Kids grow fast– that’s just a part of growing up. But that also means that they grow out of clothes faster than your budget might prefer.
With how often we’re updating our kids’ wardrobes, it’s no wonder that the environment pays a cost. This fast turnover of clothing means that more resources are needed to manufacture and transport the clothes, and they are eventually added to our growing waste problem.
That’s why it’s important to extend the life span of our clothes so that we don’t have to buy as much new stuff and we contribute less waste.
Many of us are familiar with “hand-me-downs.” This is a way to keep clothes in use and out of the trash while saving money. But if you don’t have a large family or kids around the same age, it can be a lot harder to find secondhand clothing easily.
It’s hard enough to keep up with the constant influx of new clothes, but it can also be overwhelming when you don’t know what to do with all of the kids’ clothes that your child has grown out of but are still in good shape.
The solution: Clothing swaps
A clothing swap is an event where parents come together to swap some of the clothes, shoes, and accessories that their kids have grown out of or no longer wear (but that are still in decent shape). This way, your child can get new(ish) clothing that fits them without spending any money. You’re also able to get rid of clothing that your child doesn’t wear anymore in a way that doesn’t add to overflowing landfills or overwhelmed secondhand stores. Instead, your pre-loved items can go home with another child to get a second life.
It’s great to organize a clothing swap for kids’ clothes when the seasons change or at the beginning of the school year. We’ve put together a step-by-step guide for parents who are looking to refresh their child’s closet in a way that’s kind to your budget and the planet.
Step-By-Step Guide to Organizing a Kids Clothes Swap
Decide who to invite
- It’s important to decide on the group of parents you’re going to invite – this could be parents in your neighborhood, families you know through groups / after school activities, or parents from your child’s school. Since you’ll want clothing options in multiple sizes for your growing kids, make sure to invite parents with children of different ages within your target age range. An easy way to ensure you’ll have enough size options is to invite a few grades from your child’s school.
Recruit volunteers
- It’s much easier and more enjoyable to organize a clothing swap when you have others helping you along the way. You can ask other parents/families to volunteer in different ways. You could also offer helpful activities for kids to do at the clothing swap!
- Volunteer opportunities for parents/adults:
- Help organize the details leading up to the event
- Send out invitations to their own friends/family/community groups
- Bring snacks, drinks, or supplies (hangers, clothing racks, folding tables)
- Setup before the event
- Help at the event by organizing & folding the clothes, getting people nametags, organizing the token system, etc.
- Cleanup after the swap and help take leftover clothing to the donation site
- Volunteer activities for kids & teens:
- Hand out tokens to each family (ie. if a family brought 3 items, they get 3 tokens!)
- Create nametags
- Refold & reorganize clothing
- Pack up leftover items to take to donation
Pick the location
- When choosing a location, it’s important to make sure that there is enough space for the clothes and the families. The location should be able to fit some tables or clothing racks that people can browse.
- Oftentimes, the easiest location is your child’s school. This event would work in a library, gymnasium, or even a classroom! You can also ask a local coffee shop, library or community/rec center to use their space for your event. If you’re hosting a clothing swap with your friends and neighbors, you could host it at your house or a friend’s place. All you need is a spacious room, and the size will depend on the expected number of guests.
Choose a theme
- It’s helpful to narrow down a “theme” for your swap so that parents know what types of clothing to bring and what they can expect to find in return. An easy theme is a seasonal clothing swap– either for the current season (ie. spring) or an upcoming season (ie. summer) so that parents can find clothes that their child will be able to wear right away.
- You should be specific about what types of clothing you want families to bring– can they bring shoes, athletic uniforms, or accessories (like hats)? This can be broad (ie. any winter clothing) or narrow (ie. school uniforms) depending on the needs of your community.
Organize the details
- Will your clothing swap have a cost for entry, be donation based, or free? This just depends on your budget. You can also accept donations that will go to a nonprofit like PIRG or a local charity.
- Select a date and time.
- Will this be after school on a weekday, or would a weekend work better for your community?
- Set up a schedule for the day.
- Make sure to set aside about 30 minutes – 1 hour before and after for setup and cleanup.
- Will you allow kids to attend, or is it limited to parents?
- Sometimes parents want to make sure the new clothes will fit properly, so if kids are welcome it’s good to set up a designated try-on area like a private bathroom.
- It may be helpful to encourage families to drop off the items they want to donate ahead of time so you can organize them by size, gender, and type before the event begins. If you plan on using clothing racks, ask them to bring the clothes on hangers (which they can get back after the event).
Clarify the rules
- Is there an item limit?
- It can be helpful to set limits on the amount of items people can swap so that everyone leaves feeling like they got a fair shot at the items. For a bigger event you might cap the number of items people can exchange to 10-20, or 3-5 items for a smaller swap. It’s important that everyone brings something in order for the event to be successful!
- Having an item limit can also help people to be more mindful in what they’re choosing and avoid taking items they don’t actually want or need because they’re “free.”
- It can be helpful to set limits on the amount of items people can swap so that everyone leaves feeling like they got a fair shot at the items. For a bigger event you might cap the number of items people can exchange to 10-20, or 3-5 items for a smaller swap. It’s important that everyone brings something in order for the event to be successful!
- Create a swap system.
- Some token systems will allow each person to bring home as many items as they brought. For example, if I bring 6 items of clothing to swap, I get 6 tokens that allow me to take home up to 6 items. This can be as flexible as you’d like. If you want to try to reduce the amount of leftover items, you can reserve the last 20 minutes for people to take extra items beyond their allotted tickets.
