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Table of Contents
Why This Recipe Matters
Ingredients
Recipe
Nutritional Information
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Recipes for Action
How to Stage a Clothing Swap
short termit's a groupmodest budget

How to Stage a Clothing Swap

A room full of people sort through piles and racks of clothes.
Image credit: Stitched Up Team, Stitched Up Coop Clothes Swap

A clothing swap is a fun way to reduce clothing waste by exchanging used items with friends.

Why this recipe matters

People in the United States throw out more than 34 billion pounds of used textiles every year. Once discarded, 66% of used clothing items are sent to landfills to decompose.

Ingredients

  • Clothing swap invitation template
  • Used clothing items in good condition (clean, without stains or rips)
  • A list of guidelines for guests to follow
  • A room with space to spread out (people and clothing) 
  • Makeshift dressing room, such as a room partition or shower curtain draped over a rolling clothing rack
  • Full-length mirror(s)
  • Bin for donating any clothing that remains after the event
  • Photo release 

Recipe

1. Pick a date, time, and location.

  • Ask your local community center or church if they have a space you can borrow to host the clothing swap. If you’re planning on a smaller get-together with friends, a living room or garage will work.
  • Plan for the clothing swap to last anywhere from two to four hours, depending on the number of people attending.

2. Draft a few helpful guidelines.

3. Invite friends or neighbors to clean out their closets.

4. Host the clothing swap.

  • Set up full-length mirrors and a dressing area for guests to try on clothes. After everyone has a chance to try on different items, ask guests to pick one item at a time so everyone gets a chance to take home something they love. Then repeat with guests selecting 2-3 items at a time.
  • If your guests are comfortable with it (and complete the photo release included in the ingredients), be sure to take and share photos of the clothing swap on social using #Idealist so we can celebrate with you.

5. Donate leftover items.

  • Neatly fold leftover items and place them in the donation bin.
  • Call local nonprofit organizations, hospitals, or shelters to find out if they accept used clothing before donating leftover items.

Nutritional Information

How this recipe has nurtured a community

“I did this swap with 20 women and it was a lot of fun! Everyone went home with a bag of clothes and had an afternoon of fun (and food) together. Now everyone is asking me, ‘When are we going to do that again?’”

— Kimberly G., 

Finishing Touch

To make your clothing swap even more fun for participants, try setting up a simple game. Ask each person to write down a theme idea (like disco cowboy or old Hollywood) on a scrap of paper and place the paper in a hat. Participants can draw themes out of the hat and build an entire outfit inspired by that theme. After an informal voting session, the winner gets to choose the first item to take home with them from the clothing swap.