To Shop or to Swap?

Sticking with the 'its nearly Christmas theme' from the last post, I thought this time we could think about what we already have not what we are giving.

Facts:

In the UK we have £30 billion of clothes in our wardrobes that we haven’t worn for a year.

We also have £1.7 billion worth of clothes that we’ve never even worn lying around waiting for the day that they look as good as they did in the shop. 

Also interestingly, if we wore our clothes for just nine months longer we could reduce the impact of carbon and water wastage by 20-30% and save £5 billion.

Wrap:

http://www.wrap.org.uk/

I found those facts in an article on Wrap’s website (http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/wrap-reveals-uks-%C2%A330-billion-unused-wardrobe). Wrap are an organisation formed around the idea of working together for a world without waste. They aim to help people recycle more and waste less and are quite interesting to look and if you read more of the article I’ve linked you will probably find some more intriguing facts.

Swapping:

Working from the facts I found on Wrap I thought I’d check out the clothes swapping trend. Obviously it seems we have plenty spare clothes hanging around so why not exchange them for something we would wear – the idea makes sense.

Swishing:

http://www.swishing.co.uk/

Whilst looking I found Swishing (http://www.swishing.co.uk/) which I think seems like a really well set up and run company. They let you browse through the clothes that are currently available and you can either buy them just as you would with regular online shopping (but they're cheaper) or buy with credits you’ve earned from swapping your clothes previously. All items go to Swishing to be quality checked and make sure there is no fraud or falsely described products. They sound ideal and the products they have up look really nice - check it out especially if you fancy a nice new dress for Christmas parties but have spent all your money on presents! Next time you feel like your wardrobe is getting dull remember you could swap and get some nearly new stuff to replace yours. Also I really liked the section of the site labeled Interesting Stuff as it quite literally does what it says and has some interesting stuff for example an article on blue eyes ... did you know less than 17% of people in America now have blue eyes ... see its interesting so if you were on the site I'd suggest looking at it too.