The silly thing is that there are probably 2,900 people who would have loved one of those 3,000 garments. CLOTHES SWAPS ARE SUPER EASY TO ORGANISE, THE WHOLE FAMILY CAN GET INVOLVED AND ALLOW YOU TO GET RID OF THE CLOTHES THAT YOU NO LONGER WEAR BUT ARE STILL IN GOOD CONDITION AND GET SOME NEW ONES AT THE SAME TIME. The easiest way to do it is to ask a few of your closest friends to come to your clothes swap party. Or, better yet, do it in the school holidays, head for the beach with your mates and families and get your kids involved too. Ask each of your friends to each bring 10 of their unwanted but still wearable clothes.Gather all the clothes together on a table at your house or hang in a clump of trees at the beach of in a park. Swap parties are only limited by your imagination. There is nothing quite like scoring something you really love from a friend, especially when you have been coveting it for awhile! If your friends are not similar size, you can also easily add in toys, accessories and make up!School uniform swaps are another great idea for a swap party. Kids constantly grow out of their clothes. Uniforms are expensive and don't need to always be new. Same year parents spend so much time getting together for coffees and getting to know each other - why not suggest that you turn one of the get to know you coffee mornings into a swap party each term. There is no reason why you couldn't bring your uniforms along to the coffee shop.Encourage your children (and yourself) to define their own fashion and ditch being a victim to fast fashion. It's more fun, creative and way more stylish.Pic: Lilli Noonan | Lilli N
By giving your clothes to someone you know, you can be sure the clothes are going to a good home, are going to be worn and you don’t have to feel bad about giving it up. Better still, by involving your kids in a swap, the stigma of secondhand clothes becomes more about sharing and less about someone else's cast offs. Fashion consumes incredible amounts of the earth's resources. Much of it for no reason. Giving your clothes a second life helps reduce our global waste, saves you a heap of money and shows off your creative style.
If you have clothes that are both unwanted and unwearable, repurpose them. Cut off the buttons, buckles and straps to use elsewhere and cut the fabric into material strips to be turned into rags. You could, perhaps, use them as part of your home cleaning regime. Repurposing brings new life and new uses into an old object and even a humble cleaning rag is a useful life. There are also many many facebook groups where you can give away or sell unwanted clothes.