- If families are dropping off their items before the event, you can give them their ticket at that time – or make note of how much they donated – and remind them to bring it with them to the swap.
- Another option is to just use a token system for the first 30 minutes – 1 hour to only allow people to collect a few items (ie. 3-5), which ensure that everyone is able to look through all of the options. Then you open it up for the rest of the event.
- Some token systems will allow each person to bring home as many items as they brought. For example, if I bring 6 items of clothing to swap, I get 6 tokens that allow me to take home up to 6 items. This can be as flexible as you’d like. If you want to try to reduce the amount of leftover items, you can reserve the last 20 minutes for people to take extra items beyond their allotted tickets.
- Quality over quantity is key. Set expectations for people to bring gently loved items that are clean. Nothing damaged or stained.
- If you or another parent is handy at mending clothes, you could set up a station at the swap where they can perform easy mends! This is helpful for parents who don’t know how to mend clothing and don’t want to donate something with a fixable hole in it. It will also help to keep those clothes in use and out of the landfill.
- Have people stick to the theme that you picked and list some examples of what will and won’t be accepted.
- Ask people to bring their own reusable bags to avoid unnecessary waste!
Gather the supplies
- Plan for the supplies you will need for the clothing swap.
- Will there be snacks or refreshments? You could create a digital sign up sheet so guests can sign up to bring suggested snacks or items.
- Does your location have tables you can use, or do you need to supply your own?
- If you’re using a ticket/token system, come up with a physical item to use. Stickers are an easy item– each person/family gets a sticker with their name on it and the number of items they brought & get to take home.
- How will you organize the clothes?
- Will they be folded on tables or hung on clothing racks? You could ask parents to bring the clothing on hangers, which also makes the “shopping” an easier and more enjoyable experience!
- You can also make small signs to help organize where everything is placed based on gender, size, and type of clothing.
Spread the word
- Now it’s time to invite other families. It’s best to give people advance notice so they can take stock of what clothes/accessories they would like to bring to the swap. A good timeline is: Initial invitation sent/posted 4 weeks out; follow up 1-2 weeks out; email RSVP’s on the day-of reminding them where, when, and what to bring.
- Send a text or email to other parents you know and ask them to invite other families.
- Post on social media – you can use canva to easily make a great graphic that can be shared on personal social media accounts and community pages/groups (ie. neighborhood group chat, Facebook page for your child’s school, etc.)
- Hang up flyers at your child’s school and in your community (library, coffee shops, etc). If you’re hosting the event at a community establishment, ask them to help you advertise the event by hanging up a flyer or posting on their website. If the swap is at a school, ask them to send it out in their weekly bulletin or email it directly to certain classes/grades.
- Collect RSVPs
- This will help you keep track of:
- How small or large your event will be, how many materials (like hangers) you will need, and who to follow up with closer to the event.
- An easy way to do this is to set up a digital invitation like Eventbrite or Evite that will automatically collect RSVPs for you.
- This will help you keep track of:
Plan for leftover donations
- Hopefully all of the items that people bring will be taken home by a new family to get a second life, but you should still plan to be left with some items that were not chosen. It’s important to make a plan ahead of time for what you’ll do with the leftover items. Here are a few ideas:
- Donate them to a local shelter or community center. There are often local nonprofits and organizations that specifically accept children’s clothing and toys, which they’ll redistribute to communities in need.
- Offer items on Facebook Marketplace or your local Buy Nothing group.
- Reach out to local upcyclers or menders who may be able to recycle the fabrics.
- Hold on to the leftover clothing for your next swap!
This is also good for the environment
Everyone wears clothes, so it may not come as a surprise to hear that the fashion industry is responsible for about 10% of global carbon emissions– more than the shipping and aviation industries combined.
When you’re buying clothes for your kids, it can be a lot harder to follow the typical sustainable clothing tips: buy fewer items overall, but when you do need something new, buy secondhand or support a sustainable business. At a clothing swap, you’re able to find secondhand clothing for cheap or free while also donating your pre-loved clothing to another family. All of this keeps clothing in use and out of our landfills.
What’s the problem with fast fashion?
While it’s important to do our part, we also need large companies who are overproducing clothes to change their practices. It’s a “dirty open secret” that companies will throw away and burn clothing that has never been sold or worn, in order to make room for new stock. This is an unnecessary waste of resources. Companies will only change their wasteful practices if they hear from consumers.
Sign our petition asking H&M to be a leader in the fashion industry by publicly committing to not trash or burn their overstock in the United States.
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Authors
As director of Environment Oregon, Celeste develops and runs campaigns to win real results for Oregon’s environment. She has worked on issues ranging from preventing plastic pollution, stopping global warming, defending clean water, and protecting our beautiful places. Celeste’s organizing has helped to reduce kids’ exposure to lead in drinking water at childcare facilities in Oregon, encourage transportation electrification, ban single-use plastic grocery bags, defend our bedrock environmental laws and more. She is also the author of the children’s book, Myrtle the Turtle, empowering kids to prevent plastic pollution. Celeste lives in Portland, Ore., with her husband and two daughters, where they frequently enjoy the bounty of Oregon’s natural beauty.
As the Zero Waste Campaign Associate with WashPIRG, Kathryn is working on our Waste is Out of Fashion campaign. Kathryn lives near her family in Seattle where she enjoys exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest through skiing, kayaking and practicing her photography.
