Please reach us at freeclothinglibrary@gmail.com if you cannot find an answer to your question.
The pilot is finished but the Clothing Library will re-launch in the near future. Stay connected!
Clothing Library offers a wide range of 'occasion wear' including dresses, tops, pants, skirts, and more. Occasion wear as we define it is clothing that is worn for a particular occasion and not part of your normal rotation. These clothes often sit in closets, taking up space and are worn one time or once a season. Think wedding, interview or vacation garments.
We focus on three categories -
Just like a traditional library, a local resident* can sign up for a free membership and borrow clothing for up to two weeks , with a max of 5 items. We provide a laundry sheet to bring the clothing back clean for others in the community to borrow. Clothing must be returned during our operating hours. See how to clean below.
*residents must live within 15 miles of the Dover Public Library
We source all our clothes from local consignment, thrift shops, and through personal donations. Clothing is then inspected to make sure there are no holes, stains, or smells by our Clothing Librarian. We then launder or steam the items.
Yes. Members are required to return to the Clothing Library freshly washed after wearing. We provide a biodegradable laundry sheet to return your clothing clean.
Depending on the material of the clothing, some Dry Clean Only items can be hand washed in a sink, or on the coldest and gentlest cycle. Lay flat to air dry.
Clothing with shoulder pads, pleats or sequins, and materials made of silk, leather, suede, viscose, or polyamides can be hand washed in cold or steam cleaned.
Did you know that steam cleaning kills 99.9% of bacteria on fabrics?
Yes, we do our best to ensure that everyone can find something at the Clothing Library. If the clothing donated from our sponsors and individuals is low in a particular size, we actively seek out that size to provide quality, stylish clothing for all borrowers.
At this time, we are not accepting donations.
The Clothing Library housed at the Dover Public Library is a pilot program to test out whether or not borrowing clothing is something the community wants and to understand what are the types of clothing people seek to borrow rather than buy. After the 6 week pilot, the co-founders will produce an open-source business plan that can be shared with other communities so they, too, can launch their own Clothing Libraries. The learnings from the pilot are to be used as the basis for the founders masters thesis in March.
The vision of the Clothing Library is to expand to different communities through the existing library system, run for and by the residents - not us - in order to truly serve local needs. For the pilot, we are actively brainstorming about possible business models and value propositions to create something that is economically viable, socially beneficial and democratically run and operated.
There are many wonderful organizations that serve the needy (homeless and women's shelters, for example) and we support them by donating items that don't fit into our categories. However, our mission it to influence consumer behavior, so we target those that have enough, but need something to for a particular occasion (not everyday use). By offering an alternative to buying, people can rely on the Clothing Library to borrow instead.
Send us an email at hello@clothinglibrary.org if you want to volunteer and we'll let you know available shifts.
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