The past six months for Alison Howes have been "full of chaos" and late nights, but it has been worth it to be able offer affordable baby clothes to parents in Toowoomba.

Ms Howes set up a clothing exchange in January after seeing a need in her community.

"There's a lot going on [for parents] – just lots of pressures at the moment, reduced incomes, extra expenses, it's a lot," she said.

"It's really growing in popularity because the cost of living is getting very high and we need options like this."

Run out of Ms Howes's home, people receive credit for bringing in unwanted clothing, which they can then use to purchase other items.

"I'm blown away when I go to normal retail shops and see the prices of things — you need to clothe your children," Ms Howes said.

"[Parents] are absolutely loving it — lots of oohs and ahhs and looking at all the cute little outfits for the kids."

Mother of two Cassandra Layton said there was cost-benefit in using the service.

"I like the fact that you can come in and exchange the small baby sizes for larger sizes when your kids grow," she said.

Increasing demand

While clothing exchanges have been around for decades in Australia, experts believe social media is boosting their reach.

"We see that with adult clothes as well — there's more stores popping up for resale of good quality clothes," RMIT fashion lecturer Georgia McCorkill said.

"It just makes sense to expand that also to children's wear."

Organisers of the Clothing Exchange, a group that has been running in Melbourne and Sydney since 2004, said they had seen increased demand from a range of age groups.

"In Sydney, we have a mother that comes in – she says she hasn't actually spent any money on clothing for the last 10 years for her whole family.

"So that means  they can put all the money on their mortgage."

Ms Fredricks said the organisation was starting to increase the number of clothing exchanges, especially in regional areas.

Op shop sales

Op shops have also seen a big increase in sales, despite some saying they have become unaffordable.

St Vincent de Paul's in Queensland said it had recorded several record-breaking sales days in the past 12 months.

General manager of operations Drew Eide said its op shops were continuing to grow.

Dr McCorkill said people seeking alternatives due to cost of living pressures had the added benefit of reducing waste, with more than 200,000 tonnes of old clothes going into landfill every year.

"Particularly with children's clothes, because you can end up passing along really large volumes of things," she said.

"So it might be a whole bundle of size fours or threes or whatever size you're up to that you could pass on."

She said cost of living pressure could also boost community groups looking to repair and mend clothes.

For Ms Howes, her clothing exchange is also a chance to build her community.

"Knowing that it was a smaller space where we'd be able to meet people, build a community, just have a really strong support network and make friends really easily," she said.