Swap it don’t bin it

August 15, 2007 – 2:08 pm

Lots of people talk about recycling things, and there are even sites like freecycle which have been set up to let people easily give unwanted items away to each other free of charge, after all, if you were just going to bin it, then giving it away is definitely a better idea for a greener world and if you give things on the site, chances are you’ll also find something there which someone else is giving away that you’d like.

Another idea is swapping things. There are websites setup like chancexchange where you can swap books, CDs DVDs, videos, and other post-able items, where when you give an item you get a point and when you receive an item you spend a point – swapping all be it a non direct method, and with people you don’t know. This isn’t the only site of this nature either, a few more you might find interesting to look at are Swapshop which is very similar to chancexchange, Swapcycle which covers a much wider range of items from jewellery to craft items, to automotive, books, beauty items and most anything else you can think of, and where you directly swap item for item even if it’s a pair of earrings in exchange for a bottle of perfume by making your ‘bid’ of what you have to offer and then the person with the item being bid on can decide which item they’d like to swap it for. Iswap and Swapz are two more worth giving an eye to as well.

In America, clothes swapping parties have become quite fashionable, though they’re only just beginning to take off over here in the UK. The basic principle is quite simple, everyone has clothes that they don’t want any more, and everyone wants new clothes, so you all bring along your unwanted items and swap them. There are different ways these parties can be run, with some electing to run them like auctions sometimes with small amounts of money paid, which is then used to pay for the drinks and food, or donated to charity, and some more like a jumble sale style event where everything is piled on tables or even hung on rails and then everyone can look and take what they like. Others issue you with tickets according to how many items you bring along, and then you use the tickets to hand over for new items ensuring that no one goes home with more than they brought. As I say, lots of ways to run them, but the basic idea of swapping something you don’t wear any more for something you’d like to wear is the same regardless of the party method employed. There is even an online clothes swapping website for those who fancy it. Whatsmineisyours is a site where you can swap clothes, accessories and beauty products, although they do charge an admin fee for each swap made, this is mostly to help them keep the site running well.

Most of us have at some point been to some sort of sales party whether it be Ann Summers, Avon, Virgin Vie, Tupperware or something else, but what about setting up your own swapping party. You could decide to do it just with clothes, or you could widen it to include other items like bric-a-brac or unwanted gifts. Obviously you’d have to set up a few ground rules, but you could keep it as simple or make it as complex as you wanted to, and the more people you invite the more chance there is that you (and everyone else) will find something there that you’d like.

Personally I’m thinking that although I very much like the idea, most of my friends wear clothes of quite different sizes to me and we have very varying tastes, so I’m thinking of maybe having a book swapping party. Invite 20 or so people along and ask them to all bring a bag of 10+ books they no longer want, and we’d all have 200+ books to route through! Bound to be something there for everyone, and any books that are left over afterwards I can always donate to a local charity book shop in town, so nothing will go to waste I’m sure, Oh and even better, you can ask someone who’s read the book what they thought of it too!

By Vialdana