I Love This App That Lets You Rent Out Your Clothes

Your clothing and accessories can either clog up your closet for free or go out there, get a job, and earn its keep: I recently found an app that helps you to rent out your clothes and accessories (and borrow other people's), and maybe even help you declutter in the long run. Let me explain why I love Pickle.

What does Pickle do?

As I have explained, I have a low threshold when it comes to what will inspire me to download an app. Typically, I see an ad, tap on the App Store link, and install on sight. The other day, I saw an ad for one called Pickle, which is a peer-to-peer clothing and accessory rental service—like DoorDash for fashion. I attempted to download it only to discover it was already on my phone from what must have been a previous run-in with the ad that I never followed up on. Incredible! (Be advised, though, that it's only available for iOS right now.)

Over the last year, I've gotten into selling my clothes via app, but it's been limiting because I own a lot of pieces I don't really want to get rid of—yet. But I can't wear them all at the same time, now, can I? So they're just sitting in my closet, waiting for their turn to shine. Pickle, it seemed, could give me a chance to put them to work. I listed a bunch of stuff, checked what others on the app were charging for a week's rental of similar items, and priced my goods competitively. Then, I waited—but not for long. I got a rental request the next day.

The app functions just like resale platforms like Poshmark or Vestiaire Collective: You take a picture of your shoes, bag, dress, or whatever, fill in details about it like size and brand, and set a price. Here, though, the price is what you want to charge for a week's rental. You also indicate, via drop-down menu, whether you're willing to have someone show up at your place to pick it up, send it off with a courier, or even mail it somewhere. That last option really broadens your horizons, since Pickle mostly operates in New York City (where I live) and Los Angeles. While it's a lot easier to link up with a local and hand off your piece, the postal option expands your money-making capabilities to a much wider base of potential consumers.

My "closet" and how it looks to edit a listing. Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

When someone rents a piece from you, they first send a request outlining the way they'd like to receive it and how long they want to have it. From there, you can enter a chat with them to hammer out details or just accept their request. I accepted the offer sent to me and selected the day and time I would be home to hand my parcel off to a courier. This morning, the courier showed up, took it, and brought it to the borrower, with whom I had arranged for a four-day rental. I listed the piece for $30/week, Pickle took 20%, and I earned $24 despite the fact that it won't be gone for the full week. The process was seamless and remarkably easy and I got detailed notifications throughout the entire event.

The app guides you every step of the way. Credit: Lindsey Ellefson

Why I like this app as a route to decluttering

There are obvious benefits to using a closet-rental app. First, you can put your extra stuff to work for you and make a little money off of it. Second, you can rent clothes and accessories for special occasions at a major discount without adding to any consumerist clutter you may have going on—but that leads me to the hidden benefit I identified here. I consider Pickle similar to a "purgatory" box, which is a method for decluttering that doesn't require you to make instant decisions about what stays and what goes. Most decluttering techniques are pretty harsh. They call on you to go through a space in your home and make fast choices about what you keep, what you toss, what you donate, and what you sell. Doing that enough times builds a habit and you learn to be less sentimental; but it's still hard. Personally, I'm terrible at doing it with clothing and accessories because I can trick myself into believing I might need anything for a certain outfit in the future. It's not true, of course; I never really miss anything once I've sold it. But it's still difficult to push myself to get rid of items, so they sit there in my closet. With Pickle, I can send them out for days or weeks at a time, which mirrors the experience with the purgatory box that holds your stuff for a month so you can see what it's like not to have access to it.

Conversely, Pickle can also help you declutter by providing you with a fallback plan when you do decide to get rid of something. Consider the 20/20 decluttering rule, which asks you to consider if you could replace something for under $20 and in less than 20 minutes if you got rid of it, then encourages you to do away with it if the answers are yes. Clearly, if you choose to sell or donate, say, a black purse that's just sitting in your closet, you won't get a similar one off Pickle in under 20 minutes or, probably, for under $20—but it's nice to know that if you did get rid of something you ended up needing for a particular occasion, you could rent a replacement without re-cluttering your space.

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