Last winter one of my friends invited me to a clothing swap at her home. The idea was simple. Show up with some clothes from your closet that, for one reason or another, you never wear but you think others might like.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I showed up with my grocery bag of slightly too small sweaters, swishy skirts better for someone in their 20s than late 40s, and too-short pants that for one reason or another I had been hanging onto.
The swap was in full swing when I arrived. In the living room and downstairs den, fun and interesting women were trying on clothes and visiting while snacking on a tasty food spread. At first we were all a little hesitant, but as we got into the swing of things we got to know one another and started trying on clothes and accessories that people had brought, claiming some of them as our own.
I ended up finding a gorgeous light blue cashmere sweater with a series of buttons down the cuffs. These days it’s my go-to when I have meetings where I want to look on-point. And for the not-so-presentable times when I want to be toasty despite our 57 degree-cold morning kitchen, I scored an ultra-chunky-yarn multi-colored Peruvian sweater. It’s SO warm. The minute I put it on, my tensed up muscles relax. And did I mention the awesome new down vest and wool pants, and necklace and earrings?
One thing I didn’t expect was the strange satisfaction of watching someone else fall in love with stuff I had brought. There was a purple Prana sweater that I had bought new online because I loved the design, but the fit never quite worked on my body. Handing it off to someone just a bit shorter and less broad in the shoulders gave the sweater the life it deserved. It felt like a wonderful trade.
All in all, I found my first clothing swap to be an inspiring success. I loved meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends. We laughed and exchanged stories. We talked about our lives, our bodies, our families; we discussed our changing relationships with accessories and clothes. One woman who had brought more jewelry to the swap than I had ever owned in my life, talked about her evolution of moving from big chunky necklaces to a slighter and elegant look. Another woman was doing the transformation in reverse.
Somehow there was a spirit of abundance to the gathering, where everyone found something that buoyed them, and left behind stuff that weighed us down. And our host generously agreed to round up all the left-over clothing and donate it to a local nonprofit.
I mention these things now, because this is the season to be jolly, but too often, the pressure to buy and consume makes it less so.
Americans are buying more clothes today than ever before. On average, we buy 53 new items of clothing per year — four times as many as in the year 2000. Too often, these extra clothes clutter our closets and our lives or get thrown away.
The environmental impact of all this excess clothing is immense. Producing just one cotton T-shirt requires more than 700 gallons of water and releases the same greenhouse gas emissions as driving a car for about 10 miles. Today, clothing and other textile waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the country. Globally, 92 million metric tons (more than 101 million tons) of clothing are sent to landfills each year.
It’s all the more absurd when you consider how unnecessary it is. One study found that people don’t wear 50% of the clothing they own.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Whether it’s through clothing swaps or other ways to reuse things such as repair cafes or tool libraries or listservs like Freecycle, Buy Nothing Facebook groups or Leverett Connects, many of us are experiencing a less wasteful and more pleasant way to live our lives.
I for one am excited to pull together a clothing swap for friends in the new year. I’ve already started the bin where I’m setting aside the next wave of clothes that, while they may still fit, I inevitably pass over in favor of others. Setting the date and sending out the invitations is one of my new year’s resolutions. And I’ve had the thought that it’d be fun to have a larger community clothing swap in the late summer for back to school kids clothing/accessory sharing.
Wanna join me? There are some quick and easy tips for hosting a clothing swap here (https://pirg.org/articles/how-to-host-a-clothing-swap/).
The truth is, most of us have more than we need. Let’s make 2026 the year we resolve to kick the overconsumption habit and instead, swap, mend, borrow and share more of our stuff.
Johanna Neumann of Amherst has spent the past two decades working to protect our air, water and open spaces, defend consumers in the marketplace and advance a more sustainable economy and democratic society. She can be reached at columnists@gazettenet.com.