Leitrim County Council held a Clothes Swap event within the Council in the Spring of this year – a Spring clean with a difference. A flyer was emailed around to all female colleagues, which resulted in plenty of donations. Around 30 people came to the event over the course of a Tuesday evening just after work, which was also International Women’s Day. Any leftover items were then donated to a local charity shop.
Tips were also circulated by Carmel Coll, Leitrim’s Environmental Awareness Officer, to Tidy Towns Groups for those thinking about running a Clothes Swap event. These tips include deciding on clothing types (e.g, women’s only or all types); highlighting that clothes must be nice, clean and presentable; giving enough notice for people to get their donations together; organising drop-off of the donations beforehand to give time to sort and display; allowing browsing time before the swap opens; and donating the remaining clothes to charity afterwards.
Feedback was so good from the Council’s own Clothes Swap event that Carmel plans to organise another one in the near future.
Carmel Coll
Environmental Awareness Officer
Economic Development, Planning, Environment & Transportation
Leitrim County Council
Tel: 071 9650400
Email: ccoll@leitrimcoco.ie