Jenna Wortham’s story in the New York Times this past weekend describes a new online venture  called ThredUp that lets you swap your clothes with others on the web. How it works – tell the site what you’re looking for (a pair of black Jimmy Choos, a medium-sized vintage tee, a brown leather hobo bag, etc.), then describe what you’re not wearing in your existing closet that you’d be willing to swap. From there the site arranges peer-to-peer swaps, even providing pre-paid envelopes so you never have to go to the post office. Sort of like Netflix, right? Turns out that Reed Hastings, the founder and chief executive of Netflix, is an adviser to ThredUp. 

I took the site’s quick survey that valued the low-use clothing in my closet and figured how much I could benefit from the e-swap service. “We estimate that you may have up to 24 items that you might want to swap on thredUP…That’s about $2,093.76 worth of clothing that is just sitting there…For $216.00 we might be able to refresh it ALL!”

A caveat: Swaps do cost money. Packs of 3 pre-paid envelopes are normally $25. Right now the site’s offering a promotion for $12.50 for the first tri-pack.