I’ve been hosting clothes swaps at my house for several years (definitely more than a decade), two or three times a year. Clothes Swap parties are a great excuse for a catch up with my favourite people, where I also get the great pleasure of seeing them enjoy the clothes I no longer enjoy. AND I get exciting new stuff to wear! I don’t always end up wearing the things I pick up at swaps, but luckily, I can just put it back in the next swap! Some of the items that turn up after several years are things I gave away and now they seem all fresh and wonderful again. It’s almost like having a rotating collective wardrobe. Along with a chance to play dress ups with friends.

I am lucky to have a great group of friends. We have all changed sizes and lifestyles and had kids and swapped maternity clothes and baby clothes and round and round it goes. Now our teens are also participating in the swaps. New friends have joined the swaps over the years (after all, we need new injections of fresh clothes and styles every now and then 🙂

Over the years I’ve built a kind of kit for the swaps. There are two giant boxes of coat hangers in the attic, along with three clothes rails. I also printed out some category signs a few years ago – coats, dresses, that kind of thing – the I hang on pants clothes hangers so everyone knows where to put their stuff when they arrive. I think I’ve probably spend maybe $80 on this stuff and it gets used for lots of different things. Most of the hangers have been contributed by people who attend and so was one of the rails. I have definitely gotten (and given) literally thousands of dollars worth of clothes so it doesn’t seem like much of a burden. In fact, that is the first time I have ever really thought about it in monetary terms. Because it is just not about that.

Once the value is placed on the USE – not the COST – of the clothes, everything changes. Its free. There is no cost to you to own it, except the space it takes up. So you are suddenly free to be both less and more choosy. I think that is how the circular economy works. You take out the scarcity and the competition elements, because the stuff is just going around and around. What’s left? Just how it feels and how you feel in it and how useful it is. Clothes swaps are basically a revolutionary act against capitalism.

So whether you want to commit a revolutionary act, have a catch up with friends, make room in your cupboard, motivate yourself to have a sort out or just get free stuff, there is no way to lose with a clothes swap. I am genuinely mystified why there are more of them going on out there amongst all the posses and group chats.

As luck would have it, I had the opportunity to discuss this very thing with a clever person at my local council, and this guide “How to host a clothes swap with friends” was born. My hope is that it is the little seed that causes a swap to germinate and then THAT swap inspires another swap, until we make dent in the absolute BIN FIRE that is the fast fashion industry. Because what is better than cheap clothes? The answer is human connection and it’s free. *mic drop*