Clothing swap through the mail

There’s a new website that makes swapping clothes awfully easy. It’s called ThredUp and the idea is you offer up clothes you no longer want and agree to receive similar items in the mail from other members.

The first step after you register is entering brief descriptions of your unwanted threads, including the brand, size, color, pattern, and condition. Then you tell the site what kind of clothes you want to receive in return.

The last step is buying envelopes, which you use to mail your items to others. In order to receive any envelopes, you must have purchased some. A set of three envelopes is $25 (so each item you receive is about $8). Get 50 percent off your first set of envelopes with code FirstOrder. Payments are done through PayPal, so you don’t need to share your credit card info with ThredUp.

You can keep what you receive, or trade it in for something else. What makes ThredUp work is when users obey the golden rule – send only what you would want to receive. No one wants to receive your sweat stained shirt – even if you only wore it once! Got more questions? Check out their FAQ page.

I heard about ThredUp from a reader named Debbie, who has a clever use for the site:

It’s like clothing consignment meets Netflix.  Personally I don’t know if I’d want to trade for clothes for me but for kids…awesome!  Trade up for a larger size that fits them as they grow.

ThredUp is invite only – but guess what? I scored you an invite! Use code bargainbabe to check out ThredUp for yourself.