Readers of this blog will be aware of my financial strife and need for budgeting… hence my ever improving bargain hunting capabilities. I’m always on the look out for ways I can continue to quench my thirst for shopping whilst not completely destroying any chance of eventually buying my dream pad in London town. 

It’s nice when you can combine thriftiness with being resourceful and pleaseant to the environment. Carbooting, trawling charity shops and swapping clothes amongst friends have been my chosen method in the past, but for someone that is finding the comfort of home increasingly appealing these can sometimes seem a bit too much effort!

When I came across a concept that would allow me to achieve all the aforementioned responsible shopping actions, from home,  I was more than a bit excited. It seems someone has come up with a scheme which falls under ‘ why didn’t anyone think of this before’ category and delivered me the perfect shopping remedy. 

Big Wardrobe (www.bigwardrobe.com) is the world’s online swapping – or ‘swishing’ website. You might argue that Ebay has delivered  this already, and while it is similar with this concept you get to SWAP items, as well as sell (or a combination of the two if that suits!).

Apparently around a  25% of items in an average wardrobe remain unworn whilst two million tonnes of discarded clothing goes to landfill each year in the UK alone – 4% of all the annual UK landfill waste! Going on my personal extreme hoarding behavior I would say that sounds pretty damn accurate. I tend to go to the same few outfits over a period of time, while letting the other less desirable or decidedly off trend items gather moth balls. I also bag up piles of the unwanted, sending them to the loft to fester under the heading that they might come back into fashion one day!! I’m hoping this site may spur me to be ruthless and get rid of the discarded apparels that clutter my room and pretty much serve no purpose other than remind me of whimsical or foolish purchases. 

Big Wardrobe aims to convert unwanted clothes, shoes and bags into someone else’s favourite items – or back into cash! 

For those that collect all manner on non fashion items, a ‘Bottom Drawer’ area has recently been added to satisfy the demand from those looking for a site to exchange items such as iPods, DVD’s, cameras etc.

The site is free to trial but only members (at 25p a week, £12 a year) are able to enjoy the full benefits.  £10 Top Shop vouchers are offered to members introducing three new members. Sounds like a bargain of an idea…. look forward to swapping with you all soon!!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 11:46 am and is filed under Fashion Police. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.