A village mum has come up with a groundbreaking initiative to help both the environment and low income families in our village – the Ruddington Children’s Clothing Library.
After first doing a bit of market testing via Ruddington Mums, Sally Dyson launched her new library last month – and is now hoping to spread the word about it even further. The library loans out children’s clothes for a fixed period of time, on payment of a refundable deposit. There is no fee for borrowing clothes and the deposit is then repaid on their return.
“I started the Clothing Library in October after becoming increasingly concerned about how little wear my children were getting out of their clothing and what a dreadful impact on the environment this was having” says Sally. “In our loft we have about six large boxes of good quality, hardly worn clothing and it occurred to me that there must be lots of other boxes sitting in lofts all around Ruddington. So I had the idea that the bundles of clothing could rotate around the village, getting used and loved until it was genuinely time to dispose of them.”
Of course, this has the added bonus of saving people time and money shopping for clothing. Sally reports that a lot of donations of good quality clothing have already been made – thanks to the generosity of the people of Ruddington. “I wanted to build up a good amount of stock before launching the loans part of the service – which we did about three weeks ago. Currently we have a large amount of baby clothes in stock, in particular, and are keen to get those loaned out asap.”
How it works:
The Ruddington Children’s Clothing Library is run through a Facebook group. You can request to be added through this URL: https://www.facebook.com/groups/RuddCCL.
Once you’ve joined the Facebook group you’re able to borrow clothes. You can either PM Sally or post on the group stating what you’re looking for (gender and size). Loans are always made in bundles. “We don’t lend single items of clothing as it is too time consuming” explains Sally. “The only exceptions to this are coats, wellies and sleeping bags.”
On collection, your bundle will be ready to take away once you’ve paid your deposit and agreed a return date. This can be flexible (3, 6, or 9 months). Deposits are £10 for a small bundle, £20 for a larger bundle.
Sally adds “Please make every effort to look after the clothes so that they can be loaned to another family. However, don’t worry too much if a piece of clothing gets stained or damaged – with children this happens! Please do still return the item(s) to us and we will recycle them. You will then still get your deposit back.”
Meantime you can enjoy the warm feeling of reducing your environmental impact – whilst also clothing your children for free!
