Like buying new? Don't feel guility and swap to shop + win two tickets to National Swap Day

Women wear only 30% of their wardrobe. I can attest to this and I bet you can too. We all have our fave items that are on rotation each week with the rest sitting there worn only a number of times. No wonder standing in front of our closets can be frustrating.


Like buying new? Don't feel guility and swap to shop + win two tickets to National Swap Day
Image from imcreator.com
We are faced with bulging closets but only pull out the items we know makes us look good and feel good.

There is no shame in wanting something new to wear. But this desire can be expensive and really is not that sustainable. Especially if we are adding clothes to our wardrobe to compensate for only pulling out 30% each week. No matter how much we buy we never seem to wear 100% of it.

Each spring people around the world clean out their homes, emptying the stuff they don't use and then filling it with new. We must be spoilt with stuff to complete a purge of our wardrobes each year. In reality spring cleaning was originally the act of opening the windows and letting fresh air into the home and giving the house a good clean. Not empty it and fill it with new stuff because we can. This is the type of attitude that taxes our natural resources and adds to the already mountains of waste we have.

It could be said that removing and cleaning out our wardrobe creates a good feeling. Releasing. Purging. Letting go.

When we are surrounded by so many images of new season looks it can be hard to ignore the push to keep up. Perhaps there is something inside us that makes us want new too. It could be to try something out – to experiment. I don't think there is anything wrong with this. There should be no guilt wanting to try something new. What we need to do is open ourselves up to an updated definition of new so that we all can experience new. Let's define new as something that passes into our hands for the first time. Let's all be nice and share.



One of the most sustainable ways to enjoy new stuff is through collaborative consumption. 

I have written about collaborative consumption and some of my fave ways to share rather than buy new. Sharing allows for that joyful feeling of letting go without the guilt of waste. Getting involved in the cycle of sharing brings new items into your life. When I became more and more involved with sharing, the attachment factor on my wardrobe stated disappear as I realised my clothing is not mine but part of a cycle. 

The Clothing Exchange has declared October 9th to be the fourth annual National Swap Day.

To commemorate the day, The Clothing Exchange will host simultaneous clothing swaps in Melbourne, Sydney and the Sunshine Coast to create environmental awareness and social change by starting with our overstuffed wardrobes. Sharing is a playful alternative to shopping that saves patrons their pennies and the planet too. It creates community. I love going to clothing swaps. I have found many gems and passed on my own items to new closets.

The Clothing Exchange has generously offered two tickets for you and a friend to celebrate National Swap Day at one of their events in Melbourne, Sydney or the Sunshine Coast. Competition closed :)

5 comments:

  1. Shoes are my choice, not only are they already worn in and comfortable, you can get some pretty neat ones no one else will have :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am a big fan of op shopping, but have never been to a swap. Might have to start one, as not sure they are happening in Tonga as yet!

    I find I get to experiment with more unique items by op shopping - if they don't make me feel fantastic, I can always donate them back. My favourite item is a designer skirt - an absolute bargain at $6 and beautiful to wear.

    I'm a Health and Relocation Coach - so my clients are on the move. A great time to reduce what's in the cupboard to what you wear that 30% of the time - and pass on the rest. And if you're not on the move, you could always pretend you did have to pack up everything you own to do so!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am the same. I will try a look that i bought at the op shop or through a swap, and am more inclined to try it because i know that i can donate it back into the cycle. Relocating is a great way to break down your wardrobe and get rid of the non essentials that hopefully someone one else would want. Funny you mention about pretending to pack because I did this with my clothes at the start of Winter. I put away clothes that i was not sure about. Whatever was still left there at the end of the season went to charity and clothing exchanges during my spring clean.

      Can I come to your clothes swap in Tonga?! Seriously, if you start one I would love to come...

      Delete
  3. Hi Erin,
    I've made progress in the wardrobe department by realising that the excess used to be there because I didn't think carefully enough about whether an item was flattering/practical/could go with what I already had. That, and salesladies telling blatent lies about whether or not something looked good!
    Now I shop armed with a photo of what is already in my very small wardrobe. It is so liberating, and makes it very easy to walk away with nothing if it's not right. And now I do wear all items in rotation. The starting point for me was learning about the '10 item wardrobe' on thedailyconoisseur blog.

    Madeleine.x

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love that idea of keeping a photos of what you have. It reminds me that scene in Clueless where Cher accesses her wardrobe on her computer so she can pick her outfits. I will look at the daily connoisseur and get educated on the 10 item wardrobe, thanks for sharing the link here Madeleine.

    ReplyDelete

Hi, leave a comment