mommies with babies, toddlers and primary students, we heard many stories about what the labels they had bought were not doing. Some labels just don’t cut the mustard, peeling off after the second or third wash. And whilst some parents have no problem picking up a needle and thread and diligently sewing labels into clothes, you just can’t label water bottles and lunch boxes that way. It was these stories that started us thinking of how we could minimize the losses. We figured that if we wanted durable fun labels for our children’s school items, other mums would too.
So that’s how it all started! :-)
We launched our website www.forgetmenotdubai.com in September 2012. We were off to a great start in the back to school period of 2012. And it got us thinking some more…. whilst labels are fun………think pink mermaid magic and silver fairies or red pirates and knights………we soon realised that what we wanted to stick our own labels on, we just couldn’t easily find in Dubai.
Then we remembered the lovely brand Mepal, which both of us grew up with and happily used throughout our nursery and primary schooldays. And guess what? They still make these amazing colourful lunchboxes and water bottles. Now we know it is cheaper to buy a plastic bottle of water or use throw away sandwich bags but we became tired of seeing the bins piled high with rubbish. We come from a country where reusing is more the norm, as is re-cycling, and wanted to continue to do our bit for the planet. At the same time we wanted water bottles and lunch boxes that are easy to clean, versatile, BPA free, funky but most importantly……. that we could personalise. Yippee!
It became clear that we wanted to share this brilliant brand with the UAE and that’s how we became their distributor.
So what is next for Forget Me Not?
After that small step was made, we started to dream about all those amazing products we could bring to the UAE. And now the hunt is on to find other brands that share our philosophy. The philosophy that quality, design and great functionality are married together, leaving a minimum footprint on the planet. 
Stay tuned for our next blog………