As babies grow up, parents are often left with clothes that have barely been worn and now have very little use. But one mother is trying to change that.
Since launching a swap shop for children’s clothes three years ago, Victoria Greenfield-Coleman, from Eynsham in Oxfordshire, has supported 240 families.
She said the programme, which had received an “incredible” response, was all about “hopefully helping new parents”.
The swap shop takes place at St Leonard’s Church in Eynsham every other month, with the latest edition on from 9:30 to 12:30 GMT on Saturday.
At the events, families exchange clothes their children have grown out of and take home clothes their children need next.
The idea for the scheme began in lockdown, Victoria explained, when she started accumulating clothes that were no longer big enough for her son.
“Like a lot of new mums, it was just me and my baby in the four walls, and those walls started to get decorated with bags of my baby’s outgrown clothes,” she said.
“I just thought ‘This is ridiculous, and as soon as Covid is over, I’m going to start something where I can start sharing my baby’s clothes’.”
Since then, more than 18,000 items of clothing have been donated to the swap shop, with parents taking almost 11,000 of those items home for their children to use.
“People have got so many items that actually, in the end, they just want them out of their homes,” Victoria said.
“They’re bringing them to the swap-shop, and the quality of clothing is so beautiful.”
“If we just come together and share resources then nobody needs to be without.”
One mother who uses the swap shop said finding the service had been “such a relief” after she had found having a baby “way more expensive than” anticipated.
Another said she had been “so lucky” to have benefitted from “so many great swaps”, adding that it was “so special” seeing parents “picking up items that you’ve donated, knowing that they’re not just going to go into landfill”.
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