When I was a little girl, once or twice a year we’d get a big box of clothes in the mail from friends of my parents who had daughters slightly older than my sister and I.
My parents would be thrilled, thinking of all the money they’d saved on kids’ clothes. I was less enthusiastic until my parents made me responsible for my own clothing budget, and suddenly I even liked hand-me-ups from my younger, taller sister.
A clothing exchange is an excellent way for parents to get rid of clothes their children have grown and swap them for clothes their friends’ children no longer wear.
The week before school starts is a great time to go through your kids’ closets (extra points if you do yours, too) and pull out all the clothes they don’t wear.
You could consider organizing a swap among parents at your children’s school, people at your church or your co-workers. Your 2-year-old won’t care if she’s wearing the darling dress your friend’s daughter wore last year, but your 12-year-old might not want to wear a larger friend’s rejected clothes to the same school her friend wore them to last year. On the other hand, she may love the rejected clothes from your co-worker’s daughter at a school 20 miles away. If you’re swapping uniforms, no one will ever know where they originated.
Before you invite the participants, set the rules. Require that clothing be in a wearable condition. Decide if people will swap one to one, or if you’ll all informally pick through the clothes and decide what you want. Or, maybe you want to take turns each picking one item. Also decide whether the leftover clothes will go back home with the donors or to a charity.
If you don’t want to organize a swap, you can look on Craigslist.org for parents who have clothes to swap (I found a few). The Herald’s Moms Miami site has a swap section for clothes and other items. ThredUP.com is a national children’s clothing swap site. You pay the shipping costs to receive a box of clothes, and the recipient of your child’s rejected clothing pays for it to be shipped.
Of course, you don’t have to have children to organize a clothing exchange. It’s also an economical way for adults to trade clothing they don’t wear for items they like better.
